Ecommerce

17 August 2023 - Simon Hess
EIF support contributed significantly to policy reviews, alignment of legislation, development of consumer protection standards, and enhancing the capacity of sector stakeholders, including through recruitment of technical staff.
25 July 2023
The partnership between Bhutan and the EIF stretches back to 2009. Directly contributing to several UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 8 on decent work and economic growth, the EIF facility was well aligned to work within the context of Bhutan's development philosophy. The EIF supported the development of Bhutan's trade agenda roadmap, improving policies supporting pro-poor trade and strengthening institutional coordination, including human capacity for trade and development. Beyond this, the EIF contributed to building the productive capacity of farmers SMEs and facilitated the country's ability to leverage additional funding through catalytic project support.
20 June 2023
Gaps in technology, infrastructure and skills, especially in Least Developed Countries (LDCs), highlighted the need to help entrepreneurs grasp the possibilities of digital transformation.
19 July 2022 - Kati Suominen
Unlike in 2013, PPPs are today widely embraced as a vehicle to promote digital trade. Now, they need to be used in places where they have been scarcer, such as the LDCs.
5 July 2022 - Racheal Nabisubi
The Ministry of Tourism hosts the handicraft and Souvenir Development project, which is supported by the Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF); with among other objectives being improving quality, standards and marketing tourism exports such as souvenirs to boost foreign exchange.
27 April 2022 - Ratnakar Adhikari
The EIF recognises that our contribution to creating a thriving e-commerce ecosystem in LDCs is part and parcel of a bigger effort bringing together the expertise and skills of many others. While some are working together with the private sector, including small businesses, others are working with governments. While some invest in building digital infrastructure, others impart knowledge to build digital skills and yet others provide support to prepare and implement e-commerce policies.
15 March 2022 - Daniel K. Kalinaki
LDCs have traditionally relied on high-cost, low-impact means of showing off their goods by, for example, hiring booths at trade shows and expos. Ecommerce platforms allow them to exponentially grow the number of products they can show off to potential customers, simplify the selling process, reduce transactional costs, increase trade revenues, and boost economic growth.
21 September 2021 - Deanna Ramsay
Small businesses are receiving support to access much-needed finance
14 September 2021 - Deanna Ramsay
New project focusing on selected value chains from seaweed to honey in Tanzania.
6 July 2021 - Deanna Ramsay
Resilience is necessary in the rice trade, developing it requires many About 80% of Cambodians are rural farmers, and rice is the country’s main crop. But, until the last decade or so, the sector had not been living up to its potential.
24 June 2021 - Deanna Ramsay
How strategic funding can help to ensure a global beauty industry creates local profit
22 June 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic transformed the trade ecosystem for women in the developing world  
18 May 2021 - Helen Castell
Expanding and diversifying productive capacities will better position least developed countries (LDCs) to tap the financing and e-trade opportunities that will underpin their Covid-19 recovery. This was a recurrent theme in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Least Developed Countries Report 2020, which cautioned however that the international community must first rally with resources, policy space and better international support measures.
24 November 2020 - Dr. Karishma Banga
The government of Uganda put containment measures in place to tackle COVID-19. These included quarantines; bans on public gatherings and weekly markets; closures of schools, borders and nonessential retail outlets; and the suspension of international flights.
5 November 2020 - Deanna Ramsay
Myanmar was already moving to get its businesses online. With COVID-19, they were able to speed things up.
17 August 2020 - UNCTAD
Partnerships with development agencies and government efforts to boost the digital economy are helping soften the economic blow of the pandemic.
31 July 2020 - Fanan Biem
The macroeconomic context for developing country trade in the time of COVID-19
29 July 2020 - Michelle Kovacevic
Recently launched ecommerce training program and portal will help hundreds of women entrepreneurs in South Asian LDCs become part of regional and global supply chains.
15 July 2020 - UNCTAD
An uptick in business, especially in the delivery of food and essential items, is enhancing resilience in the wake of the crisis.
10 June 2020 - UNCTAD
Digital solutions implemented to combat the spread of COVID-19 give fresh impetus to efforts to harness the development gains of ICT and ecommerce.
28 May 2020 - UNCTAD
UNCTAD has assessed the state of play in the two countries and identified policy actions required to harness ecommerce for development.
25 May 2020
Originally published in World Economic Forum Agenda on 24 April 2020
5 May 2020 - UNCTAD
Trade ministry fast-tracks measures to ease access to essential goods and services during the pandemic.
26 March 2020 - Padmashree Gehl Sampath
The possibility of reconfiguring manufacturing processes through new digital technologies and data provides opportunities to reboot industrial development in least developed countries.
18 February 2020 - Ratnakar Adhikari Fabrice Lehmann
Originally published in OECD-Development Matters on 5 February 2020
13 February 2020 - Mischa Tripoli
Agriculture 4.0, fuelled by innovation and technology, is driving more productive, efficient and sustainable food systems.
8 January 2020 - UNCTAD
UNCTAD's assessment identifies available opportunities and barriers to overcome for e-commerce to flourish in the country.
7 November 2019 - Chidi Oguamanam
The entrepreneurial uptake of computer technology and the entrenchment of digitisation have made Africa a demonstrable source of intellectual power in the digital sphere.
Enabling growth via ecommerce, trade facilitation and geographical indications
The Enhanced Integrated Framework’s Trade for Development News is launching a new series of articles focusing on three major trade conversations happening today.
3 September 2019 - Cécile de Gardelle Deanna Ramsay
Without action, one out of every four people living in LDCs will be offline due to the lack of digital skills
28 August 2019 - Ratnakar Adhikari
Originally published by World Economic Forum Agenda on 13 August 2019
26 August 2019 - Cécile de Gardelle
Nepal’s Under Secretary at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies talks all things trade – online
1 August 2019 - UNCTAD
New report on Lesotho shows how the small, mountainous nation could unlock its digital market to diversify its economy.
19 June 2019 - Dan Ciuriak Maria Ptashkina
The digital transformation provides developing economies new opportunities to leapfrog industrial age infrastructure, to draw on the vast knowledge spillovers from the internet, to take advantage of new markets offered by digital platforms and to exploit production possibilities enabled by digital technologies.
30 April 2019 - Cécile de Gardelle
Following UNCTAD’s Ecommerce Week in April 2019 and on the cusp of a new partnership with EIF to boost ecommerce, Rwanda’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Geneva discusses the state of play for online trade in the country
25 April 2019 - Deanna Ramsay
Virtual connections, transparency and financing through one platform can make for just the right combination to support MSMEs
During UNCTAD’s Ecommerce Week in April 2019, Deputy Director General for International Trade at the Cambodia Ministry of Commerce talks all things e-trade
9 April 2019 - Michelle Kovacevic
Bhutan’s potato ‘stock market’ goes online
The Global Trade Professionals Alliance (GTPA) is delighted to partner with the EIF Programme on a session focussed on building skills for the digital economy through education, interaction & advocacy as part of Africa e
8 August 2018 - Justine Namara Deanna Ramsay
Geographical barriers, including isolation from main markets, have resulted in issues for Vanuatu to access international networks and grow its businesses
7 August 2018 - Simon Hess
Launching of these specific initiatives demonstrates the progressive vision of Vanuatu to stimulate the economy and leverage opportunities through international trade for delivering growth and development
6 August 2018
What do a mountainous landlocked country, a post-war African nation, and three small island developing states have in common?
26 July 2018 - UNCTAD
Consumers and businesses in two remote Pacific island nations can look forward to a better connected and more prosperous future, according to assessments made by UNCTAD of their readiness to benefit from electronic commerce
The Government has shown a strong interest in adopting economic and social policies that can facilitate the development of the Internet economy, of which e-commerce is one segment. Unlocking its potential will also reduce distance to markets, reduce “sealockedness” and enable Vanuatu to leapfrog certain barriers associated with physical trade
The current low use of ecommerce in Solomon Islands belies significant potential for the sector to grow swiftly and make economic and socioeconomic contributions to the country
20 June 2018 - Craig Atkinson
The distinctive character of trade policy 3.0 is that, in addition to “writing down the rules” of trade in natural language (trade policy 1.0) and use of “single window systems” that replicate paper-based delivery in the digital realm (trade policy 2.0), countries are able to publish computational rules to the Internet in a standard way
24 April 2018
New tech uses present challenges – and a host of opportunities – for the world’s poorest countries.
24 April 2018 - Deanna Ramsay
Week of discussions fleshes out research results and next steps for electronic trade in the world's poorest countries
18 April 2018 - Deanna Ramsay
New tech uses present challenges – and a host of opportunities – for the world’s poorest countries 
16 March 2018 - ICTSD
The challenges with which African countries are faced in the context of ecommerce – and which hinder its development – are multifaceted
8 December 2017
Ms. Mere Falemaka, Permanent Representative of the Pacific Islands Forum to the WTO in Geneva, shared with us some precious insights about the specificities of the region.
10 November 2017 - UNCTAD
The Pacific Island nation of Samoa has made considerable progress in recent years in getting businesses and consumers online but still faces challenges before being fully ready to benefit from e-commerce, an UNCTAD and EIF assessment of the country says.
Originally published on 10 July 2017 in the World Economic Forum Agenda