BACKGROUND
About International Trade Centre (ITC)
The International Trade Centre (ITC) is a joint agency of the United Nations and the World Trade Organization, focusing on developing the export capabilities of small and medium-sized businesses in developing and transition economies. ITC projects and programmes contribute to the global efforts to achieve UN Global Goals for Sustainable Development and the Aid for Trade agenda. ITC works at three levels:
Strengthening the integration of the business sector of developing countries and economies in transition into the global economy,
Improving the performance of trade and investment support institutions for the benefit of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and enhancing the abilities of trade support institutions to support them better,
Improving the international competitiveness of SMEs.
About the Project - Improving the livelihoods of vulnerable women and youth around the Senegambia Bridge
The two-year project is funded by the United Nations Human Security Trust Fund. It will support communities and people around the Senegambia bridge to cope with adverse shocks while creating pathways for women and youth to take advantage of new opportunities. ITC will focus on economic security and will invest in three areas:
- Support the entrepreneurship ecosystem in the target regions and establish a regional hub or one-stop-shop for entrepreneurship and business development support
- Operationalize a hospitality centre in LRR that serves as a training hub in LRR, including the provision of foundation level training for 40 women and youth
- Enhance skills in value addition and agripreneurship for 60 youth and women, including the provision of business starter-kits
- Provide training and advisory support to connect producers and entrepreneurs to digital platforms and facilitate payment systems
About the support
Many farmers in The Gambia do not take full advantage of the potentials of value addition as a source to real economic growth, employment and improving livelihood. This is mostly due to the limited capacity in food processing, lack of storage facilities, inadequate machines, and uncoordinated supply chains. As such, farmers sell their produces to middlemen at give away prices.
Similarly, micro and small local food processors often have difficulties producing high-quality, affordable and nutritious products that meet food safety standards and regulatory requirements due to a lack of technical and business knowledge and investments in machinery and packaging. These challenges have limited their business growth, reduced productivity and competitiveness, threatened livelihood, and increased vulnerability to shocks, as evidenced in the Covid19 pandemic.
In view of these challenges, the relevance of food processing in economic development and the pursuit for localizing SDGs, ITC, through the Localizing SDGs project will support the upskilling of 30 women food processors in NBR to enhance capacities in efficient and quality food processing, packaging, and Food safety.
Download the terms of reference in the downloadable for more information.
To apply, please submit all quotes (technical and financial) by 24 March 2023 to yusupha.keita@intracen.org with the subject “UPSKILLING TRAINING FOR YOUTH AND WOMEN FOOD PROCESSORS IN NBR and LRR