As part of the Equity Program, which is funded by AFD and FFEM, a seminar dubbed “Fair Trade in West Africa – Bringing the voice of producers to fight against poverty and accelerate the ecological and social transition” was held in Cote D’voire Between December 6th to 10th 2021. A team of 7 left the shores of Ghana to Adzope, Cote D’voire to represent the Fair Trade Ghana Network. The team included the president elect of the Board executives, the treasurer elect, the organizer elect and the Network coordinator of FTGN. The team also included three representatives of the cocoa sector namely Kuappa Cocoa, Fanteakwa cooperative and ABOCFA which are all member organisations of FTGN. The AVSF National Technical Assistant for the equity program was also part of the team. The weeklong event had all fair trade national platforms in West Africa in attendance from Mali, Togo, Burkina Faso, Cote d’voire and Ghana. Also, in attendance and spearheading the event were representatives from AVSF and A representative from Fair Trade Advocacy Office.
The main Objectives of the Seminar and workshops were as follows:
- To promote West African NFTPs through meetings
- Networking West African NFTPs and promoting peer-to-peer exchanges
- Facilitate the understanding of global trade and environmental issues
- To support NFTPs in their ability to develop a vision of the societal changes to which they want to contribute
- Structuring NFTP intervention strategies to contribute to societal change
On the Agenda were rigorous discussions and group interactions on issues of trade, Advocacy, Cocoa sector development and National platform Visions for 2030. Also included were two field site visits which were mainly cocoa farms. We were all most impressed with “KANY” cocoa farmers’ cooperative- an all-female membership cocoa producer organisation.
Overall, it was an educative and Insightful Weeklong programme in Cote D’voire. All the knowledge and experience gained will go a long way in the journey and cause of promoting fair trade in Ghana and West Africa.
