Cotton made in Africa
Cotton made in Africa ( CmiA ) is an initiative of the Aid by Trade Foundation ( AbTF ), headquartered in Hamburg, which provides aid for trade can help themselves, thus contributing to poverty reduction in sub-Saharan Africa.
The Foundation was founded by the Hamburg-based entrepreneur and Chairman of the Otto Group, Michael Otto, 2005. Supported and promoted it is of private and public partners, including non-governmental organizations and businesses.
The initiative
The Aid by Trade Foundation aims to improve the social, economic and environmental living conditions of cotton farmers and their families in sub-Saharan Africa. Here are sustainable and efficient farming methods of the cotton be promoted according to their own standard. In countries of destination strategic partnerships, a demand alliance and the certificate Cotton made in Africa are to be built to make African cotton in international trade get a "fair value estimate " and to increase the demand for African cotton in the markets.
The initiative sets out to enable market forces, rather than to use donated funds: A structured CmiA demand alliance of international textile business buys cotton sustainably produced and performs a license fee to the Aid by Trade Foundation from being allowed to advertise with the certificate. In 2012, took on one side more than 20 textile companies, such as Puma, C & A, Rewe Group, Tchibo, Engelbert Strauss, s.Oliver and the Otto Group, and on the other side around 475,000 small-scale farmers from the countries Ivory Coast, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe participated in the program. 2012 20 million units worldwide came with the label in the trade.
With the royalties, the Foundation funded agricultural training, in which the small farmers can learn efficient and environmentally friendly cultivation methods after the CmiA verification criteria to improve crop yields and thus disposable income. These schools ( "Farmer Business Schools " ) are financed, give small farmers a simple business knowledge. Together with corporate partners, cotton companies and the public sector invests the Aid by Trade Foundation in social projects, for example, improve school infrastructure in the project regions or support women's cooperatives.
The Board of Trustees, chaired by Michael Otto is open internationally with leading personalities from environmental organizations, the public sector and the economy. An advisory board of the Aid by Trade Foundation representatives from international textile companies, the African cotton companies and public and private funding organizations advises the initiative with expert knowledge.
CmiA standard
The Cotton - made-in- Africa - standards set sustainability criteria, the implementation or the desire is then checked regularly.
The organization verifies that the promise of small farmers and their families in Africa to help to a better life on the one hand and the cultivation of cotton to make environmentally sound on the other hand, have been complied with. These, together with the Dutch university of Wageningen, the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers and with the African cotton companies criteria were developed. The control starts with the cotton companies. At the beginning of cooperation, these companies need to make a commitment on compliance with the CmiA criteria. The self-reporting of cotton companies is compared with random surveys of farmers. In addition, external experts carry out verification visits.
The controls are complemented by a set of criteria, which is constructed in two stages, and every two years by an independent organization ( AfriCert and EcoCert ) is checked: it contains exclusion criteria that determine whether small farmers and cotton companies at all can participate in the initiative. These minimum requirements include, for example, the exclusion of slavery, human trafficking, child labor ( by ILO Conventions 138 and 182) or the deforestation of primary forests. Furthermore, the prohibition of the use of hazardous pesticides and the use of genetically modified seeds is considered.
In addition CmiA small farmers and cotton companies must consider a number of so-called sustainability indicators such as measures to maintain soil fertility, crop rotation and crop protection methods according to the threshold principle. These criteria must not be all satisfied from the beginning to 100%, but small farmers and producers must develop and demonstrate plans for improvements to meet these guidelines increasingly better. Compliance with the indicators is "yellow" or " green " evaluated according to a traffic light system with "red", where green stands for sustainable management.
Development Cooperation
Training provided on site smallholder farmers in Africa can learn resource-saving and efficient farming methods. The farmers should be free in the long term through this qualification to pull itself out of the poverty trap.
Strategic Alliance
The successful pilot phase of Cotton made in Africa (2005 - 2008) convinced the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation from the United States and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development to provide for a period of four years financial resources to the program as part of the Competitive African expand Cotton Initiative ( COMPACI ) from 2009 to more than a quarter million small farmers as well as activities in six different African countries.
With the implementation of the German Investment and Development Company, KfW banking group and the German Society for International Cooperation were commissioned. Implementing partners are active in Africa private cotton companies. Due to the success of the first phase of the project COMPACI (2009 - 2012), the program is since January 2013 continued in a second phase and for another three years by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the BMZ, the Aid by Trade Foundation and by the British Gatsby Foundation promoted. In annual stakeholder workshops discussed the Aid by Trade Foundation with experts and partners from politics, economy and society on the major issues and developments. They take place in Europe and in Africa alternately.
Achievements
The initiative lays claim to make the cotton-growing environmentally, socially and economically sustainable. Due to the increasing number of farmers involved and the large geographical coverage, the initiative has established itself as a major player in the cotton sector in Sub Saharan Africa. 2013 taking some 475,000 smallholders participating in the initiative. With family members over 3 million people are reached. Through the training of the participating small farmers in sustainable farming practices CmiA certified small farmers were able to increase their harvest yields by an average of 35 percent.
The CmiA certified cotton has a much lower environmental footprint than conventionally produced cotton. Since no artificial irrigation, saving CmiA certified cotton compared to cotton from Pakistan around 18,000 liters of water per kilogram of ginned cotton; compared to conventional production, this is 1.500 liters of water per T- shirt. Compared to cultivation in Pakistan CmiA certified cotton also saves about 70 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. The greenhouse gas footprint of Pakistani cotton is 3.4 times higher (6.5 kg CO ₂ -eq/kg lint vs. 1.9 kg CO ₂ -eq/kg lint. ) (Source: " The Carbon and Water Footprint of Cotton made in Africa "study by Systain ).
The Foundation also participates in the construction of school infrastructure (Benin, Zambia and Burkina Faso) and women's rights to strengthen (Ivory Coast). In Benin five school blocks were built and inaugurated, renovated school building, school gardens created for better food supply of students awarded 600 scholarships by the end of 2013 and distributed 20,000 school uniforms. In addition to the investment in primary education learned in an evening school for more than 5,000 adults reading, writing and arithmetic. As part of the project for empowerment of the cotton farmers in the Ivory Coast have already benefited 12 clubs with 40 members of a financial jump start to the economic independence allowed. A total of 26 clubs have been identified, thereby including family members by the project up to 5,600 people will be reached. ( As of November 2013)
Marketing
The cotton is traded at average market prices. For the use of the rights to the Cotton - made-in- Africa certificate will be charged a license fee for the cotton from the sales partners, which will be reinvested in the African project areas.
CmiA is designed as a quality brand and is used by vendors as " extra quality " of the respective product and advertised.