InTex

Kenya

The textile sector is one of the major manufacturing activities in Kenya. The sector contributes to about 14% of employment in Kenya owing to its capacity to create both direct and indirect employment opportunities. The sector employs over 2.5 million people, of which 84% are employed in Micro SMEs while 8% are employed indirectly in cross-cutting support services such as in financial institutions, research institutes and government ministries. The total turnover of the sector is about US$ 564 million. The contribution of the textile manufacturing sector to Kenya’s GDP is expected to continue growing from 10% in 2019 to 15% by 2022.

• Moi University is a public university located in Kesses, Uasin Gishu county, in the former Rift Valley Province of Kenya. It was established in 1984 by the Moi University Act of the Parliament of Kenya. The University was created with an intention of making it a science, technology and development oriented institution. Moi University collaborates with local and international partners to ensure it meets its goals of providing academic, research and societal solutions in medicine, agriculture and engineering. Some of the sustainable projects carried out by Moi University include the training of handloom weavers (in Kenya and Uganda) in the use of natural dyes for textiles, and the study of textile effluent treatment from textile dyeing factories. Moi University owns a vertically integrated factory (Rivatex East Africa Ltd), which manufactures cotton and polyester blended fabrics and garments.

South Africa

The South African clothing and textiles industry is considered a strategic industry and forms part of the government’s Industrial Policy Action Plans (IPAP) sectors. The industry contributes to 2,5% of South Africa’s  total manufacturing output. Considering both the manufacturing and retail subsectors, there are about 212,000 formal jobs in the whole textiles value chain in South Africa , with 92,000 jobs in manufacturing and 120,000 jobs in retail.

• The mission of the Centre for African Resource Efficiency and Sustainability (CARES) is to change the exclusive landscape of sustainability into one that empowers and educates all. The organisation utilises its expertise to create customised strategies and solutions to promote and improve sustainability within local SMMEs. CARES shifts the dialogue of sustainability through training and up- skilling people in the industry, with a focus on women.  The organisation creates a community of education and learning, one that shares the value of sustainability and the circular economy by giving back.

• The National Cleaner Production Centre of South Africa (NCPC-SA) is a national programme of government that promotes the implementation of resource efficiency and cleaner production (RECP) methodologies to assist industry to lower costs through reduced energy, water and materials usage, and waste management.

 Tunisia

Textile and clothing industry sector is positioned as a cornerstone of the Tunisian industry and keeps a prominent place in the national economy while maintaining a strong contribution to the socio-economic balance of Tunisia. It is an important sector of the manufacturing industry in terms of : exports (second industrial sector which represents 16%  from  the total industrial export in 2022), employment (first industrial sector with 29.2% from the total employment in 2022). The Textile and clothing sector is comprised from 1,415 companies employing 10 or more people and provides the largest number of jobs in the manufacturing sector, employing more than 150,000 people. Among the 1,415 units in the sector, 80% of them produce exclusively for the export market.for representing  54% of all exporting companies established in Tunisia. About 40% of the companies are in partnership, of which 369 units are 100% foreign-owned. Exports of the sector increased to attain 2,8 milliards Euro in 2022.

• The International Centre for Environmental Technologies of Tunis (CITET) is a non-administrative public institution (EPNA), under the supervision of the Ministry of Environment. It’s specialized in the protection of the environment in the context of sustainable development. CITET was founded in 1996, in response to the international recommendations of the RIO Summit (1992) for capacity building in developing countries and support for the transfer of environmentally-sound technologies. CITET is committed to developing Tunisian skills to ensure an environmentally sound technology transfer and well adapted to the local, national and international context.