First Export Consortia of women owned/led businesses in Tunisia launched

In Tunisia, the month of March was dominated by feminist foreign and development policy. Shortly after Svenja Schulze presented the strategy for feminist development policy for the BMZ, the new strategy was put into practice in the country.
With the support of the GIZ, financed by the BMZ, the first export consortia, which consist entirely of women owned/led businesses was presented on March 17th, 2023. 52 women entrepreneurs from four sectors decided to join forces, set up and formalize their export consortia in order to jointly export to new markets in sub-Saharan Africa. As the often quoted saying goes, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together”, the women entrepreneurs hope that uniting their forces will improve their competitiveness and reduce the costs of opening up new markets. In addition, the network with other women entrepreneurs provides access to important connections in the business world, to which women in their role as entrepreneurs often have less access than men. In the context of setting up the consortia, the special role of female entrepreneurs in balancing professional and family commitments was also extensively discussed.

The official launch and the signing of the formalization documents of the four new export consortia took place in the Tunisian export promotion agency CEPEX. During the event, the 4 consortia had the opportunity to present their newly elected offices and presidents as well as the brand created for each consortium under the branding “Women Export (WE)”. The consortium in the food sector gave itself the name “WE Raise”, the names of the other consortia are “WE Create” in the crafts and arts sector and “WE Value” in the services sector. The consortium in the field of information and communication technologies” was named “WE TIC”.

The activity is funded by the GIZ project “Promotion of export activities in new markets in sub-Saharan Africa (PEMA II)”, a joint project with the Tunisian export promotion agency CEPEX and the Tunisian Ministry of Trade, financed by the BMZ. The project will support the four export consortia beyond their formation phase and in the coming months and years to boost their export activities in sub-Saharan African markets.

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