VIDEO | SME Standards Navigation Toolkit - trade, compliance, and access to finance - Trade Treasury Payments

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At the ITC Global SME Ministerial in Johannesburg, South Africa, Trade Treasury Payments (TTP) spoke with Mathieu Lamolle, Senior Advisor on Sustainable and Inclusive Value Chains at the International Trade Centre (ITC), to explore how the SME Standards Navigation Toolkit is helping small businesses meet sustainability requirements while unlocking access to finance and global markets.

Lamolle said, “We’re hearing one clear and consistent message: SMEs feel overwhelmed by the complexity and cost of the sustainability transition. They need a seat at the table, they need to be heard, and they need to be part of the solution.”

Sustainability has become a non-negotiable component of trade. Lamolle explained that if SMEs cannot demonstrate compliance with deforestation-free production, carbon emissions reporting, or human rights due diligence, they risk exclusion from global value chains. What once may have been a competitive advantage is now a baseline requirement.

“It’s becoming the norm,” Lamolle said. “Sustainability is a mandatory market access issue.”

The SME Standards Navigation Toolkit is ITC’s response to this shift. Designed to demystify ESG compliance for smaller firms, the toolkit offers step-by-step guidance on how to meet regulatory expectations without getting lost in the detail. Crucially, it bridges the gap between what companies need to do to satisfy their buyers and what they need to prove to financial institutions.

Lamolle said, “It’s about simplifying without oversimplifying. The toolkit helps SMEs document and communicate their progress – not just to customers, but also to banks and other financiers.”

For small firms, accessing credit can often feel like a separate challenge from meeting sustainability goals. But Lamolle noted that the two are increasingly linked. By aligning the toolkit with the ESG benchmarks that banks and investors use to assess risk and eligibility, ITC is helping SMEs turn compliance into a pathway to capital.

“The banks need to be reassured that the credits they’re giving will be used effectively,” he said. “The toolkit provides that reassurance by enabling SMEs to show tangible, verifiable progress.”

Digital inclusion is also central to the effort. Across regions like Africa and Southeast Asia, uneven access to digital infrastructure continues to be a persistent barrier to reporting and traceability. The toolkit addresses this by supporting a hybrid model, allowing offline data capture and dialogue to be translated into digitally structured outputs for buyers and financiers.

Lamolle said, “The point isn’t to force everything online. It’s about a smart mix. Offline engagement feeds into online reporting, and the toolkit sits within a larger digital ecosystem that allows for trusted, verifiable information to move through the value chain.”

That includes traceability, something more buyers are demanding in the wake of new deforestation regulations and human rights laws. By completing a digital profile through the toolkit, SMEs can provide downstream stakeholders with greater visibility into where products come from, how they were made, and who was involved along the way.

Looking ahead, Lamolle called on key players in the ecosystem (like banks, buyers, and governments) to help scale the use of the toolkit by rewarding early efforts and recognising the progress made by SMEs.

“SMEs need to see that their early actions are valued,” he said. “Buyers can do this through supplier incentives and pre-competitive platforms. Banks can benchmark the ESG indicators in the toolkit to their own credit assessment frameworks. And governments can integrate the toolkit into national strategies.”

When asked what success would look like a decade from now, Lamolle didn’t hesitate: scale.

“If in 10 years’ time we see that governments, large buyers, and financial institutions have embraced the toolkit as a common language and accelerator of trust, that will mean it’s been a success,” he said. “It’s about enabling the green transition through inclusion.”

His final message to banks and stakeholders was to stop seeing SMEs as passive recipients.

“SMEs represent the largest force to drive sustainability,” he said. “They are ready. They just need the right tools, guidance, and support. See them as co-creators of the solution.”