IEOM Women in Export Programme (WEP) is a gender-responsive initiative designed to support women entrepreneurs to transition from informal and small-scale businesses into structured export value chains. The programme equips women with practical skills in business formalization, record keeping, product packaging, and export readiness, and connects them into organized clusters that enable collective exporting. Through training, aggregation, mentorship, and market linkages, WEP empowers women to access export markets not as isolated actors, but as part of a strong and sustainable export community.

PROGRAMME DESCRIPTION

The Women in Export Programme (WEP) is a structured, gender-mainstreamed export development programme created to increase women’s participation in non-oil export trade. WEP is designed for women entrepreneurs operating at different levels—from rural and informal producers to professional and working-class women interested in investing in export businesses.The programme begins by identifying women-led businesses and supporting them to formalize through business registration, basic record keeping, and improved product presentation. Participants are trained on packaging, labeling, quality standards, and export fundamentals, enabling them to meet the minimum requirements for local and international markets.Recognizing that many women operate at production levels too small to export individually, WEP adopts a collective export model. Women producers are organized into clusters where their goods are aggregated, standardized, and exported in container loads. Professional and investor women within the programme provide capital, management, and market access, ensuring sustainability and shared value across the export chain.Gender mainstreaming is embedded across the programme’s design and delivery. Training schedules are flexible, group-based approaches reduce individual risk, and women are supported to grow at their own pace without disrupting livelihoods. WEP also creates a strong community of women exporters through mentorship, peer learning, and leadership development, while generating data and insights that support gender-responsive trade policies.Through this integrated approach, WEP transforms individual women-led enterprises into collective export power, strengthening women’s economic participation and positioning them for long-term success in regional and global markets.
• Building Women’s Power in Export Trade

Dr. Mercy OdibeWomen in ExportCoordinator