Burkina Faso

<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>

<p>The project aims to support the organizational capacity, technical skills, service portfolio and analytical tools of regional and national organisations to improve the understanding and management of agri-food related policies and services in the ECOWAS region by:</p><ul><li><a name="_Hlk117017537">Strengthening the ECOWAS Commission coordination process and instruments related to agri-food trade;&nbsp;</a></li><li>Designing sustainable and gender sensitive agri-food trade facilitation instruments;</li><li>Improving the service portfolio of businesses support organizations to better serve the needs of agri-food businesses involved in regional trade</li></ul>

<p>The project will strengthen ICDT services on trade intelligence to support the public and private sector from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to make better informed decisions and, in the long term, to contribute to an increase of trade between OIC Member States through the embedding of Market Analysis Tools, the development of an online Trade Helpdesk and the development of trade-related studies.</p>