<p>The Market Access Upgrade Programme (MARKUP II) aims to promote economic growth in the East African Community (EAC) through private sector development and export promotion. It seeks to enhance sustainable and inclusive intra-African trade, pan-African trade, and trade with the European Union (EU). MARKUP II will address trade barriers, value addition, compliance, trade facilitation, investment, technology transfer, and institutional support. The programme has a total budget of €40 million, funded by the EU under the Sub-Saharan Africa Multi-Annual Indicative Programme from 2023 to 2027. The International Trade Centre (ITC) is the only implementation agency, working in partnership with the EU regional Delegation, the EAC Secretariat and the governments of six EAC member states. MARKUP II builds on the achievements of its predecessor, MARKUP I, streamlining procedures, supporting enterprises, and facilitating international trade. The sectors of intervention are: avocado, cocoa, coffee, essential oils, French beans, gum Arabic, horticulture, leather, packaging, spices and tea.</p>
<p>This project promotes economic empowerment activities through support in digital service sector to increase income and business opportunities for refugees and MSMEs, with particular focus on women and youth, in Kenya and Pakistan. It is implemented under the Refugee Empowerment through Markets Initiative (REMI) to foster digital, entrepreneurship and freelancing skills, and to support local MSMEs to improve competitiveness through digital marketing. </p><p>The project is developed in partnership with Visa Foundation to scale the work that ITC had piloted in Kakuma camp, and to pilot ITC's work with refugees in Balochistan, Pakistan. </p>
<p>This project will contribute to the following aim of W1: innovation. As such, it aims at creating a new set of tools to improve the capacities of EFI’s social enterprises and micro producers to trade in the sustainable fashion market, in order to contribute to a sustainable and resilient value chain for women and youth. The main problem addressed by the project is that of improving firm level capacities of MSMEs to trade in the sustainable fashion market through ESG and the availability of ESG guidelines and tools. </p><p>The project makes the consolidation and expansion of EFIs supply and value chain possible, thus disclosing cooperation possibilities with other ITC programmes and projects that operate in the areas of refugees, creative industries, women and youth. The process is supported by partnership and resource mobilization, with the Italian Agency for International Cooperation (ITACOOP), as well as with a private sector donor (Eni Côte d'Ivoire), and through synergies achieved with two planned project interventions with INTPA. </p><p>Technical legitimacy and proof of concept for the tools is achieved through a market test carried out by product prototyping in collaboration with the international network of fashion and lifestyle brands that collaborate with EFI.</p>
