Helped design an industry-driven Foundation 
to improve small African cotton farmers’ productivity

Between 2009 and 2016, the Competitive African Cotton Initiative (COMPACI) supported the livelihoods of 850,000 farmers in 12 African countries. As this initiative came to a close, the participating cotton companies could not ensure its continuity without a new structure. The German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) thus hired Hystra to develop an innovative organizational concept for channeling funds and technical support for the improvement of livelihoods of cotton farmers in Africa.

Our role was two-fold: we first worked on designing a sector strategy — running a sectorial assessment, identifying opportunities, and proposing a role and high-level design for a new industry-governed body: the African Cotton Foundation. We then helped co-build the foundation, building an initial proposal for this structure and helping align its members on the objectives, structure, and governance (including financial and judicial set-up, with the support of our legal partner Froriep).

This is how the African Cotton Foundation (ACF) was born.

The Foundation is now live and gathers over 730,000 farmers across 9 countries.