Trade promotion capacity building - Australia

Women-owned businesses continue to face significant challenges in accessing international markets. Australia, in partnership with the International Trade Centre, is assisting export-ready women-owned small businesses to build their export competitiveness, including by linking them to buyers and trade promotion organisations. The project works with women business enterprises to build their export competitiveness in both trade and investment. The project, which also works with buyers and Trade Promotion Organisations such as Austrade, is being delivered in Indian Ocean Rim Association countries. Women business enterprises perform better – growing at more than double the rate of all other firms – and their earnings are proven to drive poverty reduction, with women having a higher propensity to use their income and increased bargaining power to improve family welfare.