Côte d'Ivoire

<p>The SheTrades West Africa project, financed by the Korea International Cooperative Agency (KOICA), is being implemented in Cote d&rsquo;Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The project&rsquo;s goal is to improve the livelihoods of 10,000 women in selected agricultural value chains by 2023. The focus in Sierra Leone and Cote d&rsquo;Ivoire is cashew, in Liberia cassava and in Guinea shea. The project will be working with the governments (ministries of trade, agriculture and gender/women), Business Support Organisations, value chain operators, SMEs and women as part of the farming household to develop the competitiveness and inclusiveness of these sectors, create local value addition, establish new market linkages and increase the benefits for women in these value chains.</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>EFI has mobilised consumers and creative skills to leverage a new positioning for artisans from marginalized communities in the international markets of lifestyle and fashion/luxury. EFI has enabled new creative talents to trade internationally and to get access to platforms of e-commerce and promotion that are reshaping the segment of ethical fashion, which is now a mainstream part of the market.</p><p>EFI&rsquo;s experience illustrates how investing in human capital through culture means bringing about change at the level of:</p><ul><li>Individuals, who become involved in training, capacity building and personal transformation/consciousness raising, workshops and/or business processes, dialogue and encounters;</li><li>Consumers and citizens, who become mobilized through media and/or action campaigns;</li><li>Professional development, supply and collaboration networks, who become involved through a series of relationship-building processes, joint efforts and practical programs on substantive problems linked to product development and market responses; and,</li><li>Communities, where social capital is developed and/ or solidified by connecting new human resources (from the informal sector) to existing formal business and social networks.</li></ul>

<p><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US">In a fast-growing economy, diversification of exports helps build new trade opportunities and local jobs. ITC&rsquo;s UK Trade Partnerships Programme export promotion project in C&ocirc;te d&apos;Ivoire focuses on the agri-business sector, with cashew nuts and tropical fruits identified as potential export growth industries.</span><span data-contrast="none" lang="EN-GB">?</span><span data-ccp-props="{}">&nbsp;</span></p>

<p>This project, which is financed by the preference funding from Denmark, supports ITC&rsquo;s ongoing work under its non-tariff measures (NTMs) programme, which aims at <strong>creating the evidence base that decision makers need to effectively reduce trade cost related to NTMs and create a business environment conducive to inclusive trade</strong>. The programme ensures that the concerns of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) about regulatory and procedural trade obstacles are brought to the attention of policymakers and other stakeholders, <strong>enabling them to take concrete actions to address these</strong>. The work also contributes to<strong>&nbsp;increasing the transparency of NTMs</strong> and related procedures, and provides thought leadership through research and analysis, informing national, regional and multilateral trade policy making.</p><p>The following outlines the vision for the 3-year horizon of the preference funding with a detailed results planning and budget breakdown for the 500K W1 allocation for 2018, 800K for 2019, 800K for 2020 and 300K for 2021.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p>