James Howe

James Howe is a Senior Adviser at the International Trade Centre, where he leads work on digital trade, e-commerce, marketing and branding for small enterprises, particularly in developing countries and least developed countries. He created and leads ITC’s ecomConnect programme, supporting MSMEs, business support organizations and digital ecosystem actors to make practical use of digital channels for trade, growth and competitiveness.

James has extensive experience in country, regional and sector-level branding and positioning strategies. His work includes support to the African Union on pan-African branding through the Made in Africa initiative, national and destination branding work in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Comoros, Iraq and Saint Lucia among others, and sector branding from agrifood and coffee to tourism and IT services, including most recently Uganda’s national coffee brand. He has worked with senior government counterparts, facilitated ministry-level approvals, and supported the systematic adoption of promotion and positioning strategies linked to trade and development objectives.

He has also contributed to ITC’s wider digital development work, including the Digital Moonshot, Global Digital Compact follow-up, WSIS-related processes, and Broadband Commission work on meaningful connectivity for MSMEs. He is an alumnus of the University of Cambridge and INSEAD.