Signature of the seventh agreement relating to the implementation of the trade capacity building program

Implemented for 20 years, the PRCC is the only French grant program intended for technical assistance to trade. Since its launch in 2003, France has committed 200 million euros which have made it possible to finance more than a hundred projects. Endowed with an envelope of 30 million euros over 3 years (co-financed equally by the DG Trésor and by the MEAE and implemented by the AFD), it aims to promote sustainable trade in developing countries (DCs ) and in particular of the least developed countries (LDCs) and to strengthen their commercial and productive capacities in order to improve their integration into the world trading system.

The PRCC must, ultimately, contribute to the well-being of populations and to the development of the most vulnerable countries by stimulating their productive sector in an inclusive and sustainable manner. It is part of a logic of shared prosperity between France and its partners.

By way of very concrete examples, in 2021 the PRCC made it possible to provide technical and financial support (5 million euros) for the development of geographical indications in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific which, by supporting the promotion of agricultural products on the regional and international markets, also helps to improve producers’ incomes. Or in 2022, a project worth 2.5 million euros was funded to support the development of a value chain of reusable menstrual hygiene products in Ethiopia.

The projects funded under PRCC 7 will be structured around three themes, building on the successes already recorded and by renewed themes:

• The quality approach in the broad sense, which covers compliance with international environmental and social standards, regulatory convergence with the European Union, particularly in the sanitary and phytosanitary field, the protection of intellectual property and in particular the development of geographical indications;
• Support for the entrepreneurial ecosystem and sustainable sectors which covers support for public policies to support entrepreneurship and trade, the structuring of local and regional sectors as well as support for VSEs/SMEs, particularly in the social and inclusive economy;

Support for African regional economic integration which covers, on the one hand, specific operational support for the implementation of the AfCFTA (African Continental Free Trade Area) agreement and, on the other hand, operational support for measures and initiatives contributing to the strengthening of trade regional.

Useful link – The trade capacity building program

Photo copyright: AFD – Hélène Picart