Kenya

<p>The project aims at leveraging the Ethical Fashion Initiative business model and its experience in managing structured value and supply chains in Kenya to contribute to climate resilient growth and to a more inclusive society for women and youth in East Africa, and the continent at large. The targeted project outcome is<strong>&nbsp;&ldquo;Increased competitiveness and participation of micro and small artisanal and design businesses from Kenya in the international, regional, national value chain of the fashion and lifestyle industry.</strong>&rdquo; The project targets 2,500 direct beneficiaries, 65% of whom women and youth, from marginalized communities of artisans, micro-producers and design entrepreneurs. It also focuses strongly on sustainable fashion production: promoting circular design and production, use of renewable sources of energy, use of organic or recycled materials, processes that requires carbon-insetting. The adoption of the full EFI-ESG agenda (Due Diligence, Performance Monitoring and Corporate Sustainability Reporting) will ensure the conduct of socially responsible business in all project&apos;s operations.</p>

<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 &euro;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.&nbsp;</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&apos;s work with refugees in Balochistan, Pakistan.&nbsp;</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&rsquo;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 &nbsp;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.&nbsp;</p><p>The project makes the &nbsp;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 &nbsp;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 C&ocirc;te d&apos;Ivoire), and through synergies achieved with two planned project interventions with INTPA.&nbsp;</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>