GENEVA,18th April, 2024 (WAM) – At its first meeting since the launch of the “Partenariat pour le Coton” at the 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13) in February, the Steering Committee of the WTO-FIFA Cotton Initiative Thursday pledged to intensify work to deliver concrete results for African cotton-producing countries, notably the Cotton Four (Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, and Mali) plus Côte d’Ivoire. They welcomed two new partners — the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) — as members of the Steering Committee.
The "Partenariat pour le Coton" was unveiled by WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and FIFA President Gianni Infantino on 25th February. The initiative aims to strengthen the WTO-FIFA cotton partnership and support African countries' participation in cotton value chains. The launch marked a milestone in the partnership following the signing of the WTO-FIFA Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in 2022.
Participants pledged to build on the good momentum achieved with the launch of the Partenariat pour le Coton and to enhance multi-agency collaboration. They took stock of the progress made thus far and, in particular, assessed the work in West Africa by Cotton Made in Africa (CMIA), an internationally recognised standard for sustainable cotton.
They exchanged views on possible actions that would help drive future measures and investment in the cotton-to-textile production chains in Western Africa and improve economic returns for these countries. The two new partners, IAEA and ILO, provided an overview of how their areas of work can support and be integrated into the scope of the technical work for an analysis of the cotton sector in the C4 plus countries.
Ambassador Stephen Fevrier, Senior Advisor to the WTO Director-General, commended the Steering Committee's commitment to supporting African cotton-producing countries in their efforts to move up the cotton-to-textile value chains. Looking forward, he called on the Committee to redouble efforts to raise awareness and garner additional support from stakeholders for the Partenariat pour le Coton.
The next Steering Committee meeting is scheduled to take place in Cotonou, Benin, in early June 2024.