Speeches

Statement by Arancha González ITC Executive Director at the Women in Business

15 December 2015
ITC News
Statement delivered by Arancha González Executive Director International Trade Centre (ITC) at the Women in Business
Nairobi - 14 December 2015

Your Excellency, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf,

Your Excellency, Deputy President William Samoei Ruto,

Cabinet secretaries and Ministers,

Unctad Secretary General Kituyi

WTO Deputy Director General Agah

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen

Today I am very pleased to open the first International Forum on Women in Business which is being held in conjunction with MC10.

I would like to begin by thanking the Government of Kenya for co-hosting this event, and express my appreciation to my friend Ambassador Amina Mohamed, Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs and International Trade for her partnership.

The International Trade Centre is grateful to Barclays Bank, without whose generosity we could not have organised this important event. And thank the Kenya Private Sector Alliance, the Kenya Export Promotion Council, CCTV Africa and the Guardian Development Professionals for their support.

We are here because we believe that empowering women economically is good for our economies, good for societies and is good for women whose full potential once harnessed can help accelerate sustainable development and inclusive growth. We are here because we know that ours is an unfinished business.

The United Nations Global Goals for Sustainable Development adopted less than two months ago tell us it is time to work together, it is time to act decisively. The Global Goals tell us that trade is a powerful tool. That’s why we’re here today- to leverage trade to economically empower women.

The challenges we face will not be solved by addressing one issue, but will require us to apply multiple levers to unpick the complex and interlinked issues. This is why in September we launched a Global Call to Action to bring one million women to market by 2020. It has eight elements that move us in a unified direction.

1. Better data,
2. Gender sensitive trade policies,
3. Access to public procurement
4. Access to corporate procurement,
5. Certification of women owned businesses
6. Addressing supply side constraints,
7. Access to financial services, and
8. Ownership rights. Each of these are important, but taken together the sum is greater than its parts. This is a transformational agenda.

As one of the tools to assist in this agenda I am pleased today to launch our latest publication “Unlocking Markets for Women to Trade”. Drawing on sex disaggregated data from surveys of firms involved in trade undertaken by ITC in 20 developing countries, this publication outlines barriers to trade, shares models of good practice for public and private sector initiatives and provides recommendations to decision makers to shape better policies.

It confirms that whilst countries that provide more economic opportunities for women are more competitive. And that women owned businesses that export employ more people, pay higher wages and are more productive- only one in five exporting companies is owned by a woman. The rate of company ownership is highest here in Kenya at an incredible 46%. Kenya is clearly doing something right.

Our findings re-enforced the knowledge that men and women work in different sectors. What surprised us though, was the higher than average rate of women’s ownership in the computer, telecommunications and consumer electronics sectors, an industry traditionally viewed as masculine. It is a good thing when evidence breaks down the stereotypes.

Later in the day you will witness the unveiling of our new mobile and web App, SheTrades. This is a solution that together with Google, and CI&T, a Brazilian tech firm, we called on hundreds of developers from around the world to develop. I hope you will find the conversations today engaging and useful, and that the insights shared by our remarkable speakers will move you to act on our call to action to bring one million women to market by 2020.

Thank you