In Brief
- Better Cotton will conduct sustainability mapping and assessments in Mali and Côte d’Ivoire to gauge smallholder cotton farmer operations and needs.
- The countries are home to a combined 200,000 farmers and farm workers.
- Funded by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), the move is part of wider efforts led by the World Trade Organization (WTO) and football governing body FIFA to boost raw material production and processing in West and Central Africa.
- In the 2021-22 cotton season, 22% of global cotton production was Better Cotton, grown in 22 countries around the world.
- The programs involved 2.8 million farmers, which included more than 2.2 million Better Cotton licensed farmers.
- Over one fifth of the world’s cotton is now grown under the Better Cotton Standard.
Geneva – Better Cotton is teaming with the WTO and FIFA on an initiative to boost the cotton-to-textile value chain in West and Central Africa and improve economic returns for the sector.
Funded by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), Better Cotton will conduct sustainability mapping and assessments in Mali and Côte d’Ivoire. Ultimately, the NGO will identify specific interventions to connect farming communities to the WTO and FIFA’s mission to strengthen supply chains in the region.
The WTO and FIFA have partnered since 2022 to enhance the participation of Burkina Faso, Benin, Chad and Mali – known as the Cotton Four (C4) – in the textile value chain. In February of this year, the pair officially launched a coalition, ‘Partenariat pour le Coton’ – of which Better Cotton is a member – to accelerate work on that front.
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