ICR supports Togo’s sesame sector

With roughly 25,000 tons produced in Togo annually, sesame provides employment opportunities for a growing number of farmers and small entrepreneurs in the country. Despite this, many farmers and entrepreneurs in the sesame sector are facing challenges that prevent them from fully benefiting from the opportunities it offers. The “Agence de Promotion des Investissements et de la Zone Franche (API-ZF) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Rural development of Togo worked with the ICR facility with the objective of implementing a cluster development approach for the sesame sector.

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Read about the role of women for the development of the sesame value chain in Togo

Seychelles: new Industrial Policy validated

The Government of the Republic of Seychelles has concluded the design of its new Industrial Policy to align the industrial development plan with sustainable to resilient strategies directed by The Ministry of Investment, Entrepreneurship and Industry (MIEI).

The Industrial Policy was validated on the 27th of March 2023 in a workshop.

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Eswatini reviews its Industrial Policy

The government of Eswatini wants to grow and develop the country’s manufacturing sector. In order to do so, it is reviewing its industrial policy.

Against this background, the Ministry of Commerce Industry and Trade of Eswatini, conducted earlier this year the Second National Stakeholder Consultation Workshop, with support of the ICR Facility to ensure a broad stakeholder engagement on the issue of growth and development of the country’s manufacturing sector. During the two-day workshop, 29 institutions participated in the consultation with a total of 50 representatives (50% were women). The workshop revealed that, according to most stakeholders, the two most crucial objectives of the new Industrial Policy should be:

  • to maximize domestic benefits by strengthening national value chains and increasing domestic production capacities;
  • to enhance economic resilience by diversifying production and export markets.

At the end of April, the stakeholders will meet again to discuss the intervention areas which will be essential to achieve these industrial policy objectives in Eswatini.

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“Read the ICR Facility Annual report 2021-2022”

Link to the document

TRENDS IN GENDER FINANCE IN ACP DEVELOPMENT FINANCE INSTITUTIONS: OVERVIEW AND SELECTED EXAMPLES

Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) have a key role to play in promoting gender responsive finance and women’s economic empowerment (WEE). While the initiatives of multilateral banks are well-documented and communicated via events and publications, such as 2021’s “Public Development Banks Driving Gender Equality: an Overview of Practices and Measurement Frameworks” by UNWOMEN and the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), visibility of the efforts of national and sub-regional DFIs on this topic is low. Gender finance is not commonly highlighted on their websites or in annual reports, and their efforts to promote gender finance are rarely covered in research articles or other publications. As a result, national DFIs experience successes and challenges in their efforts to promote gender equality without the benefit of broader recognition and the chance to inspire their peers to action, or supportive networks that can help identify solutions to difficulties faced. The purpose of this study is to identify those DFIs in the member countries of the Organisation of Africa, Caribbean and Pacific Countries (ACP) with active gender finance or WEE initiatives. Among them, the study aims to showcase good practices and highlight challenges to spark dialogue within and across the ACP region about approaches to gender finance and WEE. This includes activities relating to the DFIs’ internal policies and processes, such as those related to gender policy and human resources management, and client-oriented activities, such as financial products or technical assistance.

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