Regarding climate change, Benin and especially its capital city Cotonou face two problems: the massive poor-quality second-hand clothes production and use by communities and the difficulty to manage the waste coming out of these productions. The Global Shapers Cotonou Hub is carrying out the vision of teaching some selected Benin local fashion actors on climate change education, business models and entrepreneurial approaches, in order to respond to these problems.

The proposed solution is called the ‘’ Green Fashion Hackathon and Incubation Project ‘’, which is an eco-fashion training program for fashion designers, seamstresses, and stylists. It consists in planning and organising a 2 day hackathon to identify innovative potential green fashion products and solutions, followed by 8 weeks of incubation featuring entrepreneurship, sustainability, environmental and ethical components. After the incubation program 3 projects are awarded with a substantial funding grant to launch an ethical green fashion product or solution.

The project designed goals are to witness at least 5 new Benin Fashion designers starting recyclables practices in their production pattern and reduce the clothes waste in production in a shorter or medium run. In the long run, the designed goals include having 20 % of Benin communities start to consume reusable and recycled material and fabrics in less than 6 years with the continuation of the Incubation projects by other partners throughout different editions and awareness campaigns. The available metrics include over 70 applications received from designers in Cotonou and even outside of the capital city, 35 projects shortlisted, and 11 teams selected to participate in a hackathon held in May 2023. For the second part of the project, from June to August 2023, 7 teams were shortlisted as semi-finalists for the incubation, and went through over 42 hours of personal individual coaching, and nearly 30 hours of live lectures with two different professionals.

The project is carried out with local partners such as the Beninese Nationale Designers Association (BNDA), Epitech University and their local Incubation coworking spaces, and brands such as Jerry Sinclair Bespoke Couture, or Funkè Wears