Across The Gambia, women entrepreneurs are creating jobs, supporting communities, and contributing to economic growth. Yet many continue to face overlapping challenges that limit their ability to expand their businesses, from access to finance and markets to skills development and procurement opportunities.
Addressing these barriers requires more than a single intervention. It requires coordinated action across institutions, sectors, and partners.
Through a joint effort supported by the United Nations Joint SDG Fund, the Government of The Gambia, the International Trade Centre (ITC), the World Food Programme (WFP), development partners, business support organizations, and women entrepreneurs are working together to create a more enabling environment for women-led businesses to thrive and contribute to inclusive economic growth.
Tackling interconnected barriers
Women entrepreneurs often face multiple obstacles at once. Limited access to business networks can restrict market opportunities. Financing gaps can make it difficult to invest and grow. Policy and procurement systems may not always create equal opportunities for women-owned enterprises.
Recognizing these interconnected challenges, partners in The Gambia are pursuing an integrated approach that combines business development, market access, policy support, and capacity building.
Through the SheTrades Gambia Hub, women entrepreneurs have accessed training, mentorship, trade fairs, and business support services designed to strengthen their competitiveness and connect them to new opportunities. These efforts have supported more than 1,000 women entrepreneurs and contributed to over $3 million in business transactions.
Creating opportunities through partnership
Expanding women's economic participation requires collaboration across government, the private sector, development partners, and the United Nations.
Alongside direct support to entrepreneurs, partners are working to strengthen the broader ecosystem in which businesses operate. This includes promoting gender-responsive procurement policies, improving access to markets, and creating pathways for women-owned enterprises to participate more fully in economic life.
By bringing together different forms of expertise and support, the initiative is helping address structural barriers that no single institution could tackle alone.
Investing in women is investing in development
The impact of women's entrepreneurship extends well beyond individual businesses.
When women gain access to opportunities, they invest in their families, create employment, and contribute to more resilient local economies. Supporting women-led enterprises therefore represents not only an investment in gender equality, but also in sustainable development and economic transformation.
As The Gambia continues to advance its development ambitions, partnerships that expand opportunities for women entrepreneurs can play an important role in building a more inclusive and prosperous future.
Recent discussions among entrepreneurs, policymakers, business organizations, and development partners reaffirmed a shared commitment to that goal: ensuring that women entrepreneurs have the tools, opportunities, and enabling environment needed not only to participate in the economy, but to help shape its future.
Originally published by ITC Gambia.
Note:
All joint programmes of the Joint SDG Fund are led by UN Resident Coordinators and implemented by the agencies, funds, and programmes of the United Nations development system. With sincere appreciation for the contributions from the European Union and Governments of Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Republic of Korea, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland for a transformative movement towards achieving the SDGs by 2030.
