Year in Review of the eTrade for all initiative (2019)

I am pleased to share with you this Year in Review of the eTrade for all initiative, which marks its four-year anniversary in July 2020. When the 15 bold founding partners of this ground-breaking initiative gathered at the fourteenth Ministerial conference of UNCTAD in Nairobi in 2016, the global outlook was very different. Confidence in multilateralism was high, following the agreement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The opportunities – and challenges – of e-commerce were gaining novel recognition from many countries, and general optimism was widely shared.

The mood has radically shifted since then, challenging those very same conditions. Nationalist headwinds, mistrust in global policy solutions, growing socio-economic and digital divides have spread across the continents. And in recent months, the COVID-19 pandemic has created a global health emergency and economic crisis.

Against this background, the eTrade for all initiative has become even more important. Mitigating the effects of the pandemic and fostering new strategies for post-Covid recovery place even more emphasis on the core message of the eTrade for all initiative; leveraging digital opportunities in an inclusive manner is essential as the world tries to cope with the fallout from the crisis. In order to ensure that no one is left behind in the digital economy, we need to work more, not less, together. I am therefore personally delighted to witness the strong commitment to and constant implication of the growing number of eTrade for all partners in all of the initiative’s growing activities.

Our shared commitments have generated widely acknowledged and greatly needed programmes, such as the eTrade Readiness Assessments and the eTrade for Women initiatives. Two independent evaluations, the detailed findings of which are highlighted in this report, have acknowledged that eTrade for all is making the digital economy more inclusive, thanks to its role as a transparent and efficient “global help desk”.

eTrade for all has evolved into a solid, trusted, neutral and useful source of information and a potent catalyst for partnerships across the digital economy’s global landscape. More than ever, a safe haven is needed in these troubled waters. Together we will continue to collaborate to connect the dots for gainful benefit from the digital economy in developing countries.