DAC Briefing - The Development Dimensions of African Cotton (28/01/2005)

The DAC Briefing on the Development Dimensions of African Cotton has been organised by the OECD Development Co-operation Directorate, the Secretariat of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) that regroups 23 major bilateral donors, in collaboration with the OECD Sahel and West Africa Club (SWAC).

The Briefing is a contribution to the follow up process to the WTO Africa Regional Workshop on Cotton  (held in Cotonou, Benin, in March 2004), which called for enhanced co-ordination, harmonization and synergies amongst bilateral and multilateral aid agencies and international financial institutions.
This event brought together key stakeholders from donor and multilateral agencies, international financial institutions (IFIs), regional organizations and development banks, as well as representatives of African countries involved in cotton production and trade. The main objectives were to:

• Examine how the cotton sub-sector is reflected in development policies and poverty reduction strategies, in light of the importance of cotton production and trade for the development of some African countries;
• Share information on emerging approaches to development assistance programmes targeted at the cotton sector and examine the extent to which the latter are incorporated in agency Country Assistance Programmes, in light of the  WTO July Package;
• Discuss how to apply lessons of alignment and harmonization to the design and delivery of assistance programmes for the cotton and other related sectors, in order to increase aid effectiveness.

Related event: EU-Africa Cotton Forum, 5-6 July 2004