Online, March 9, 2022 (ECA, COMESA): To enhance political will and strengthen the capacity of Member States to apply the AU Guidelines for the Development of Regional Agricultural Value Chains (RAVCs) in Africa, the ECA developed the Strengthening Member State capacity to develop Regional Agricultural Value Chains to promote Diversification and Intra-African Trade project. In partnership with the COMESA Secretariat, the project will promote regional value chains of the two strategic commodities of maize and dairy, specifically in Zambia and Zimbabwe and foster agro-processing.
On March 9, 2022, COMESA and ECA held an inception meeting on the assessment study of Zambia-Zimbabwe maize and dairy value chains. The meeting provided the opportunity to introduce the project and a platform for feedback on the inception report of the project's first phase. The first phase assesses the challenges, constraints and opportunities for developing regional value chains for maize and dairy. The first phase also identifies and evaluates bottlenecks and gaps in the existing governing policy, regulatory and institutional frameworks. The project inception note was the focus of the meeting. The objectives, scope, and methodology were presented in detail for feedback.
The meeting, attended by about 45 experts representing a broad stakeholder's base, including senior officials from Zambia andZimbabwe, academia, the private sector, and development partners, witnessed fruitful and high-quality discussions on the proposed methodology, data collection approaches and sources, and validation plan, as captured in the inception note. The meeting also offered a venue for the exchange of experiences in the area of trade and agriculture and the way forward for accelerating the conduction of the study and the project at large.
Ms. Providence Mavubi , COMESA’ Director of Industry and Agriculture, , indicated that the present project is in line with COMESA's Industrial Strategy and Action Plan and that the projected study will act as an input into the feasibility study of the proposed Common Agro-Industrial Park (CAIP) between Zambia and Zimbabwe. ECA SRO-SA had earlier developed a preliminary feasibility study in partnership with COMESA Secretariat. Ms. Mavubu stressed the importance of securing strong collaboration between the two countries to realize the desire for cross-border trade expansion and advacing agro-processing.
Ms. Ruvimbo Sandauke speaking on behalf of the Director of Industry and Commerce of Zimbabwe underscored government’s commitment to prioritise development of value chains as a building block toward the achievement of the national vision which is “Towards an empowered upper middle economy by 2030” . She further emphasized the importance of development of value chains in the agro-processing sector, among other sectors as prioritised in the government of Zimbabwe’s economic blue print, the Economic Development Strategy (2020-2025).
According to Mr. Robert Lisinge, ECA's OiC for the Private Sector Development and Finance Division, the implementation of AfCFTA is expected to tear down the borders inherited from Africa's colonial past and ensure full continental integration. Therefore, "raising the awareness of the importance of developing regional agricultural commodity value chains is highly critical given the sector's importance to food security and socio-economic transformation", he said.
Mr. Victor Djemba, UNIDO's representative, commended ECA for the Development of the Guidelines for the development of RAVCs, stressing the need to have a harmonized, unified approach towards the development of RAVCs in the quest of the implementation of AfCFTA. He further commended COMESA and ECA for the initiative to domesticate the Guidelines piloting Zambia and Zimbabwe, signalling the willingness of UNIDO to provide necessary support.
Participants noted that having a better understanding of challenges and opportunities of the development of regional value chains is a prerequisite to fast track cross-border trade and industrialization, towards harnessing the full potential of AfCFTA.
Following the inception meeting, COMESA Secretariat will engage Zambia and Zimbabwe to review the study. Once completed, COMESA will guide on how to build on the study's results and findings and identify activities for implementation.