Democratic Republic of the Congo (the)

<p>Poor Communities and Trade Programme (PCTP), at the International Trade Centre (ITC), aims to reduce global poverty by strengthening the capacities of developing country micro-entrepreneurs, social enterprises and emerging designers for export trade, in order to connect them with international buyers, in the value chain of ethical fashion, through an inclusive business model.</p><p>PCTP provides technical expertise and business support to informal micro-enterprises and to emerging designers, through a business support infrastructure (based on hubs managed by social enterprises) that enables them to acquire capacities to set up and manage production and quality control systems, logistics and supply chain management, market identification and buyer negotiation skills. This market-based approach to poverty reduction provides micro-entrepreneurs form the informal sector (for the majority women) &nbsp;with the direct benefits of trade by creating jobs and facilitating business opportunities resulting in increased incomes, improved livelihoods and new linkages to the formal economy.</p><p>Within its social enterprises around the world, ITC&rsquo;s Ethical Fashion Initiative (EFI) in <u><strong>2019&nbsp;</strong>focus on the following deliverables<strong>:</strong></u></p><ul><li><strong><strong>Living wage assessments are carried out in 8 project countries</strong></strong></li><li><strong>African Fashion Fund in collaboration with the Ethical Fashion Initiative&nbsp;</strong></li><li><strong><strong>New business model, based on online trade is developed and launched</strong></strong></li><li><strong>Events in coordination with the UN Alliance for Sustainable Fashion are organised</strong></li><li><strong>Generating awareness on the impacts of climate change and conflicts affecting livelihoods of people in selected project countrie</strong></li></ul><p><strong><u>In 2020</u></strong> the Initiative will focus on the following deliverables:</p><p><span style="font-weight: 700;"><strong>Output 3.1: Accelerator launched with six African designers 4 of which are from countries not involved in the existing project frameworks of the EFI (expansion of EFI&rsquo;s network and creation of new opportunities for intra-African trade).&nbsp;</strong></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 700;">Output 3.2: <strong>Eritrea project framework tested through preliminary activities, designed and submitted&nbsp;</strong></span></p><p>In 2021</p>

<p>Through this project, EFI aims to reconcile environmental needs and the socio-economic development of poor communities living around the Virunga National Park. The project will:<span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></p><ol><li>Define a methodology to involve local communities to plant, harvest and make bamboo available for transformation and have it ready to be piloted, tested and operationalized;&nbsp;</li><li>Define a methodology to spin bamboo into fibre and weave it into fabric and have it ready to be piloted, tested and operationalized;&nbsp;</li><li>Define a methodology for the collection, sorting, cleaning and recycling of plastic in Goma and have it ready to be piloted, tested and operationalized;</li><li><span><span></span></span>Support the work of a group of widows to produce handbags and other interior decoration items through training and capacity building.</li></ol>

<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 <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">expansion phase</span> has been added to the project involving a further 12 countries. The online training will be opened to all African countries.</p><p>A second expansion phase has been added to the project involving the delivery of national workshops for 4 additional countries following a new agreement signed with the ITFC.</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 style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US">This project is designed to implement selected activities of the COMESA Cross Border Trade Initiative (CBTI) programme, which aimed at facilitating small-scale trade across borders of targeted countries. The initiative is funded by the European Commission under the 11^th European Development Fund. The project will be implemented within the framework of the Co-delegation agreement signed between COMESA and ITC in June 2018.&nbsp;</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US">The project has a general objective of increasing formal small-scale cross-border trade flows in the COMESA/tripartite region, leading to higher revenue collection for governments at targeted borders as well as increased security and higher incomes for small-scale cross-border traders. It has a specific objective of facilitating small-scale cross border trade flows between targeted countries through institutional capacity building and better data collection and monitoring.</span></p>