The International Trade Centre (ITC) and the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) last Wednesday signed a deal that strengthens their partnership to promote sustainable finance solutions for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).
In the partnership, ITC and UNCDF will focus on supporting businesses in frontier markets, emerging economies and least developed countries.
The heads of the two organizations signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Geneva, Switzerland, on the sidelines of the Building Bridges Summit, which aims to advance sustainable finance in Switzerland and across the globe.
The organizations will work together to unlock finance for MSMEs to help advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Priority areas include women’s economic empowerment through access to innovative financing, investment and markets; support of youth entrepreneurship, employment and vocational skills through investments and technical assistance; and boosting MSMEs’ ability to compete in local, regional and global markets. This last area will focus on innovation, digitalization and private sector development.
Pamela Coke-Hamilton, Executive Director, International Trade Centre noted that access to finance is one of the top challenges that small businesses face – and that’s especially true in developing countries.
“Through this partnership with UNCDF, we’re targeting that challenge, so women and young entrepreneurs across the world have a chance to grow their businesses and enter new markets,” she said.
Through this partnership with UNCDF, we’re targeting that challenge, so women and young entrepreneurs across the world have a chance to grow their businesses and enter new markets
UNCDF Executive Secretary, Preeti Sinha said that UNCDF and ITC have already been partners in the areas of youth economic empowerment, confronting climate change and impact investment and that this MoU is a natural extension of their previous work.
“We are proud to work so closely with our sister UN entity. MSMEs are not only recipients of sustainable finance. They can also be engines of sustainable finance as well; for youth, women, and for communities in frontier markets, emerging economies and LDCs. ITC and UNCDF are each distinctly capable of supporting Member Countries on their pathways to the SDGs. Together, we will make sure that impact capital for development will be on full display,” she said,
More on the partnership
The partnership looks to leverage the economic and financial capabilities of two United Nations entities. ITC supports sustainable and inclusive development by boosting the competitiveness of MSMEs, placing trade-led growth at the centre of public policy and building supportive business ecosystems in developing countries.
UNCDF will leverage its singular role in the UN Development System as a hybrid development agency/development finance institution, offering a suite of finance capabilities, including grants, technical assistance, loans, guarantees, bonds and blended finance instruments.
Other areas of collaboration include supporting the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Frameworks, which are instruments to plan and implement UN development activities at the country level. ITC and UNCDF will also engage in joint resource mobilization efforts, especially at the country level, to boost development support and investments in MSMEs.
