The Dutch government recently announced additional funding of $1.5 million for the eTrade Readiness Assessments of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), more than doubling its financial support to the organization’s work on e-commerce and the digital economy for 2021-2022.

The funding will boost Africa-wide ambitions to benefit from e-commerce and provides concrete support to its least developed countries.

Digitalisation is a game changer for the African continent’s e-commerce entrepreneurs, but not all its nations have an enabling environment to benefit from the digital economy, UNCTAD said in a press release.

“The Dutch contribution is particularly welcome in view of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has shown the importance of e-commerce and of scaling up efforts to help countries that are trailing behind in the digital economy to catch up,” said Shamika Sirimanne, UNCTAD’s director of technology and logistics.

The support will provide UNCTAD with the funds to help selected African countries strengthen their readiness to engage in and benefit from e-commerce.

The Dutch funding will help more countries to design national e-commerce strategies, improve the measurement of e-commerce and the digital economy, and develop stronger legal and regulatory frameworks for e-commerce.

UNCTAD’s eTrade Readiness Assessments are a cornerstone of its digital economy programme. They provide up-to date diagnostics of how least developed countries (LDCs) and other developing countries are harnessing the potential of the digital revolution for e-commerce, trade and development.

The assessments identify the critical weaknesses in the e-commerce ecosystems and propose concrete actions for governments to improve the situation. For most LDCs, the assessments are the first comprehensive set of information and analysis needed to better formulate their policy priorities and needs for development assistance in the area of e-commerce.

The Netherlands has actively supported the eTrade for all initiative and its eTrade for Women spin-off for the past two years.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)

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