International Women’s Day 8th March 2022

Global trade is a massive contributor to a country’s economic stability and has traditionally been a male dominated space with little room for women at the top of the chain – not least on the African continent. The digitisation of trade has given Southern African women-led businesses the opportunity to leapfrog their participation, finally shrinking the gender gap in business. But for women to truly thrive in international trade, we need to keep working towards a world free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination. We need to #breakthebias. The TFSA programme has capitalised on the shift towards digitisation of trade and designed a women-inclusive impact model that primarily delivers trade support, training and events through accessible digital platforms.

After a lot of research, planning and building relationships with women-focused partners, our Women in Trade programme kicked into action last year with a number of exciting?training opportunities?and?events. These are designed to help women entrepreneurs in our?priority sectors?become export ready, or grow their existing regional and global markets, with training rolled out through business support organisations in the SACU countries and Mozambique.?

Meeting the standards to cross borders

In Botswana and Eswatini, producers in the specialty foods and cosmetics and natural ingredients sectors – where a huge part of the work force are women, and where many businesses are women-led or women-owned – completed training in hygiene standards and packaging and labelling requirements, preparing them for the certification required to ship their products across borders.?Tengetile Mabuza, owner of Nshubaba Dose, which processes and sells dried herbs in Eswatini, said of the training:

“I have put practices into place that changes how everyone in my company handles the herbs to prevent contamination and am changing the labels to include all the information required.”

Tengetile says this knowledge helps her feel more confident in her product and in approaching new buyers.?

The future is female

In December last year, we Zoomed in to cheer our 34 graduates from the pilot TFSA Export Trade Training programme, rolled out in partnership with Future Females in South Africa through a mix of masterclasses, coaching and mentorship. The energy was amazing and, even in a virtual setting, the excitement and determination of these women was palpable. In just 12 weeks, many of the participants had already made great strides in growing their businesses.

“My business has grown 10% in the past 3 months, directly attributable to my involvement in the training programme. We are now geared for the export process and presenting to foreign markets. My level of focus and expertise with regards to digital strategic marketing has been significantly elevated.”

?Karen Fitzsimmons,?Karen Fitzsimmons & Associates

Last week, TFSA, with Future Female, hosted the regional kick-off to roll out the Export Trade Training programme in Southern Africa. This launch was marked at a women in trade brunch event in Namibia attended by some of the Namibian women entrepreneurs selected for the training programme. We are excited to see what opportunities this training will have for Women in Trade across Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa and can’t wait to hear more of these success stories in 12 weeks’ time. If you would like to apply for the next cohort of training starting in April here is the?link.

Clean jobs for a clean future

The fossil fuel industry was never an industry with a lot of opportunities for women. But as manufacturing of green technology and renewables is gaining momentum in Southern Africa, so is the promise of clean energy jobs and more involvement of women up and down the value chain. TFSA took part in the Africa Energy Indaba in Cape Town last week to present two?exciting new pieces of work?aimed at supporting growth in the sector, and also met up with some of the women-led SMEs whose digital profiles TFSA has helped improve to boost their online presence and competitiveness. Here’s what Rhulani Matshidze from?Enpower Machite?had to say of the support:?

“We want to be the preferred partner in solving the challenges African countries are facing when it comes to energy. It’s a massive opportunity for us that we were sponsored through the SAEEC and TFSA, to be given this platform to showcase ourselves and to be able to engage business to business.”

As much as we try not to buy into clichés, it is impossible to escape the strong sense of?female support?and sisterhood when speaking to our TFSA Women in Trade across Southern Africa. As Julie Nixon from Swaziland Fair Trade, one of our partners rolling out the Export Trade Training programme, puts it:

“Networking and learning to support each other is so important for us. It just makes us stronger – there’s no two ways about it.”