Democratic Republic of the Congo (the)

<p>The &quot;Ending child labour in supply chains: Addressing the root causes of child labour in supply chains through an area-based approach&quot; (CLEAR Supply Chains) project, co-funded by the European Union, brings together the International Labour Organization (ILO) as the leading UN agency, the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the International Trade Centre (ITC) and the United Nations Children&rsquo;s Fund (UNICEF) to address jointly the root causes of child labour, with a primarily focus on the coffee supply chain.</p>

<p>This program aims to contribute to the liberalization of services in order to enhance competitiveness, promote sustainable economic growth, attract investment, create decent jobs, and benefit consumers in the Central African Region (ECCAS).</p><p>The Overall Objective of this programme is to contribute to increasing intra- regional, continental, and bilateral trade in services. The Specific Objective is to increase Services liberalisation and exports for selected service sectors at the multilateral, continental or regional level in line with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)</p><p>To achieve this objective, along with the ECCAS commission and its 11 Member States, the programme will focus on the 4 following outputs:</p><p>&bull;Output 1: Trade barriers in priority service sectors are analyzed, and related policies are properly defined.</p><p>&bull;Output 2: Support to ECCAS member states in the development of lists of specific commitments under the AfCFTA Protocol on Trade in Services.</p><p>&bull;Output 3: Awareness of exporT opportunities is strengthened for the private sector, particularly for women- and youth-led businesses</p><p>&bull;Output 4: Appropriate, harmonized, and transparent regulations for trade in services, incorporating social and climate-related provisions, are developed and made more accessible.</p><p><br></p>

<p>Le Programme pour la Comp&eacute;titivit&eacute; Commerciale et l&rsquo;Acc&egrave;s Aux March&eacute;s - Composante Afrique Centrale (ATCMA) est une initiative majeure visant &agrave; renforcer le commerce durable entre les pays d&apos;Afrique centrale et l&apos;Union europ&eacute;enne. Financ&eacute; par l&apos;UE et mis en oeuvre par l&apos;ITC et l&apos;ONUDI, ce programme de 48 mois vise &agrave; am&eacute;liorer l&apos;acc&egrave;s aux march&eacute;s pour certaines cha&icirc;nes de valeur et &agrave; accro&icirc;tre la comp&eacute;titivit&eacute; &agrave; l&apos;exportation des PME dans ces secteurs. Il cherche &eacute;galement &agrave; r&eacute;duire les obstacles commerciaux, &agrave; renforcer la conformit&eacute; aux normes de qualit&eacute;, et &agrave; promouvoir la valeur ajout&eacute;e et la diversification des exportations. En priorisant les entreprises dirig&eacute;es par des femmes et des jeunes, l&apos;ATCMA vise &agrave; promouvoir l&apos;inclusion &eacute;conomique et &agrave; encourager des pratiques commerciales durables. Avec un budget total de 26 millions d&apos;euros, l&apos;ITC et l&apos;ONUDI coordonneront la mise en &oelig;uvre avec divers partenaires africains pour maximiser l&apos;impact r&eacute;gional du programme.</p>

<p>ITC is currently implementing the micro-level pillar of the EU-ACP Business-friendly programme, which aims to support value chains through inclusive policies, investment promotion, and alliances. The program focuses on strengthening value chain governance and investment, as well as increasing the competitiveness of small farmers and MSMEs. A recently signed top-up agreement extends the implementation duration of the existing EU-ACP Business Friendly programme (B807) by 48 months, integrating additional funding and outputs into the existing initiative. The top-up aligns with the programme&apos;s objectives and will enhance access to value chain finance and sustainable investment. Three new outputs include enhancing access to agribusiness Value Chain finance and a Capacity Building Mechanism to support Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence, CSR &nbsp;and accompanying measure implementation, tailored to OACPS Member States. An initial six-month inception phase define the scope of intervention in the rum/sugar sector and advanced the selection of additional countries that will be included in the ongoing project across all value chains, namely coffee, cocoa, coconuts, cotton/fashion, kava, and rum/sugar sectors.</p>

<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>