Ethiopia

<p>In September 2021, The Government of the Netherlands and the International Trade Centre (ITC) signed a four-year partnership agreement aimed at enhancing trade competitiveness in selected African countries, through the strengthening of digital and agribusiness services and especially the connection between the two.</p><p>As part of this Programme, in Ethiopia, ITC will implement a value chain development project with the objective of improving the competitiveness of livelihood farmers and agribusiness MSMEs in the coffee sector with a focus on digitalization.</p><p>Through the project, ITC aims to promote more efficient and sustainable agribusiness and support services that will lead to increased trade, better incomes and livelihoods opportunities, especially for the smallholder coffee farmers.</p><p>The project will explore digital solutions and related services to overcome the negative effects of agribusiness value chains&rsquo; disruption brought by Covid-19, globally as well as locally such as lack of agricultural inputs, increase in price of raw material, decrease in international demand (during the lockdown period) and the consequent need of finding alternative markets.</p><p>The agribusiness component of NTF V in Ethiopia will build on previous work by the ITC Alliances for Action (A4A) team that<strong>&nbsp;</strong>focused on the generation of sustainable sourcing partnerships in coffee. The focus was upon building alliance platforms for enhanced market linkages and sales, whilst building capacity of MSMEs and producer cooperatives. A4A works as a network that promotes responsible partnerships for development and better trade and leverages investments and technical support to achieve measurable impact for smallholder farmers and MSMEs.</p><p>Additionally, and taking into account Ethiopia&rsquo;s current political background, NTF V has (i) strategically selected the regions where to focus activities in the South and South-West of the country (Sidama, Yirgacheffe and Jimma/Oromia) and (ii) designed an implementation model built on local expertise to assure continuation of work in the eventuality of a travel ban.</p><p>In the framework of NTF V, A4A will look beyond sustainable production to work on an enabling environment and target all steps of the value chain from seed to cup. Digital applications will be used to increase the overall competitiveness of the agribusiness value chain as well as to scale-up results and reach more partners and beneficiaries. The A4A approach places particular emphasis on social, environmental and economic sustainability which among other things implies a more holistic approach to sources of agricultural income and the consideration of coffee as well as other crops produced in association with it. This allows for the design of more comprehensive and effective resilience strategies in agribusiness.</p><p>The main objectives of the action in Ethiopia are:</p><ul type="disc"><li>Identify market opportunities and new buyers in the domestic, regional and international market for the coffee sector and associated crops.</li><li>Strengthen Public-Private alliances to support the development of more solid ecosystems including through digital applications. Build capacities of support institutions and stakeholders along the coffee value chain (producers, SMEs, Social Enterprises (SE)) for more competitive and resilient commercialization and production, with a focus on digital and other support services (market access and market intelligence tools, product development/innovation, compliance with quality standards, certification, sustainability principles, access to finance).</li><li>Facilitate linkages for SMEs, SEs and Producers Associations with international, regional and domestic partners, business and investment opportunities</li></ul>

<p>ITC and CBI have been cooperating for decades. This cooperation led to a series of sector development programmes under the Netherlands Trust Fund (NTF) since 2005. The current project is part of the NTF V programme funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of The Netherlands and implemented in close coordination with the Dutch Centre for the Promotion of Imports from developing countries (CBI).</p><p>The NTF V programme was approved in July 2021 and will run until June 2025. Its ambition is to contribute to building back better in the partner countries with a focus on creating a link between MSMEs in the digital technologies and agribusiness sectors. To this end, agritech start-ups will be supported to improve their understanding of agribusinesses&rsquo; needs, to gain more agribusinesses partners, and, in some instances, to help digitalize agribusinesses. Digitalizing agribusinesses will be done by the agribusiness team, working whenever possible with agritech businesses that are part of NTF V Ethiopia Tech project, in the coffee and associated crops sector, which will be the main focus area for both teams.</p><p>In the digital technology sector, activities will foster business-friendly tech ecosystems, strengthen business support organizations such as tech hubs and equip tech start-ups and SMEs with resilient business models, linking them to business, partnership and investment opportunities while contributing to the digitalization of traditional SMEs in other sectors.</p><p>Ethiopia is part of the targeted countries for NTF V, under both the digital technologies and the agribusiness sectors. NTF V Ethiopia Tech will build on the work initiated under NTF IV&rsquo;s spin-off #FastTrackTech Africa in Addis Ababa. The project aims at contributing to the creation of sustainable jobs in the digital technologies sector and the modernisation of agribusiness through digital technologies.&nbsp;</p>

<p>This 3-year project aims to promote economic and trade cooperation between China and Africa through participation in the China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo (CAETE) and the Distribution, Trading and Processing Centre (DTPC) of Hunan Province, China.<span>&nbsp;</span>The project will support selected African countries (Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia) to increase export of agriculture and food products to China and attract sustainable Chinese investment with the overall objective to contribute to job creation and poverty reduction in these selected African countries.</p>

<p>To investigate the potential of expanding investment (and trade) linkages between India and Africa, capitalizing on the structural changes and resulting opportunities brought forth by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). &nbsp;</p><p>Will assess constraints and opportunities in each of these four areas and provide concrete recommendations for policy action. In addition, several transversal thematic areas will be probed and emphasized upon &ndash; technology and knowledge transfer, south-south cooperation at the institutional level, developing technical capacities, and environmental sustainability. The paper can eventually evolve into a strategic action plan for both policymakers and the private sector in India.</p><p>The objective is to analyze opportunities for enhancing Indian investment in Africa from four perspectives - automotive, pharmaceutical, agro-processing, textile, and renewable energy -with case studies in each to describe working models which may enhance business interest and highlight potential.</p><p>Case studies on investments under Supporting Indian Trade and Investment for Africa (SITA) will also be updated to reflect the current, post-investment operating environment.</p><p><br></p>

<p>The German government initiative &nbsp;&quot;Alliance for Product Quality in Africa&quot;, is a multi-stakeholder initiative, consisting of public and private actors who implement selected projects with the goal to improve product quality in key economic sectors of eight African countries. ITC is contracted by GIZ to &nbsp;implement four project activities related to quality management and food safety in five countries (C&ocirc;te d&apos;Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Rwanda and Tunisia). The four project activities are being implemented to support selected African small and medium sized companies in the targeted focus sectors to meet quality requirements of buyers in Germany and Europe. The ITC contribution relates to the implementation and certification of quality management (ISO 9001) and food safety systems (HACCP), the assessment of persisting SPS and TBT related obstacles for export, the development of national quality and food safety experts as well as the sensitization and training of quality manager in SMEs. The sectors targeted are predominantly agro-food, natural cosmetics and textiles/clothing.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p>

<p>The proposed project &ldquo;Textile and Apparel Network for Africa (TANA)&rdquo; forms part of the BMZ Special Initiative Training and Job Creation initiated by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) to contribute to the implementation of the Marshall Plan with Africa and the investment partnership G20 Compact with Africa.</p><p>The project aims at strengthening market linkages between European and African textile and apparel companies and consists of two components, which are financed by two different GIZ entities:</p><ul><li>Global component: Strengthened commercial relationships between European retailers and brands and African textile and apparel suppliers through the establishment of the the Textile and Apparel Network for Africa (TANA) - financed by GIZ HQ</li><li>Country component (pilot): Enhanced competitiveness of Ghanaian textile and apparel companies to meet buyer requirements - financed by GIZ Ghana office.</li></ul>

<p>Poor Communities and Trade Programme (PCTP), at the International Trade Centre (ITC), aims to reduce global poverty by strengthening the capacities of developing country micro-entrepreneurs, social enterprises and emerging designers for export trade, in order to connect them with international buyers, in the value chain of ethical fashion, through an inclusive business model.</p><p>PCTP provides technical expertise and business support to informal micro-enterprises and to emerging designers, through a business support infrastructure (based on hubs managed by social enterprises) that enables them to acquire capacities to set up and manage production and quality control systems, logistics and supply chain management, market identification and buyer negotiation skills. This market-based approach to poverty reduction provides micro-entrepreneurs form the informal sector (for the majority women) &nbsp;with the direct benefits of trade by creating jobs and facilitating business opportunities resulting in increased incomes, improved livelihoods and new linkages to the formal economy.</p><p>Within its social enterprises around the world, ITC&rsquo;s Ethical Fashion Initiative (EFI) in <u><strong>2019&nbsp;</strong>focus on the following deliverables<strong>:</strong></u></p><ul><li><strong><strong>Living wage assessments are carried out in 8 project countries</strong></strong></li><li><strong>African Fashion Fund in collaboration with the Ethical Fashion Initiative&nbsp;</strong></li><li><strong><strong>New business model, based on online trade is developed and launched</strong></strong></li><li><strong>Events in coordination with the UN Alliance for Sustainable Fashion are organised</strong></li><li><strong>Generating awareness on the impacts of climate change and conflicts affecting livelihoods of people in selected project countrie</strong></li></ul><p><strong><u>In 2020</u></strong> the Initiative will focus on the following deliverables:</p><p><span style="font-weight: 700;"><strong>Output 3.1: Accelerator launched with six African designers 4 of which are from countries not involved in the existing project frameworks of the EFI (expansion of EFI&rsquo;s network and creation of new opportunities for intra-African trade).&nbsp;</strong></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 700;">Output 3.2: <strong>Eritrea project framework tested through preliminary activities, designed and submitted&nbsp;</strong></span></p><p>In 2021</p>

<p>The overall objective of the proposed project is to attract investment and promote trade and sustainable industrial and business development at continental level, concretely supporting the AfCFTA Secretariat and the African Union and delivering on the Africa-EU partnership for sustainable growth and jobs.&nbsp;</p><p>The project contributes to this objective by</p><ul><li>identifying trade and investment opportunities along regional value chains with potential at continental scale in Africa, including potential for investment by EU economic operators;</li><li>Strengthening the EU-Africa dialogue on trade and economic integration, informing high-level events such as the upcoming AU-EU Summit and European- African Business Forum (EABF)</li><li>identifying pilot/selected continental value chains that could be targeted for support in the EU 2021-27 aid programming exercise.</li></ul><p>It supports the implementation of the AfCFTA and ITC&apos;s One Trade Africa Initiative.</p>

<p>Poor Communities and Trade Programme (PCTP), at the International Trade Centre (ITC), aims to reduce global poverty by strengthening the capacities of developing country micro-entrepreneurs, social enterprises and emerging designers for export trade, in order to connect them with international buyers, in the value chain of ethical fashion, through an inclusive business model.</p><p>PCTP provides technical expertise and business support to informal micro-enterprises and to emerging designers, through a business support infrastructure (based on hubs managed by social enterprises) that enables them to acquire capacities to set up and manage production and quality control systems, logistics and supply chain management, market identification and buyer negotiation skills. This market-based approach to poverty reduction provides micro-entrepreneurs form the informal sector (for the majority women) &nbsp;with the direct benefits of trade by creating jobs and facilitating business opportunities resulting in increased incomes, improved livelihoods and new linkages to the formal economy.</p>

<p>ITC will contribute to an improved job potential through the generation of investment leads with European investors interested in investing into the partner countries of the Special Initiative (SI) for Training and Job Creation, which has been initiated by the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).</p><p>The overall objective of this project is to bring in non-financial European company investors into a joint project development process aiming to mobilize and to support the realization of private investment in the partner countries of the SI in order to create jobs. These investor companies aim to create sustainable jobs through green and brownfield investments in the target countries. The investment leads faciliated should have a particular potential to create jobs for women and youth.&nbsp;</p>