WHAT WE DO
Our mission is executed through a bouquet of programmes comprising essentially of advocacies, capacity-building initiatives, outreaches, and a soon-to-be launched forum, The African Woman International Trade fair (TAWITF), which will birth the largest gathering of African women.
About TAWITF
The African Women International Trade Fair is a multi-pronged intervention vehicle which seeks to increase access to fair and profitable trade for African women, enhancing their substantial participation in the modern globalised market.
The fair is proposed as a five-day event, with its maiden edition scheduled to hold in Lusaka, Zambia. Though the grand vision aims at a continent-wide show, the inaugural fair targets participation from the 16-member Southern African Development Community (SADC). Progressively, the event will be held in other regional blocs across the continent, drawing useful lessons from its inaugural edition.
The Zambia event is structured, among others, to host an exhibition that would attract over fifty thousand visitors, and a conference broken into technical sessions with keynote speakers and renowned panelists from across Africa.
The ultimate objective is to build Africa’s economy, one woman at a time
Training/Knowledge Sharing
The conference and post-conference training platforms of the fair present a unique opportunity to enlighten and empower women, leading them down the path of improved skills and knowledge base to better access the large market for trade.
A very important area for education is the far-reaching policy initiatives by regional blocs and international agencies to facilitate ease of access to international trade. Knowing of the existence of these opportunities and being empowered to access them could be the difference between success and failure in trade-driven transformation of the lives of these women and their families.
Mentoring
Through the TAWITF Mentorship Program, women entrepreneurs and aspiring women entrepreneurs are assigned mentors who are mostly accomplished women entrepreneurs to coach and guide them towards becoming successful women entrepreneurs.
The months-long program follows a careful result-oriented plan that is adaptive and tailored.
Incubation/Acceleration
Through the TAWITF Business Hub, businesses of women entrepreneurs are supported with funding and of other resources to ensure sustainable success in the market. The incubator program helps to create new businesses and support businesses still in their infancy, while the accelerator program helps existing businesses speed up market readiness.
Cross-border Trade Network
The TAWITF International Trade Network helps prepare women-owned businesses for international trade, guiding them to carefully take advantage of international trade opportunities and navigate the mazy channels. The trade fair exposes the women to the far-reaching opportunities in international trade, and signals the curtain-raiser in a long and sustained process of engagement with entrepreneurs across borders.
Cradle-to-Market Initiative
The TAWITF Cradle-to-Market Initiative helps women entrepreneurs access full-fledged support for their business from conception to active market participation.
TAWITF will guide these businesses to access the resources needed to grow and attain sustainable success.