Publications

The SME Competitiveness Outlook 2021 analyses how small businesses can rebuild from the COVID-19 pandemic so they are prepared to face the looming climate crisis. It provides a 20-point Green Recovery Plan to foster competitive, resilient and environmentally sustainable small and medium-sized...

Managing risk and building climate resilience among small firms requires a team effort. Climate change is hitting small and medium enterprises (SMEs) hard, and supply chain disruptions have a domino effect. This guide explains how development cooperation agencies, business support organizations,...

The demand for organic wild collected products is significant. Products for direct food consumption, such as berries, nuts, mushrooms and a large number of herbs are the main items. This publication discusses terminology used in wild collection, gives an overview of organic and other standards that...

Good Practices in the Global Apparel Industry provides valuable insight on ways for small and medium-sized enterprises to move up the value chain and away from low-value contract manufacturing.

This summary provides highlights of how small businesses can rebuild from the pandemic in a way that helps them face climate change – and how governments, business support organizations and lead firms in international value chains can support them through the Green Recovery Plan.

Pharmaceuticals, baby food, cotton clothing and cars are the four focus value chains of this report. 

The Textile and Clothing Sector in Asian Graduating Least Developed Countries: Challenges and Ways Forward

Nepal could lose 4.3% of exports because of tariff changes when it graduates from least developed country status in 2026. The removal of preferential tariffs will especially affect the apparel, synthetic textile fabric and carpet sectors. Losses will mostly occur in exports to China, the European...

The clothing industry can be an important employment generator for many African countries. Clothing imports into South Africa rose over a five-year period to US$ 1.1 billion in 2009, making it the world’s twenty-fifth largest importer of this product group. Most imports were from Asia. However,...

Cotton production is both a contributor to and a ‘victim’ of climate change. Agricultural production, processing, trade and consumption contribute up to 30% of the world’s emissions when forest clearance is included in the calculation. Cotton production contributes to between 0.3% and 1% of...

The goal of Ethiopia’s Textile and Clothing (T & C) Value Chain Roadmap is to set the sector on the course of strategic development by addressing constraints in a comprehensive manner and defining concrete opportunities that can be realized through the specific steps detailed in its Plan of...

Challenging the notion that developing countries essentially export commodities, this book showcases the diversity of trade in services that flourishes in developing and least developed countries. With 28 case studies of entrepreneurs from 18 developing countries in a wide range of trade in service...