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Achieving more together – New forms of cooperation for sustainability in the cotton sector

2022-09-28

Saskia Widenhorn, Head of the Cotton Component in Cameroon and the Sub-Saharan Cotton Initiative at Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), reports on the Bremer Cotton Week, which brought together international industry experts. The agenda included supply chain transparency, sustainability and new forms of cooperation between the private sector and partner countries.

To create fair working conditions in the cultivation and processing of cotton, sustainable innovations are needed along the entire supply chain. ©GIZ, 2022

By Saskia Widenhorn

Saskia Widenhorn is the head of the Cameroon cotton component and the Sub-Saharan Cotton Initiative of the GIZ Global Project "Sustainability and Value Chain in Agricultural Supply Chains" (GV AgriChains). Previously, she worked on sustainability in global supply chains at the International Labor Organization (ILO), the social enterprise Fairphone, and GIZ in Myanmar and Cambodia.

All contributions

In the Hanseatic city of Bremen, the last week of September is all about cotton: at the Bremen Cotton Week, international industry experts come together to discuss. The Cotton made in Africa (CmiA) Stakeholder Conference kicks off the week. The two-day conference will present innovative and sustainable solutions to challenges along the supply chain. The “International Cotton Conference” – to be held on 29 and 30 September at the Bremen Chamber of Commerce – will also focus on global supply chains.

The Cotton Conference’s motto, “Cotton Decoded”, highlights the enormous complexity of the global sector and the multitude of its players. For example, the topics of supply chain transparency and traceability are at the top of the agenda for the globally active companies in the sector – also because of the growing requirements and due diligence obligations.

To achieve sustainability and fair working and living conditions for the people in the production countries, various actors need to be involved along the supply chain.

Cooperation between companies from the private sector and organisations at international or national level in the production countries can drive change in a holistic way.

Ich bin ein Alternativtext — Organic cotton from Africa: produced with fewer inputs, lower environmental impact, and it is more traceable. ©GIZ, 2022

Ideas competition brings forth new cooperations

The Sub-Saharan Cotton Initiative (SSCI) is an example of a new format that paves the way for international cooperation. Embedded in the Bremer Cotton Week, the SSCI is now holding its first annual meeting of the stakeholders involved. Having emerged from an ideas competition of the GIZ Global Project “Sustainability and Value Creation in Agricultural Supply Chains”, the SSCI aims to mobilise the business community for transformative projects while making cotton supply chains more sustainable.

At the end of last year, four projects with high impact potential emerged from the SSCI.

Each project is implemented by a consortium of international companies and local companies and/or civil society organisations.

The resulting project ideas are adapted to the needs of the actors along the supply chain: By joining in off their own bat, the participating companies can exert a decisive influence on the conditions along the supply chain based on their market power. At the same time, demand and local impact are to be ensured by involving partners in the production countries. In this way, effective and at the same time sustainable partnerships were created.

Projects are currently being implemented in seven countries in sub-Saharan Africa – in Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Mozambique, Zambia, Tanzania, Togo and Chad. For instance, they are strengthening the organic cotton sector, promoting sustainable production with the use of fewer inputs and less environmental impact, improving crop traceability via digital platforms and helping smallholder farmers become more resilient to climate change. In this way, around 240,000 people in the producing countries are reached.

The annual meeting of the SSCI is used to bolster the network of participating companies and organisations across the consortia. In doing so, all actors should benefit from their different perspectives.

After all, cotton supply chains are highly interconnected internationally and challenges need to be addressed at different levels at the same time.

In order to anchor the desired changes sustainably and in the long term, it is important to learn from the experiences of all actors. In this way, the SSCI forms a common umbrella – with great potential to further advance social-ecological change in the cotton supply chain.

For more information on the projects that have been created, see here.

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Achieving more together – New forms of cooperation for sustainability in the cotton sector

By Saskia Widenhorn

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