The press release below was issued by the ECOWAS Communications Office on March 22, 2013.

ECOWAS CET Adopted Press Release.pdf

The National Committees of the Borderless Alliance, the West African private sector-led group advocating for reduced costs and delays in cross-border transport, have begun mobilizing their members to address issues related to trade and transport facilitation at the national level.

At trade shows around the world, during meetings with brands large and small and via communications varied and regular the USAID Trade Hub has championed baobab – which, to be fair, may not need much of a champion: its qualities as one of the world’s most nutritious and versatile “superfruits” sell baobab better than anything else.

The Global Shea Alliance will host its inaugural North American event in New York City May 13, reflecting the organization’s meteoric growth in just two years. Launched with 54 stakeholders in 2011 with USAID Trade Hub support the alliance today counts more than 350 members from all over the globe.

Once a month or so, an employee of Mamma Mia’s pizzeria in Accra, Ghana, drives three hours to Lomé in neighboring Togo to stock up on supplies for the popular restaurant. The reason is simple, and one that almost every business owner (and most consumers) understands: lower prices.

Dr. Daniel Bromley is the Anderson-Bascom Distinguished Professor of Applied Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and at Humbold University in Berlin. He is the author, most recently, of "Vulnerable People, Vulnerable States: Redefining the Development Challenge." The views expressed here are his own.

"Value Chain & Gains!," the African Cashew Alliance's World Cashew Festival and Expo2013, will take place Sept. 16-19 in Lagos, Nigeria, the Alliance has announced. The Eko Hotel Suites will host the event.

With fast increasing urbanization, West Africa needs more food than the region currently produces – where will it come from? How will it get here? And at what cost? Peter White, an international development expert, examines the issue for Tradewinds.

In 2006, the USAID Trade Hub co-founded the African Cashew Alliance with 24 private sector stakeholders. In the ensuing seven years, the cashew industry has become a major economic force in West Africa – with more than 10,000 jobs in processing created, transforming the economies of rural communities.

More than 500 representatives of all points in the shea value chain participated in the Global Shea Alliance’s “Global Perspectives” conference, held in Abuja, Nigeria, in March, and set the course for the future of an industry whose global significance grows with every year. Alliance members set up working groups on sustainability on the critical issues of quality and sustainability, and elected a new president.