External Interim Evaluation of the Organic Cotton Accelerator Initiative

The Organic Cotton Accelerator (OCA) was established in 2016 by the Laudes Foundation and other partners to address several barriers to the mainstream adoption of organic cotton within the textile industry. OCA’s work has focused on two main programmes: i) the Farm Programme, through which OCA aims to create a secure market and provide fair prices for organic cotton farmers; and ii) the Seed and Innovation (SI) Programme, which provides joint investments on various topics such as seed integrity and supply, research, supply-chain traceability, training and capacity building, and industry standards. Its work is consolidated through the OCA platform, which provides a forum for learning and exchange between its members. Since 2016, OCA has undergone three Phases. This evaluation aimed to assess the design and implementation of OCA, as well its intended outcomes under the Phase 2 (2018-2020) and Phase 3 (2020-2023) grant agreements with Laudes. In addition, using a systems analysis reliant on mixed-methods, the evaluation provided an assessment of OCA’s contributions to systems change in the organic cotton industry. True to its learning focus, this evaluation provided lessons learned and recommendations for the ongoing initiative. The evaluation made use of Laudes Foundations’ Evaluation Rubric System (ERS) as a framework of analysis and scoring, using select rubrics chosen based on their relevance to the OCA initiative. These included assessing process-related rubrics (initiative design, implementation, monitoring, communication/learning, and organizational capacity), early outcomes (progressive businesses leading, multi-stakeholder movements pressure and redefining value in the sector) and potential 2025 outcomes (businesses transforming). Data collection included document review, semi-structured interviews and an online survey.