Republic of Mauritius- SheTrades Outlook to improve Mauritian women’s participation in international trade

The workshop, jointly organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade with the International Trade Centre (ITC), aims to provide a platform for stakeholders to discuss domestic policy frameworks on women in trade and potential areas for policy reform in Mauritius. Around 25 participants from public and parastatal bodies are attending. The resource persons namely, Mr M. Mimouni and Ms J. Salgeruo Huaman, are from the ITC.

In her address, the Principal Trade Policy Analyst of the International Trade Division of the Ministry, Mrs Soraya Ramjanally-Nuthay, highlighted that the workshop will enable participants to share views on policies and programmes to be included in the SheTrades Outlook. This tool has been implemented in countries such as Ghana and Bangladesh in order to promote best practices as regards international trade, she emphasised.

For his part, Mr Mimouni spoke of the key objective of the SheTrades Outlook which he said, is to support evidence-based policy-making by mapping ecosystem, and identifying gaps between commitments and achievements and high impact policy measures. Furthermore, he elaborated on the seven global actions of the ITC’s SheTrades geared at promoting women’s economic empowerment as well as fostering inclusive and sustainable development of small and medium-sized enterprises.

The seven global actions comprise: champion quality data; enact fair policies; secure Government contracts; strike business deals; enable market access; unlock financial services; and, grant ownership rights.

ITC’s SheTrades

The ITC’s SheTrades works with a variety of partners, including trade support institutions, cooperatives, and private sector companies. Partners provide their expertise to achieve greater impact and scale. It also builds the capacity of local institutions, trade promotion organisations, and incorporates government priorities to ensure long term sustainability of ITC’s support.