Ethical Fashion Project launched

Ghana is set to be the hub for the transformation of traditional inputs into contemporary readymade fashion and lifestyle products from highly creative young Ghanaian designers.
Under the Ethical Fashion Initiative Ghana Project, young entrepreneurs in the fashion industry will process traditional fabrics out of organic and fair trade cotton supplied from a Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) supported programme in Burkina Faso and Mali into products of high quality.
The project which is a joint collaboration between the International Trade Centre (ITC), Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), and the Ministry of Trade and Industry is to improve the economic situation of poor communities by creating jobs through the establishment of a sustainable supply chain in textiles, fashion and lifestyle products.
Under the project, raw material suppliers and other artisans involved in the textile and lifestyle accessories development, the extended company concept will be applied to create a network of participants and beneficiaries from different businesses and corporate bodies by spreading out the different parts of the business entity across several local indigenous communities in Ghana.
It would also propel the products of young Ghanaian entrepreneurs and designers in the fashion and textile industry onto the international fashion value chain.
According to the Swiss Ambassador to Ghana, His Excellency Andrea Semadeni, the Fashion and lifestyle products sector in Africa has a huge potential and Ghana, with its rich tradition in fabrics, is well positioned to respond to the prevailing market conditions to diversify.
He said, the Ethical Fashion Initiative concentrates equally on three pillars; identification of the demand of business, response from the local market and fulfillment of social, labour and environmental standards.
The Swiss government has consequently provided a US$ 3.5million support for the project.
The Minister if Trade and Industry for her part said the programme was in line with the government’s industrial sector support programme and confirms the government’s commitment to work towards the betterment of the lives of Ghanaians in marginalised and deprived communities.
According to her, the project will contribute towards the attainment of the strategic target of US$5 billion proceeds from non-traditional exports by generating a minimum of 14 orders and establishing capacity for production of at least 140,000 pieces of fashion and lifestyle items over the life of the project.
The Ministry she also explained would provide a designated premise to host the Product Development Centre to be established under the project to train people on textile designs and fashion product designs as well.
The Ethical Fashion Initiative will be mentored by icons of the fashion world including the Ghanaian Fashion designer Kofi Ansah.
Kofi Ansah told the GRAPHIC BUSINESS in an interview that, the project would give them the opportunity to compete with popularly acclaimed designers with their works adding “just because it is ethical fashion, it doesn’t make it rubbish.” GB