Beschreibung der Beschaffung
The textile and garment sector in Ethiopia has improved over the years in attracting FDI (Foreign Direct Investment), increasing export and creating job opportunities, but requires strategic support to realise its potential. Though the industry has an international competitive advantage due to a large supply of labour at competitive costs, Ethiopia has not yet achieved its target of becoming the east African textile hub.
One reason is the high complexity of the cotton, textile and garment value chain, consisting of many interacting links that need new technologies and skilled labour to deal with it. Low product quality, inexperienced technical workers, non-conformity to standards, old technology and a gap in management systems have contributed to the low productivity and competitiveness of Ethiopian textile and garment products on the international market. As a result, most local textile factories are inclined to focus on the low-quality local market, consequently not pursuing international production, marketing, social and environmental standards. These fabric mills can only supply low-quality fabric to garment factories, meaning most of the garment factories that wish to export resort to importing fabrics, eroding their competitive advantage.
To mitigate the above challenges, SI Jobs plans to deploy a consultant team to support one garment and two textile factories and two ginneries (five companies) by strengthening forward and backward linkages between these companies and cotton producers. The support is envisaged to enable the textile mills to be capable of satisfying the needs of garment factories supplying international producers in Ethiopia. To ensure sustainability, the interventions will be implemented in close collaboration with the Ethiopian Institute of Textile and Fashion Technology (EITEX) in Bahir Dar University.
The entire intervention period is envisioned to take 12 months with the following tasks:
1) developing a roadmap for the upgrading of the five above-mentioned companies;
2) working with the companies to produce quality fabric to export standards;
3) conducting technical and managerial training;
4) strengthening links between the five above-mentioned companies and EITEX; and
5) establishing links between the companies and international buyers.
For the present assignment, SI Jobs aims to support jobs within the five above-mentioned companies, contributing to job security in the sector, as well as, creating additional 10 % direct jobs within the companies over 3 years through improved productivity and the addition of international sales. Furthermore, in the sector, approximately 5 000 more farmers are expected to be brought into the value chain and an additional 1 000-2 000 jobs created through the emergence of SMEs to support the increased productivity of the five companies within this intervention.