Sierra Leone
ECOWAS: Strengthening agri-food trade in the region through institutional coordination and business support
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Agricultural trade challenges in West Africa
Malnutrition, rapid population growth, and heavy reliance on food imports are some of the key challenges facing the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Addressing these issues would foster economic development across the region. These factors also emphasize the urgent need to address food security and the effects of global geopolitical pressure on food prices.
Enhancing coordination on food trade policies within the region is paramount to tackling food security issues and mitigating the volatility of food prices. For this purpose, the ECOWAS Commission has developed various instruments, such as the ECOWAS Trade Liberalization Scheme (ETLS) and the ECOWAS Agricultural Policy (ECOWAP), aimed at boosting intra-regional agricultural trade volumes and coordination efforts.
However, recorded data on intra-regional agricultural trade volumes remains low. Customs points have Inadequate infrastructure and resources. Regional and national legislation need to be harmonized. Opaque administrative procedures lead to delays and unexpected costs. And businesses have limited information on market opportunities.
To address these issues, which are often at the origin of informal trade practices, the EAT programme aims to foster an environment conducive to intra-regional agricultural trade. It seeks to improve the capacity of policymakers to make informed decisions on trade and food security matters, strengthen regulatory frameworks, and streamline administrative procedures at the border to ensure the safety and quality of traded goods. Additionally, it aims to equip agri-food businesses with the tools and knowledge needed to better trade within the region, with a specific focus on gender and youth inclusion.
How we work
Within the framework of the EAT programme, ITC implements a multi-level and multi-stakeholder strategy, closely collaborating with the ECOWAS Commission, Member States, civil society, the private sector, and various trade entities. This holistic approach addresses the political, economic, gender, climate, food, and nutrition security aspects of regional agricultural trade.
ITC’s commitment under the EAT programme reflects its broader objectives. Those include bolstering regional institutions in Africa, promoting gender-sensitive and sustainable agricultural trade and enhancing local trade promotion services for the private sector to ensure the sustainability of the action.
ITC will provide advice and assistance to reinforce the ECOWAS Commission's capacity in coordinating agricultural trade policies, by facilitating public-private dialogues, introducing trade intelligence and monitoring tools, as well as advocating for cooperative trade facilitation approaches.
Regional organizations and national authorities will undergo tailored capacity-building programmes to improve their services to businesses and to ensure the application of agricultural trade measures at the border, with particular attention to testing their efficacy. The whole action is ultimately tailored to benefit small businesses and small agricultural traders, by upscaling their skills and providing them with a more conducive ecosystem for trading within the region.
Programme outputs
Trade Policy Harmonization: Advising the ECOWAS Commission and Member States on the coordination and harmonization of policies and initiatives to improve the region’s agricultural trade ecosystem.
Trade Facilitation: Supporting the implementation of gender-sensitive and sustainable trade facilitation measures and services at the border to unleash the potential of intra-regional agricultural trade and increase incentives to conduct formal trade operations.
Private Sector Promotion: Equipping small businesses and small agricultural traders, in collaboration with local business support organizations, with the knowledge and skills needed to tap into the opportunities offered by the regional agricultural market.
Target Products
Main partners and beneficiaries
The programme is implemented under the guidance of the ECOWAS Commission, involving directorates overseeing agriculture and rural development, trade, customs, free movement of people, and the Gender Development Center. ITC is an implementing partner, alongside GIZ and the OECD Sahel and West Africa Club (SWAC). Additional partners encompass regional and national trade associations, chambers of commerce and agriculture, pertinent national ministries and authorities, civil society organizations, and private sector stakeholders. Directly benefiting small businesses, cooperatives, and associations of small-scale cross-border traders operating in the agri-food sector.
Target country
<p>The ECOWAS Agricultural Trade (EAT) programme, funded by the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), "One World – No Hunger" special initiative, is a crucial component of the German-ECOWAS cooperation and implemented by The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ) and The International Trade Centre (ITC). This initiative is designed to tackle regional policy coordination, economic integration and food security, focusing on enhancing intra-ECOWAS agro-food-trade.</p><p><br></p>
Netherlands Trust Fund IV – Export Sector Competitiveness Programme in IT & ITES, agriculture and tourism (NTF IV)
International Trade Centre’s NTF IV Inclusive Tourism project in Myanmar focused on fostering economic opportunities through the development of sustainable tourism products in Myanmar – consolidating previous project results in Kayah State and extending activities to Tanintharyi Region. In addition, the project supported Myanmar’s tourism industry at the national level in the following areas: marketing and branding, tourism statistics, and development of codes of conduct for tourists, tour operators and communities.
The NTF IV Inclusive Tourism project is funded by the Government of The Netherlands. ITC continued its close collaboration with the Netherlands’ Centre for the Promotion of Imports from Developing Countries (CBI) and its parallel tourism project assisting tour operators and the national sector associations in export promotion.
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In Senegal, NTF IV supported the development of the local IT/ITES sector though::
- Strategic, inter-ministerial coordination; an information technology (IT) & information technology-enabled services (ITES) export-development strategy; and positioning of Senegal on the global IT & ITES market
- Strengthening OPTIC (Organisation of Information Technology and Communication Professionals) as a provider of export advisory and training benefiting its current and future members
- Developing markets with Senegal’s main trade promotion organization, ASEPEX and OPTIC using techniques already developed under NTF III for Bangladesh, Kenya and Uganda
- Building training capacity in export marketing planning and sales
- Mobilizing the Senegalese network of foreign trade representatives to promote IT & ITES trade opportunities to complement the work done around investment promotion.
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The intermediary outcomes of NTF IV were:
- Policymakers and regulators monitored and coordinated the implementation of the endorsed the IT&ITES export plan and country marketing plan.
- Trade and investment support institutions (ATIS, ICTAU, and UBPOA) extended and improved their export-related services for IT & ITES.
- Small businesses and start-ups took steps to become more competitive.
- Beneficiary companies and supported associations developed international linkages and built partnerships.
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This project boosted production and trade of cocoa across the value chain in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. Smallholder producers improved post-harvest efficiency, connected better to markets, and complied with relevant standards.
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Sustainable Development Goals
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The Netherlands Trust Fund IV (NTF IV) - Export Sector Competitiveness Programme was based on a partnership agreement between the Dutch Centre for the Promotion of Imports from developing countries (CBI), affiliated to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands and the International Trade Centre. The agreement was signed in September 2017, and ran to end June 2021. NTF IV built on the successful cooperation between ITC and CBI. This cooperation has been embodied in a series of programmes called Netherlands Trust Fund I, which ended in 2009, the Netherlands Trust Fund II, which ended in June 2013, and the Netherlands Trust Fund III, which ended in June 2017.
NTF IV aimed to enhance export competitiveness of certain sectors in selected countries through an integrated approach to competitiveness built around one outcome – generation of export revenues.
ITC implemented NTF IV through four individual country/sector projects linked to joint advocacy at the global level, especially on women. CBI and ITC selected the four country/sector combinations building on jointly defined criteria including country requests, market demand, CBI/ITC and Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs priorities, and feedback from Dutch Embassies and other donors on how Netherlands assistance can best be prioritized within the comparative advantages of ITC and CBI.
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Sustainable Development Goals
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AIM for Results: Improving TISI performance and measurement (Phase I)
Sustainable Development Goals
<p>AIM for Results is an intervention approach that strengthens the performance, efficiency and effectiveness of TISIs and builds their capacity to provide more effective support to the internationalisation needs of their clients, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).</p><p>AIM stands for Assess, Improve and Measure. It is a holistic and targeted integrated three-step-approach focusing on measurable results in order to improve the managerial, operational and service delivery performance of TSIs. The three pillars of AIM are offered either as a single module or as a complete performance improvement programme, depending on the needs of the beneficiary institutions.</p><p> In 2017, the project aims to improve the operational and managerial performance of 40 TISIs applying ITC’s AIM For Results methodology.</p>
Supportive business ecosystem: Institutions and Ecosystems for Business Support
Sustainable Development Goals
<p><a name="_Hlk155357558"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Business support organizations (BSOs) are critical actors in an ecosystem of business support, categorized by the formal and informal connections among service providers that recognises and takes advantage of shared objectives and complementary strengths.</span></a></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">ITC has developed a unique centre of excellence in the establishment, improvement and connectedness of business support organizations. This work with BSOs is embedded as a core service area for ITCs strategy and recognises the role that BSOs play in delivering results to all stakeholders through their ability to create scale, systemic change and sustained results</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">In this strategic cycle (22-25), ITC will continue to serve a broad range of BSOs including those active in ITC’s priority impact areas of youth entrepreneurship, green trade, digitalisation and gender, with managerial and operational solutions, but also invest more in ecosystem level interventions, and make use of digital channels for efficiency, scale and value.</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">This document sets out a 4-year perspective (2022-20225) and 4 strategic objectives for supportive business ecosystems with, specific outputs and activities describing the year-on-year contribution of W1 funding to the strategic core service area 2.</span></p>