Ecuador

<p>This project will enhance ITC offerings of global public goods &nbsp; by advancing the development of additional functionalities within the Deforestation-Free Trade Gateway (DFTG) whose development has recently started in March 2024 under the ITC project C374. The DFTG aims to mitigate the potential impact of the new European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) on trade flows between Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and the European Union, particularly for economic operators involved in the production and trade of the commodities covered by the Regulation.</p><p>The project will enhance and simplify the utilization of the Producers registry by introducing an invitation mechanism. This mechanism will enable EU operators and exporters to collect and compile the farm-level information from their suppliers through the DFTG, facilitating the substantiation of their Due Diligence (DD) statements. Furthermore, EU operators and LAC exporters will be able to issue a DD self-statement document with the information they gathered through the invitation mechanism.</p><p>The new functionalities under development will undergo testing within the same value chain and pilot countries as the Producers&apos; registry.&nbsp;</p>

<p>This project will enhance ITC offerings of global public goods through the development of a tool, the Deforestation-Free Trade Gateway (DFTG), aimed to mitigate the potential impact of the new European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) on trade flows between Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and the European Union, particularly for economic operators involved in the production and trade of the commodities covered by the Regulation.&nbsp;</p><p>The project will develop a functionality, the Deforestation-Free-Trade Producer Registry, for value chain operators in both European and Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries to gather evidence that the products they trade do not originate from deforested or forest degraded areas. Thus, &nbsp;the Deforestation-Free Producer Registry will gather the farm-level information that the EU operators need for issuing their Due Diligence Statement.</p>

<p>This pilot project aims to develop an ITC approach to Indigenous Peoples and Trade (IPT) while taking advantage of the strengths of a women-led indigenous community in Ecuador and a partnership with Columbia University to work on the following: 1) Finalize and enrich ITC&apos;s concept on IPT, and 2) Develop a needs assessment and provide training and tools to improve AMWAE&apos;s production and quality of cocoa. &nbsp;</p>

<p>The <strong>SheTrades: Promoting Gender-Responsive Public Procurement for Agricultural Products project&nbsp;</strong>aims to deliver innovative solutions to help women in agricultural value chains benefit from government procurement opportunities. Target beneficiaries and partners include women entrepreneurs, governments, women&rsquo;s business associations, and research partners. Project activities include an awareness campaign, creating knowledge resources on leveraging inclusive procurement strategies for economic development, analysis of barriers and opportunities for women&rsquo;s participation in public procurement in agricultural value chains, training for women and government stakeholders on identified opportunities, creating national-level dialogues, and sharing of experiences and good practices across countries. Initial activities will be global in nature, with subsequent in-country activities taking place in 3 selected BMZ/GIZ priority countries.</p>

<p>The project aims to increase the engagement of six developing and emerging countries in the Trade and Environment Structured Sustainability Discussions (TESSD) at the World Trade Organization (WTO). The project will carry out research in partnership with countries on the role of trade in supporting climate change mitigation and adaptation objectives. It will support countries on the basis of this research and multistakeholder consultations to make submissions to TESSD in the form of best practices, lessons learnt, common regional approaches on standards etc. Furthermore, the project will help countries to understand the range of trade related climate measures facing MSMEs and the strategies to help compliance with them.</p>

<p>The overall objective of the project &quot;Ecuador: Promoting new non-traditional exports (NEXT Ecuador)&quot; is to contribute to the reactivation of Ecuador&rsquo;s agricultural exports in a post-pandemic context. The project will increase access of 20 MSMEs and associations, including 940 linked farmers, to international value chains -particularly in the EU- under principles of inclusion and sustainability.</p><p>This four-year project, financed by the European Union, will enhance the productive capabilities of MSMEs and farmers with the aim of helping them to achieve international certifications. NEXT Ecuador will also work to strengthen inclusive and associative international business capacities among MSMEs, farmer associations and producers. Finally, local trade support institutions and organizations will receive support to provide enhanced specialized services to the agricultural exporting sector.</p>