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Our projects & programmes

Fairtrade Africa has a wide range of projects and programmes taking place across the continent. We aim to make fairness the new normal via strategic partnerships with private companies, governments, research institutions and civil society organisations.

Projects versus Programmes – where is the difference?

In the realm of Fairtrade Africa, the distinction between projects and programmes serves as a key organisational strategy. A project is typically a finite, targeted initiative designed to achieve a specific objective within a specified timeframe. A programme, by contrast, is a longer-term, strategic framework that brings together multiple related projects under a shared goal, which allows us to create sustained, scalable impact over time.

What Fairtrade Africa programmes offer

Fairtrade programmes bring together multiple projects and initiatives to drive large-scale and sustainable change for farmers, workers, and their communities - while strengthening their businesses and enterprises.

Our programmes provide strategic support on a thematic, country, or supply-chain level, and are backed by expert project management that ensures robust delivery.

Programmes incorporate monitoring, evaluation, and learning through impact-based tools, annual audits, evaluations, and producer-led feedback, while promoting strong localisation and producer ownership.

They also create opportunities to address human rights and environmental risks in supply chains and ensure cost-effectiveness through coordinated, system-wide management.

What Fairtrade programmes offer

  • Programmes consisting of several projects and components fostering:
  1. Large-scale and sustainable change for farmers, workers and their communities while strengthening their businesses/enterprises
  2. Support for Fairtrade’s portfolio projects at thematic level, selected country focus, selected supply chain focus or other options
  • Robust project management stemming from expertise in managing a portfolio of projects valued at over €20 million:
  • Monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning through impact-based monitoring tools, annual financial audits, internal and external evaluations, impact assessments and producer-led feedback loops
  • Strong localisation and producer ownership
  • Opportunities to tackle salient human rights and environmental risks in supply chains
  • Scalability and replication through regional Fairtrade producer networks
  • Cost effectiveness and value for money assured through system-wide coordination

Programmes for impact

To develop programmes, which deliver maximum impact we consult with smallholder farmers and workers (particularly women and young people) to understand their needs and design effective tailormade solutions. We build strategic partnerships to complement our expertise and impact with private sector companies, governments, research institutions and civil society organisations. Each programme has respective projects under them tailored for their needs.
Two men standing next to a crate of cocoa beans

The Climate Academy

The Fairtrade Climate Academy is a farmer-centred training package that focuses especially on the next generation of farmers, boosting their climate and environmental knowledge and increasing their understanding of the links between production and carbon emissions and biodiversity. The objective of the Fairtrade Climate Academy is to make farmers more resilient to climate change and their production more environmentally sustainable. The Academy equips and upskills smallholder farmers to tackle climate change and its causes by adopting more sustainable agricultural practices and alternative energy sources.
Climate Academy Fairtrade