About this Blog
Supporting Indian Trade and Investment for Africa (SITA) is a south-south trade and investment project, between India and five East African Countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania. SITA is an International Trade Centre (ITC) project, which is funded by the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
SITA draws on India's repository of innovative solutions and the untapped potential for mutually beneficial trade and investment to promote Sustainable Development in East Africa. SITA responds to the specific challenges that these five East African countries face in increasing and diversifying their trade and market linkages across identified priority sectors.
This blog provides a window into the SITA project, and how it translates ideas into sustainable change. Through stories from all five East African countries, and India too, Voices of SITA provides highlights from the project’s progress and showcases the impact that SITA is having.
Take a look at the recent stories below. The posts can be filtered by sector or focus country using the menu bar above.July 7, 2021
Inspiring stories of greening abound in the textile and leather sectors. Transforming these isolated process innovations into full blown industrial practices is necessary to scale up their impact. The Apparel Impact Institute works with facilities hands-on in fuelling a larger industrial shift towards cleaner and more responsible production.
July 6, 2021
Inspiring stories of greening abound in the textile and leather sectors. Transforming these isolated process innovations into full blown industrial practices is necessary to scale up their impact. The Apparel Impact Institute works with facilities hands-on in fuelling a larger industrial shift towards cleaner and more responsible production.
July 5, 2021
Inspiring stories of greening abound in the textile and leather sectors. Transforming these isolated process innovations into full blown industrial practices is necessary to scale up their impact. The Apparel Impact Institute works with facilities hands-on in fuelling a larger industrial shift towards cleaner and more responsible production.
June 29, 2021
Access to finance continues being a pain point for countries and businesses embarking on a greening journey. While more and more options are cropping up in the financial markets, information remains scant. This blog discusses some of the avenues developing countries can take to enhance the scope of financing options available
June 21, 2021
Edi Muyishime is the proud founder of contemporary fashion brand Muyishime. The Rwandan-born, Nairobi-based designer participated in SITA’s Mitreeki Fashion Incubator Programme 2020-21, alongside 41 other fashionpreneurs.
June 21, 2021
In this blog, two international experts from The Sustainability Consortium discuss the story of how the Wastewater 101 Toolbox was born and how it contributes to a cleaner fashion value chain.
June 14, 2021
Zero Liquid Discharge or ZLD technologies are key to achieving an environmentally sustainable textile dyeing sector. This article explores the path to achieving ZLD, its economic and ecological merits, and the additional support required from governments in driving the change .
June 7, 2021
Sylvia Omina Otsieno is the proud founder of sustainable, Made in Africa jewelry brand Omina Ostieno. Sylvia graduated from SITA’s Mitreeki Incubator Program for fashionpreneurs in 2019; below, SITA caught up with her two years on to understand what she has done with all her newfound knowledge, skills and confidence.
June 1, 2021
Partnerships are key to driving the uptake of renewables for industrial use. In Tamil Nadu, India, the textile industry, state and central governments joined hands to […]
May 17, 2021
Women entrepreneurs represent a wealth of untapped potential to contribute to Sustainable Development Goals, including the growth of developing economies.
To support women-entrpreneurs in the most impactful way possible, SITA conceived of the Mitreeki model. Based on a synergistic East Africa - India Partnership, Mitreeki supports women in key sectors to develop their businesses.
April 2, 2021
The third edition of SITA’s Mitreeki Fashion Incubator Programme has recently drawn to a close, having provided context-specific training and coaching to 41 East African fashionpreneurs.
The mostly-women business leaders were trained on all aspects of running a successful fashion business. Crucially, they are trained on designing a cohesive collection, the building blocks for which are: (1) knowing their brand identity, (2) understanding their strengths and constraints, and (3) having a systematic methodology for the creative process.
March 30, 2021
Women-led businesses are growing in Africa. Capturing their potential and supporting their development contributes directly to sustainable development, particularly via SDG 8.
February 22, 2021
41 budding entrepreneurs graduate from SITA’s Mitreeki Fashion Incubator Programme, delivering their final presentation to a panel of buyers
February 19, 2021
SITA is supporting farmers in Rwanda and Kenya to diversify into high-value horticultural crops with a growing demand. Diversifying into herbs like rosemary, which grow well […]
January 29, 2021
Over the course of four weeks in October and November 2020, SITA organized a series of trainings on ITC’s Market Analysis Tools for business support organizations […]
October 27, 2020
South-South Cooperation has huge potential for successfully achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and a vital role to play in Covid-19 recovery. The International Trade Centre (ITC) […]
October 1, 2020
Seed synergy: SITA facilitates Indian-Ugandan knowledge transfer, ahead of cotton germplasm exchange
SITA is facilitating a cotton seed exchange between India and Uganda to combine the strengths of the two countries’ different seed varieties. The germplasm exchange will […]
September 8, 2020
Last August, SITA facilitated a four-week training program on Leather Processing Technologies for Leather Manufacturers, which was delivered by the Central Leather Research Institute (CRLI) of […]
September 8, 2020
SITA organized its first virtual sourcing event in July 2020 in partnership with Asia Pacific Leather Fair (APLF), Hong Kong. Five tanneries from Kenya and Uganda […]
September 5, 2020
SITA has been working with the Government of Rwanda and Indian partners to develop Rwanda’s spices sector, focusing on hyprid chili in particular as high value […]