Sector organisation
“A holistic approach is necessary to strengthen and develop the capacities of the organizations and actors to improve the competitiveness of the African cashew sector.”
Member of the African Cashew Alliance
Strengthening the Organization of the Cashew Sector
ComCashew in collaboration with its public and private partners supported the development of national business associations and stakeholder platforms, national public and private extension services as well as national governmental actors to strengthen their capacity in the cashew sector. Apart from that, the initiative has supported the African Cashew Alliance (ACA) in growing from a stakeholder platform into a business association. Today the ACA has over 180 paying members and continues to host the annual ACA Cashew Conference and Expo – one of the main platforms for the international cashew sector.
What has ComCashew achieved so far?
On national level, ComCashew in its current phase focuses on the support to the development and update of national cashew sector strategies in the 6 project countries, including the integration of climate adaptation aspects, as well as policy advice to other cashew producing countries such as Togo, Sierra Leone and Cameroun. Another focus of our work is to enhance knowledge management and exchange between all private and public partners in our project countries, on national and supranational level. Public partner will be advised on developing and implementing supportive sectoral policies, on strengthening the inter-ministerial exchange in the countries involved in the project, and on an exchange between the governments of the producer countries.
In this matter, ComCashew:
- Provides continuous organizational support to the African Cashew Alliance, the African business association for the cashew value chain. This support includes capacity development, technical support and promotion of the annual ACA Conference
- Aims, in collaboration with its public and private partners, to promote knowledge exchange and networking on national, regional and international level:
- Establishment of a trilateral cooperation between Ghana, Brazil and Germany
- Contribution to research and expert networks, such as REDAA
- Provides policy advise for the development of national cashew strategies in all 6 project countries
- Promotes regional exchange on intergovernmental level. Since 2016, ComCashew supports the establishment of the first Consultative International Cashew Council (CICC) and provides policy advice, technical and organizational support
- Contributes to the intensification for development partner coordination, through the analysis of development partner investment in the cashew sector and the coordination of a Development Partner Group