<p>The main objective of the Export Development for Employment Creation (EDEC) in Morocco is to enhance the competitiveness of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in order to create sustainable jobs for women and youth through the development of exports. The project will anchor its capacity building and knowledge transfer activities to Trade Support Institutions (TSIs) and specialized institutions supporting export and trade in specific sectors. The project will focus, in particular, on the processed food, sea food products, and leather sectors.</p>
ITC is working through its Global Textiles and Clothing (GTEX/MENATEX) project in Morocco to create jobs and increase the income of small and medium businesses in the textile and clothing industry. To that end, ITC is working with the government on policies to improve the sector’s business environment and improve the sector’s competitiveness.
Strengthening the sector and boosting exports will have an enormous impact as the industry employs up to an estimated 220,000 people, the majority of them women.
Our work centres on boosting the skills and capacity of 35 small and medium-sized privately-owned clothing enterprises in fast fashion, denim and knitwear, three of which are women-owned or managed. We also provide technical assistance to enterprises in select sub-sectors and support Morocco’s “fast fashion eco responsible”.
The GTEX/MENATEX Project is co-financed by the governments of Switzerland, Sweden and Morocco.
The economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic hit the sector hard, leading to lower and delayed salaries, reduced capacity, higher costs, cash flow problems and an overall decrease in the competitiveness of Morocco’s clothing and textile sector.
To support the Moroccan textile and clothing industry, we adjusted our approach to focus on digitalizing operations. This helped companies improve their digital processes and online sales, making them more competitive, including in the local market.
ITC also provided an impact study on the COVID-19 crisis, giving stakeholders updated information on the pandemic’s effect on the sector, including employment rates, the number of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) affected, the loss of buyers, and new opportunities in unconventional markets and products.
<p>The envisaged impact of the programme is to increase employment and income along the T&C value chain in the five selected priority countries. To achieve this long-term objective, the programme foresees to accomplish two major outcomes until the end of the programme. One is related to the institutional infrastructure around the sector in the priority countries, including policy aspects, where required and is formulated as “Improved business environment and TISI performance in the T&C sector”. The second outcome targets the enterprise level as is formulated as “Improved competitiveness of SMEs in the T&C sector”.</p>
<p>The project aims to respond to the COVID crisis and the recent increase in demand for e-commerce due to the lockdowns in most MENA countries and the social distancing requirements that should last longer than the lockdowns. Retail businesses are struggling to find a way to reach customers and retain sales during this crisis.</p><p>The project will aim to support this challenge by offering women-led SMEs in MENA an opportunity to learn, in English, French and Arabic, about the fundamentals of doing business via e-commerce, managing logistics and utilizing digital marketing channels. These e-learnings will be delivered through a short series of webinars and facilitated, interactive online deep dive clinics.</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. </p>
SheTrades Morocco helps business women boost their export capacity in the processed foods sector by producing value-added products in line with market requirements, and linking them with targeted buyers through networking and business linkage events.
We provide key information on quality control and management, conditioning, packaging, labeling, pricing, as well as improved business management and marketing skills.
Twenty-five selected Moroccan women-owned small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) will also learn to design and implement new marketing strategies to effectively position their products in local, regional and international markets.
As a result, the project will promote gender equality, improve community livelihoods and help women-owned SMEs to benefit from higher incomes, as well as strengthen and grow their businesses.
The project also aims to reinforce Morocco’s Investment and Trade Agency (AMDIE), the Association of Women Entrepreneurs of Morocco (AFEM), the National Federation of Agribusiness (FENAGRI) and the Moroccan Association of Exporters (ASMEX).
These institutions will be able to upgrade their technical skills and know-how to provide better, effective and efficient business services to Moroccan small women-owned businesses along the value chain requirements, including help in accessing finance, and business generation.
Through e-learning, classroom, and peer-to-peer learning, SheTrades Morocco will increase the capacity of these institutions to identify challenges faced by women entrepreneurs, specific steps they can take to build the competitiveness of women entrepreneurs, and to measure results of their activities.
<p>The purpose of the SheTrades Morocco project is to increase the participation of women-owned businesses in trade by improving their competitiveness and strengthening their market linkages. The project seeks to enable Moroccan women to benefit from economic participation focusing on processed foods value chains. Within the framework of the International Trade Centre’s SheTrades Initiative, the project will work with key public and private stakeholders to address issues that are holding back Moroccan women from fulfilling their economic potential.</p><p>More competitive enterprises in this key sector will contribute to achieving targets linked to the 2030 Agenda, particularly related to SDG 8 “promoting sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment”, SDG 9 “industry, innovation & infrastructure” and SDG 5 “gender equality”.</p><p>SheTrades Morocco will advocate for a conducive business environment for women entrepreneurs, give women entrepreneurs access to the skills and support systems required to run successful businesses, and connect women-owned enterprises to local, regional, and international markets.</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 Côte d'Ivoire.</p><p>The pilot will involve building local partners’ 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>Clothing is one of the largest industries in the world economy employing 60 to 75 million people worldwide. The negative social and environmental impacts of the fashion industry have been well documented, demonstrating that these impacts mostly occur within the upstream portion of the value chain. Improving traceability is a priority in order to determine how and where parts and components in production processes have been sourced and what are the environmental, social and health risks in the value chain. The action will support enhanced transparency and traceability in garment value chains, through the development of an IT 'track and trace' platform that offers customized and open self-assessment and data sharing solutions for value chain stakeholders. Alongside the implementation of this platform, ITC will deliver a training and continuous improvement programme and, in collaboration with private sector partners, implement in a subset of textile and garment oriented countries.</p>
ITC’s work in the Middle East and North Africa regions includes encouraging the exports of textiles and clothing to promote employment and income generation throughout the value chain. This includes focusing on institutional infrastructure and policy as well as product diversification, digitalization and e-commerce, social and environmental sustainability and gender inclusivity.
