Strathmore University Business School has signed a partnership agreement with Fairtrade Africa aimed at fostering growth opportunities for it’s Producer Organizations across Africa as well as increasing awareness on wealth creation, planning, innovation, clean energy environmental management and philanthropy.
Speaking during the signing ceremony, Dr. George Njenga, Executive Dean at Strathmore University Business School highlighted the importance of agribusiness value chains.
“We must find new ways in transforming the agribusiness value chain in Africa through sustainability and fair trade. Through this partnership, we are going to look at the entire agribusiness value chain in a bid to alleviate the social economy and transform African farmers.”
At the same time, Chris Olouch, Programmes Director at Fairtrade Africa welcomed this partnership while highlighting some of the key areas of collaboration. These are:
● Research on improving producers’ food security and income generation needs
● Developing and implementing training collaborations as well as coaching modules for FTA Board and Management, FTA Staff, FTA producer organizations and FTA stakeholders
● Developing and implementing financial sourcing and resourcing mechanisms linking FTA Partner Organizations (POs) to financial institutions for business development and growth
● Incubating training modules to be incorporated in curriculum for tertiary and higher education institutions focused on areas where there are FTA Partner Organizations
● Developing and implementing innovations in the area sustainability with a focus on clean energy and environmental management.
This partnership builds on the progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 17 on collaborating and partnering for good.
Fairtrade Africa, is a member of the wider International Fairtrade movement that represents Fairtrade certified producers in Africa and the Middle East.
Fairtrade Africa operates four regional networks: Eastern and Central Africa Network (FTA-ECAN) based in Nairobi, Kenya; West Africa Network (FTA-WAN) based in Accra, Ghana, Southern Africa Network (FTA-SAN) based in Cape Town, South Africa and the Middle East and North Africa Network.
Its secretariat is based in Nairobi, Kenya.
Fairtrade Africa is owned by its members, who are African producer organizations certified against international Fairtrade standards producing traditional export commodities such as coffee, cocoa, tea, cotton, bananas, mango and non-traditional commodities including shea butter and rooibos tea.
Currently, the organization represents over 1 million producers across 33 countries in Africa.
