The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has selected the Africa Centre of Excellence in Phytochemicals, Textile and Renewable Energy (ACEII PTRE) of Moi University to be among its four African institutions to partner with in the implementation of InTex project. ACE II PTRE provides high quality training and research within the African region.
Innovative Business Practices and Economic Models in the Textile Value Chain (InTex) is a three-year project funded by the European Union (EU) that promotes innovative business practices and economic models in the textile value chain. Moi University applied and was successfully appointed as a Technical Intermediary in Kenya.
The InTex project has five components. Two components have global reach and three components will focus on national implementation in three countries in Africa: Kenya, Tunisia and South Africa. The project runs from September 2020 to September 2023.
A funding envelope of a maximum of USD 230,000 (approximately Ksh24.3m) will be made available to each of the three selected organizations to implement the project activities in the respective African country they are based in.
The four technical intermediaries – Moi University, the International Centre for Environmental Technologies of Tunis, the Centre for African Resource Efficiency and Sustainability and the National Cleaner Production Centre of South Africa – will start project implementation in September 2021.
Key objectives
The InTex project aims to:
- Increase among SMEs and governments the knowledge on resource efficiency, life cycle thinking, circularity and eco-innovation in the textile value chain
- Train textiles stakeholders on eco-innovation and product environment footprint (PEF)
- Accompany textile businesses to transform their approach and business models in order to increase sustainability and circularity in the textile value chain
- Increase the access to environmental and lifecycle data so that textiles businesses and policymakers can make better informed decisions and implement relevant strategies
- Provide evidence of the environmental and socio-economic impacts of the different sustainable economic models in the textiles value chain, to help bridge the science-policy gap and raise awareness on the potential impacts of adopting and fostering innovative sustainable and circular policies and practices
The Africa Centre of Excellence in Phytochemicals, Textile and Renewable Energy (ACEII PTRE) is one of the 24 Africa Centers of Excellence participating in the World Bank financed ACE II Project. The project aims to strengthen selected Eastern and Southern African higher education institutions to build and sustain excellence in higher education and bridge skill gaps in the human resources required to address the development needs of the Eastern and Southern Africa region.
ACEII PTRE will implement the InTex project together with the Department of Manufacturing, Industrial and Textile Engineering which is based in the School of Engineering. UNEP has designed a website (https://www.unep.org/intex) where all the activities of the UNEP InTex project in Africa will be featured.
