The Aid by Trade Foundation (AbTF) is a Subscriber to the ISEAL Alliance. As a standard-setting organization it has created the Cotton made in Africa (CmiA) Initiative and its corresponding CmiA sustainability standard in 2008.
Approximately one million smallholder cotton farmers in ten countries of sub-Saharan Africa cultivated the crop according to the Cotton made in Africa standard in the 2017/18 season. The adherence to the standard is third-party verified and allows cotton companies to trade their lint cotton under the CmiA denomination. Retailers partnering with CmiA can use the consumer-facing CmiA label.
To award CmiA sales certificates, the AbTF commissions independent and ISO accredited control bodies in sub-Saharan Africa to regularly conduct third-party verifications of all CmiA partners both on the agricultural production and on the first level of processing (ginnery).
Since the CmiA Standard came into force in 2008, it has been continuously improved. The new version (Vol. 4) marks a new milestone in the development and represents a comprehensive revision of the CmiA standard.
Following the ISEAL Code of Good Practices on Setting Social and Environmental Standards, the AbTF holds a public consultation of 60 days, which is open for feedback from any interested public.
The AbTF is happy to receive qualified feedback until July 12st, 2019. Please submit your feedback, comments or questions to info@abt-foundation.org.
You can download the full draft CmiA Standard vol.4 here.