Cotton made in Africa looks back over 10 years
The founder of Cotton Made in Africa (CMIA) is pledging €1 million as starting capital to launch a fund, in celebration of the initiative's 10th anniversary.
Dr Michael Otto, head of German mail order company Otto, will invite private donations to the fund, which will support education, health, the advancement of women and conservation projects in Africa.
What began with 150,000 cotton producers in three countries is now one of the largest projects in German development cooperation with Africa.
CMiA is active in 10 Sub-Saharan African countries, cooperates with 650,000 smallholders; farmers have been able to increase their yields by around 20%.
From 2008 to the end of 2014, more than 660,000 metric tons of ginned CmiA cotton were used for producing textiles worldwide and more than 100 million garments displaying the CmiA sustainability seal were put on sale by partner companies.
