Two Irish NGOs are teaming up to stimulate enterprise development and sustainable trade in Africa, as Traidlinks and Gorta-Self Help Africa set out to build on Traidlink’s success in encouraging trade on the continent.

Traidlinks has been working for more than a decade in East Africa, while Gorta has developed enterprise development schemes designed to support farming communities to trade into new regional and international markets and increase profitability.

Backed by Irish Aid and led by several Irish business figures, Traidlinks is involved in building links between the Irish business community and sub-Saharan Africa, while Gorta’s subsidiary Partner Africa, based in Nairobi, has become one of the leading providers of ethical audits to international businesses in Africa.

The merger of Traidlinks and Gorta-Self Help Africa comes as the government launches the latest phase of its Africa Agri-Food Development Programme (AADP), an initiative that has been created to support partnerships between Irish and African agri-food companies. A call for applications to AADP, which provides business grants of up to €250,000 to Irish companies, was made earlier this month.

Gorta-Self Help Africa chief executive Ray Jordan said: “Business can make and is making a real difference in building economies and reducing extreme poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. Rural poor communities need markets, they need jobs, and they need a fair price for their goods and services, and we believe that by working together we can play a vital role in facilitating that to happen.”

In Association with

He added that the expertise and track record in business facilitation that Traidlinks had established would allow the organisation to play a key role in facilitating new business opportunities in Africa in the years ahead.

Cork-businessman Maurice Healy, outgoing chair of Traidlinks, said the merger and the complementary skills of the two organisations would strengthen efforts to increase trade with East Africa.

Photo: Bernard O'Connell of Traidlinks, pictured with female entrepreneurs from Burundi