the project outline
Introduction
The International Market of Ethical Fashion
Trade Challenges
ITC bets on African designers and African communities
Programme Components
You can make a difference
introduction
The rich culture, diverse traditions and skills of Africa have long been a source of inspiration for the international fashion industry.
However, it is rare that the communities from which this inspiration is derived have benefited from the successes of international fashion.
Africa Inspires, a programme of the International Trade Centre, responds to this by linking African designers and communities (especially small and informal manufacturers)
of ethically produced items, to international designers, retailers and distributors of high-value, designer and luxury goods.
The programme aims to help reduce poverty through building sustainable trade relationships
for African communities and businesses in the ethical fashion and textile sector.
The International Market of Ethical Fashion
Ethical fashion, a £680 million industry in the UK* alone, with a
rapidly growing international market, encompasses all fashion, accessories, jewellery and footwear items produced in a socially and environmentally responsible way.
According to research from a global market information company, over half of Britain’s consumers think that the ethical production of the clothes they buy is important,
with 27% willing to pay a premium for ethically produced clothing.
With a new emerging market of younger consumers (aged 25-45) enthusiastically buying high-value
ethical fashion, international designers and fashion houses have embraced the trend.
As a result, over the last five years the market for design-led ethical fashion has expanded
accompanied by a rapid increase in high value, high quality and designer ethical fashion brands.
Trade Challenges
As international designers race to find new inspiration and unique product sources for next season’s line of ethical fashion items, they increasingly look toward Africa,
its designers and its communities.
Consumers want to buy fashion goods that comply with "ethical
expectations", i.e. that imply better livelihoods for disadvantaged
communities and that use natural or non toxic materials. Africa is rich
in design capacities and in groups of micro-manufacturers able to supply
to the fashion sector.
Unfortunately, a number of challenges are preventing the natural link between African communities and international
fashion industry from fully developing.
- Fashion companies struggle to find small African communities who can consistently provide goods at the quality and standard necessary for the high-value market.
- African communities need support to more fully understand the requirements of the African/international designers and of the fashion industry. They need access to training and capacity building around product design and quality management to meet these requirements.
- Local suppliers of raw materials need to be informed of international market standards to produce items of the highest quality and to ethical standards (such as organic and eco standards e.g. organic cotton or low pollution leather).
- Both groups of informal manufacturers and international designers need to appreciate the underlying drivers of the ethical fashion consumer market, as well as ethical fashion certification and labelling schemes (for example Fairtrade) to fully take advantage of this rapidly expanding sector.
This is the reason why ITC decided to support ethical fashion: to overcome the obstacles mentioned above through a programme aimed at including African designers and African disadvantaged communities in the international value chain of ethical fashion.
itc bets on african designers and african communities
ITC decided to invest in African disadvantaged communities (and the respective groups of informal manufacturers,
with a specific reference to women entrepreneurs), as well as in African designers and in SMEs producing key inputs for fashion collections,
in order to increase their access to the market for ethical fashion.
Specifically, for African designers the programme provides:
- An opportunity to partner with international fashion companies by supplying components of high-value, ethical fashion items
- Opportunities to develop their existing markets in Africa and outside Africa
- Potential to acquire know-how on fashion trends which can be applied in domestic and regional African markets
- Access to training and capacity building
- Potential to work in an industry requiring small-scale production, where African companies have a competitive advantage
- An opportunity to partner with international fashion companies by supplying components of high-value, ethical fashion items
- Creation of new and sustainable jobs, based on local skills and supply chains
- Improved livelihoods and poverty reduction
Programme Components
To meet its goals, Africa Inspires comprises the following lines of work:
Market research and information: Carrying out market research and extensive consultation with project stakeholders, including fashion industry players, on all aspects of the ethical fashion market. Results will be incorporated into a formal information service, available to all project participants.
Product specification and design support: Compiling information on various ethical fashion materials from Africa and their availability; testing and determining technical specifications of fabrics and raw materials.
Support for manufacturing in community groups: Creating a network of intermediaries and support structures in selected African countries to facilitate the design and manufacturing process, by working with organisations and communities to develop raw materials, components, and product lines, and to assure quality control and delivery times.
Access to domestic, regional and international markets for African communities: Linking African communities to African designers and to international designers, fashion houses, distributors and retailers through a number of initiatives.
Programme sustainability: Building capacity within local intermediaries and Trade Support Institutions to anchor key components of the programme to the market of fashion and therefore ensure long-term sustainability.
Marketing and certification: Providing support for marketing and communication with customers, through appropriate certification and labelling schemes and specific promotional activities.
You can make a difference
ITC, the technical cooperation agency of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO),
is currently looking for funding to help move this important initiative forward. ITC has over 40 years of experience enabling small business
export success in developing countries and working with partners to provide trade development solutions to the private sector, trade support institutions and
policy-makers.
If you are an African fashion designer, a community activist or if you would like to be involved in Africa Inspires our would like to receive more detailed information on the programme,
please contact:
Simone Cipriani - Senior Market Development Officer
International Trade Centre
Palais des Nations
1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Email: cipriani@intracen.org
ITC website: www.intracen.org
Download the brochure
* Source: Co-operative Bank Ethical Consumerism report 2005