<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. </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's One Trade Africa Initiative.</p>
We at ITC know that smallholder farmers and small firms are the foundation of sustainable food systems in African, Caribbean and Pacific countries. Yet many lack the opportunities to diversify, add value and compete in domestic, regional and global markets.
Through our Alliances for Action approach, we are offering micro-level interventions through the ACP Business-Friendly Programme, promoting inclusive and sustainable agricultural value chains in areas such as coffee, cocoa, cotton, and kava.
Adding value to products and promoting local consumption can help create economies of scale and empower agribusiness communities, allowing farmers and their families to thrive.
Our project draws on a holistic approach, working both at the farm level and on building artisan skills like chocolate-making, coffee roasting and even barista techniques. Building up these sustainable production practices will help farmers absorb economic shocks as well as help attract investments.
<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 ‘Program’) 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. </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. </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The International Trade Centre implements a tourism development project in Liberia. The project focuses on developing surfing and other destinations. It has an overall objective of improving economic growth, in the form of higher revenue, and job contributions of the tourism sector through: a) improving the policy environment and institutional capacity to support the sector; b) undertaking targeted promotion and advocacy campaigns to promote tourism to international, regional and domestic markets; and c) developing new tourism destinations around surfing and other water related activities. The project will mainly be implemented at the Robertsport surfing area, the Chimpanzee Island and the <span lang="EN-US">Providence Island tourist destination sites.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The main partners of the project are the government of Liberia through the Ministry of Commerce and industry, and the Ministry of Information, Cultural Affairs and Tourism; the International Trade Centre; the United Nations World Tourism Organisation; and the Enhanced Integrated Framework Secretariat that has provided the funding for the project.</p>
<p>The SheTrades West Africa project, financed by the Korea International Cooperative Agency (KOICA), is being implemented in Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The project’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’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>
The goal of the International Trade Centre (ITC)’s West African Competitiveness Programme, or WACOMP, is to increase regional integration through trade. To that end, we focus on promoting conducive business environments and greater participation of the private sector in a public-private dialogue on trade policy.
In the regional programme we concentrate on improving micro, small and medium-sized enterprises’ (MSMEs) access to secure investments and improving their regional reach. We also work to advance production and processing in the agro-food industry.
To improve business performance and value chain connectivity, we are reinforcing national Trade and Investment Support Institutions as well as supporting the ECOWAS Trade Promotion Organisations Network to share best practices and insights.
We are expanding the use of ITC technological tools to gather comprehensive information in the region. The Trade Obstacles Alert Mechanism (TOAM) identifies existing trade obstacles to ensure the regional flow of trade improves once these obstacles are addressed.
ITC has also embedded the ECOWAS trade map tool (ECOTIS) in the ECOWAS Commission’s website to assist with tracking trade performance and capitalize on potential trade opportunities in the region.
<p><span>The overall objective of the regional programme is to ‘’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’’. The specific objective is ‘’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’’. The intervention of ITC in the form of the West Africa Competitiveness Programme (WACOMP) will entail the implementation of the activities related to </span><span>the promotion of better regional linkages among selected value chain, support to</span> <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">This project aims to address economic and development challenges faced by Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea by rebuilding and reinforcing the productive and trade capacities across the cocoa and cocoa derivatives value chain. It will enable smallholder producers to improve post-harvest efficiency, connect better to markets, add value to increase their competitiveness and comply with standards. Following a step-by-step approach, interventions first focused on Sierra Leone, building on and consolidating activities started under a bridge project launched in Q2 2017 leading to the present NTF IV Mano River Cocoa project. The project will apply lessons learned and expertise gained in Sierra Leone in two other members of MRU, namely Liberia and Guinea. </span></p>
While multi-dimensional poverty remains high in sub-Saharan Africa, the continent's high growth rates and youthful demographics make it an attractive investment destination. Big opportunities exist to create jobs, boost incomes and reduce poverty by connecting African small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to international trade and increasing local value addition to Africa’s assets in agrifood, manufacturing and services. ITC’s emphasis on digital connectivity and the green transition is helping transform digital landscapes across Sub Saharan Africa with our support to tech startups and tech hubs.
We deliver customized solutions for least developed countries (LDCs), enabling them to increase their participation in the global economy and reach development goals through exports. We focus on creating access to digital technologies and capabilities in LDCs, where current internet penetration is at 27%, as this is increasingly critical to ensure opportunities are universally shared. We also assist LDCs in their bid for WTO membership, and support their implementation of WTO agreements.
