Fit For Market+: a new EU-OACPS programme
- 21/12/2021
- Posted by: Gaetan Dermien
- Category: Africa, Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Caribbean, Côte d'Ivoire, Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, News, Nigeria, Pacific, Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Suriname, Tanzania, Togo, Zimbabwe
Fit For Market, “plus” mitigating the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic by strengthening the sustainability of the ACP horticultural sector
This new five-year, €25 million programme – “Fit For Market+ : Mitigating the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic by strengthening the sustainability of the ACP horticultural sector” – will support actors in the value chain to mitigate the negative economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and at the same time to seize new market opportunities by embracing green, low-carbon, climate-resilient strategies through developing and adopting relevant practices, skills and technologies.
Fit For Market+ builds on COLEACP’s 20-year history of implementing development programmes, from PIP and EDES, through the two Fit For Market programmes (FFM and FFM SPS), to the more recent NExT Kenya.
The key to all COLEACP’s programme activities, conducted with ACP partners, has been to first identify the technical challenges and opportunities to access markets; then work to reduce the challenges and create the conditions to leverage the opportunities; and ultimately to sustainably strengthen the capacity of partner beneficiaries to respond effectively to the changing context.
These foundations have been developed and consolidated over time. While maintaining the same basic methodology, COLEACP has broadened its scope of activity within an increasingly holistic approach based on a sustainability framework. Meeting the requirements of the horticultural export trade is the basis of sustainable transformation of local and regional fruit and vegetable value chains, as well as providing relevant outputs for other agri-food value chains.
The programme will be officially launched in Q1 2022. Stay tuned – more information will follow.
The Fit For Market+ programme is implemented by COLEACP within the Framework of Development Cooperation between the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) and the European Union.
