​The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), with the support of its partners, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), designed a project to address some of these challenges, in particular to fill the data and policy gaps that restrain the development value addition activities on cotton by-products.

UNCTAD is implementing the project in four ESA countries: Tanzania, Zambia, Uganda and Zimbabwe. The Ministry of Commerce and Industry is the project’s government focal point in Zimbabwe.

To address the data gap in Zimbabwe, the project commissioned a survey on cotton by-products in the country (Activity 1.1). The survey findings and final report will inform the project’s subsequent activities, including a three-day national capacity-building workshop.

The workshop will comprise a two-day programme on 27-28 September for stakeholders to identify opportunities in cotton by-products and devise strategies to realise them (A 1.3), followed by a one-day workshop on 29 September for policy-makers to identify policies to support these strategies (A 2.1). The remaining two days (25-26 September) are reserved should the stakeholders choose to organise informal side activities, such as a site visit or field trip.