What is the SheTrades Initiative?
A global movement for women in trade
Trade can give a small business room to grow: a customer in a new market, a larger order, the chance to employ more people. Yet many women entrepreneurs and producers face additional barriers to the finance, skills and business networks they need to trade and export. Business support services and policies can also overlook their circumstances.
ITC SheTrades, the International Trade Centre’s flagship programme on women and trade, works to address these barriers. We connect women entrepreneurs and producers to markets and collaborate with governments, corporates and business support organizations to improve business services and trade policies.
ITC SheTrades, the International Trade Centre’s flagship programme on women and trade, works to address these barriers. We connect women entrepreneurs and producers to markets and collaborate with governments, corporates and business support organizations to improve business services and trade policies.
element-carousel…
Our story
Our work began with the ITC Women and Trade Programme in 2010. Five years later, we launched the SheTrades Initiative in São Paulo, Brazil. Our Call to Action brought governments, small businesses, business support organizations and corporates together around a shared commitment to leverage trade’s potential for women’s economic empowerment.
In 2017, ITC collaborated with Iceland and Sierra Leone through the International Gender Champions’ Trade Impact Group to drive forward the World Trade Organization (WTO) Buenos Aires Declaration on Trade and Women’s Economic Empowerment. A majority of WTO members and observers endorsed the declaration, putting women’s economic empowerment on the multilateral trade agenda and recognizing the need for collective action.
SheTrades marked its tenth anniversary in 2025. Since launching the Initiative, we have been present in over 90 countries, connected more than 100,000 women entrepreneurs and producers to markets, built a network of 23 SheTrades Hubs, and rolled out the SheTrades Outlook policy tool across more than 70 countries. We have contributed to G7, G20 and WTO agendas and with ISO developed the first-ever definitions on women’s entrepreneurship.
In multilateral forums, the discussion now reaches beyond why women’s participation in trade matters to the concrete actions needed for women to trade and export on better terms.
In 2017, ITC collaborated with Iceland and Sierra Leone through the International Gender Champions’ Trade Impact Group to drive forward the World Trade Organization (WTO) Buenos Aires Declaration on Trade and Women’s Economic Empowerment. A majority of WTO members and observers endorsed the declaration, putting women’s economic empowerment on the multilateral trade agenda and recognizing the need for collective action.
SheTrades marked its tenth anniversary in 2025. Since launching the Initiative, we have been present in over 90 countries, connected more than 100,000 women entrepreneurs and producers to markets, built a network of 23 SheTrades Hubs, and rolled out the SheTrades Outlook policy tool across more than 70 countries. We have contributed to G7, G20 and WTO agendas and with ISO developed the first-ever definitions on women’s entrepreneurship.
In multilateral forums, the discussion now reaches beyond why women’s participation in trade matters to the concrete actions needed for women to trade and export on better terms.
Our partners
We work with various partners across sectors and countries including business support organizations, cooperatives, alliances and private sector companies. Our partners are essential to reaching even more women and support us to achieve our mission.