Ghana

<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>The proposed project aims to develop a proof of concept for an integrated approach to strengthening agricultural coops. The project will build the capacity of agricultural coops and facilitate trade, investment and knowledge transfer linkages between buyer / retailer cooperatives and agricultural coops in four pilot countries using ONE ITC approach. The new methodology will help ITC support faster recovery and improved resilience of the global economy by providing more opportunities for coops to connect and trade with each other in support of the values and principles of the coop movement and the SDGs.</p>

<p><span data-contrast="none">ITC&rsquo;s trade and market intelligence interventions in the 24 UK Trade Partnerships Programme countries will consist of several interrelated components</span><span data-contrast="none">&nbsp;</span><span data-contrast="none">to foster transparency and &nbsp;enhanced access</span><span data-contrast="none">&nbsp;to information on trade opportunities and market access requirements <span data-contrast="none">for small and medium</span><span data-contrast="none">-</span><span data-contrast="none">sized e</span><span data-contrast="none">nterprises</span></span><span data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US">. This will be done</span><span data-contrast="none">&nbsp;through</span><span data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US">&nbsp;data</span><span data-contrast="none">?sharing, capacity building, and</span><span data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US">&nbsp;the</span><span data-contrast="none">?setting up of&nbsp;</span><span data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US">trade&nbsp;</span><span data-contrast="none">obstacle?alert mechanisms.</span></p>

<p><span style="color: rgb(97, 189, 109);">New text:&nbsp;</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(97, 189, 109);">The ITC T4SD Hubs act as a <strong>one-stop shop offering integrated sustainability solutions supporting SMEs to transition to a green economy</strong>. The T4SD Hubs are a 5 year project implemented in 7 countries/regions: the Caribbean, Ghana, Kenya, Laos, Nepal, Peru and Viet Nam.&nbsp;</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(97, 189, 109);">The offering of the T4SD Hubs is structured around 5 thematic areas under which awareness raising workshops, e-learnings and customized coaching programmes are offered to <strong>build the business case for implementing sustainable business practices:&nbsp;</strong></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(97, 189, 109);">These thematic areas include:</span></p><ul><li><span style="color: rgb(97, 189, 109);">Compliance with Voluntary Sustainability Standards&nbsp;</span></li><li><span style="color: rgb(97, 189, 109);">Resource efficiency and circular production&nbsp;</span></li><li><span style="color: rgb(97, 189, 109);">Climate resilience&nbsp;</span></li><li><span style="color: rgb(97, 189, 109);">Positioning sustainable products in the international market&nbsp;</span></li><li><span style="color: rgb(97, 189, 109);">Access to green finance&nbsp;</span></li></ul><p><span style="color: rgb(97, 189, 109);">Besides the piloting of the service offering to built the necessary technical capacity, the T4SD Hub team supports the T4SD Hub hosts in building the needed management capacity and structures to roll out the service offering.</span></p><p><br></p><p>Old text:&nbsp;</p><p align="JUSTIFY" dir="LTR"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The ITC T4SD Hubs provides full support to SMEs in the implementation of green business practices. T4SD leverages its international networks to support SMEs in building green business strategies to access green finance and international markets for sustainable products, thus maximizing the T4SD programme&rsquo;s impact on the ground.</span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" dir="LTR"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">T4SD establishes six T4SD Hubs in Ghana, Kenya, Laos, Nepal, Peru and Vietnam until 2022.</span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" dir="LTR"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The T4SD Hubs consolidate T4SD&rsquo;s tools and services by acting as a <strong>one-stop shop offering integrated sustainability solutions for SMEs</strong>. The Hubs are replicable and scalable in size and implement key recommendations and findings of the 2017 OED evaluation of the T4SD Programme.&nbsp;</span></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>

<p>This project document proposes the establishment and piloting of a blended, non-accredited, vocational and practical training programme concentrated around the fundamentals of exporting and the opportunities resulting from the AfCFTA. This curriculum will be developed by the SME Trade Academy in collaboration with the Afreximbank.</p><p>Local partners, such as trade training institutions will provide support in implementation of the pilot programme in three countries, namely Nigeria, Rwanda and C&ocirc;te d&apos;Ivoire.</p><p>The pilot will involve building local partners&rsquo; capacity to market the training and conduct sessions on a continuous basis, localizing the offering for each national context.</p><p>An <strong><span style="color: rgb(184, 49, 47);">expansion phase</span></strong> has been added to the project involving a further 12 countries. The online training will be opened to all African countries.</p>

<p>In 2018, the ACP Secretariat, the EC, together with ITC, UNIDO and the World Bank finalized the Joint Proposal for a five-year Program (hereafter the &lsquo;Program&rsquo;) aiming at (1) adopting and implementing business-friendly and inclusive national policies and legal frameworks, and (2) strengthening productive, processing, promoting and marketing capabilities and value chains. The three agencies will respectively deliver micro-, meso-, and macro-level activities, and will ensure the appropriate level of coordination and synergies aiming to deliver integrated solutions to ACP countries.&nbsp;</p><p align="JUSTIFY" dir="LTR">The program includes country-level interventions, as well as Rapid Response and Regional Engagement windows for each of the three pillars. The Rapid Response window aims at swiftly responding to emerging beneficiary needs given emerging demands in the thematic areas of the Program; the Regional Engagement window will primarily aim to promote knowledge exchange, best practices and experience capture and sharing to contribute to two fundamental objectives.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The Diploma in International Trade is<span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</span>a new offering for the SME Trade Academy. The project was initiated in 2020 to build capacity of professionals and SMEs in International Trade, by providing high quality, internationally accredited certification through the Institute of Exports and International Trade (IOE&amp;IT).&nbsp;</p><p>The project has three prong collaboration between ITC, IOE&amp;IT and the local TSI.&nbsp;</p><p><span>&middot;<span>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</span></span>ITC will provide the online platform for each TSI, convert IOE&amp;IT content and Assessments to suitable online learning format and methodology.</p><p><span>&middot;<span>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</span></span>IoE will provide the SME Trade Academy with learning resources, assessors and certification&nbsp;</p><p><span>&middot;<span>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</span></span>The TSI&rsquo;s will be responsible for its marketing, invoicing, collection, assessment management and learner support.</p><p>The pilot targeted three countries Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya, in 2020 the Diploma in International Trade was launched in Ghana in collaboration with the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA). <span>&nbsp;</span>2021, saw the pilot of the project expand to Nigeria in partnership with Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC), while GEPA successfully marketed and launched a second cohort of the programme. The Diploma is fee-based and Ghana&rsquo;s second paid cohort is proof that there is a demand in the market for this type of certification.&nbsp;</p><p>In 2022, the pilot is scheduled to expand it&rsquo;s reach to Kenya in partnership with the Kenya Export Promotion and Branding Agency (KEPROBA). delivered&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>&nbsp;</p>

<p><span>The overall objective of the regional programme is to &lsquo;&rsquo;Strengthen the competitiveness of West Africa through an enhanced level of production, transformation and export capacities of the private sectors in line with the regional and national industrial and SME strategies&rsquo;&rsquo;. The specific objective is &lsquo;&rsquo;to improve the performance and growth of selected priority sectors and value chains and related services by stimulating their contribution to industry, regional trade and exports&rsquo;&rsquo;. The intervention of ITC in the form of the West Africa Competitiveness Programme (WACOMP) will entail the implementation of the activities related to&nbsp;</span><span>the promotion of better regional linkages among selected value chain, support to</span>&nbsp;<span>key regional intermediary organizations, the reinforcement of industrial competitiveness in the region, and the establishment of the West African Competitiveness Observatory and related business tools.</span></p>

<p><span lang="EN-US" style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:ZH-TW;mso-bidi-language: AR-SA'>Since 2016, ITC in cooperation with its partners- Chocolats Halba (Coop), the Kuapa Kokoo Farmer Union, Niche Cocoa, &nbsp;Max Havelaar Foundation, Fairtrade Africa, Yam Development Council of Ghana and the Government of Ghana have been working together to achieve transformative impact by supporting smallholder cocoa farmers in Ghana and their families to improve their livelihoods through income diversification and adoption of climate smart agriculture. To date, several thousands of dollars have been jointly invested by value chain operators. As a result, lead farmer revenues have increased by 22% on the average, and the project secured new commercial partnerships and markets for yam and associated crops. In addition, the Kuapa Kokoo Farmer Union is now mainstreaming the adoption of improved climate risk mitigation and adaptation practices. &nbsp;The scaling up plan for 2019-2023 aims to increase living income, improving cocoa &nbsp;and associated crops productivity &amp; quality, while reducing the over dependency on mono cropping production systems. The ultimate aim is <span lang="EN-US">to contribute to 3 pillars of sustainable livelihoods (social, economic and environmental) of stakeholders in the cocoa and associated crops value chains through a multi-stakeholder approach on income diversification, climate resilience and biodiversity conservation.&nbsp;</span></span></p>