At the 24th Horn of Africa Initiative (HoAI) Ministerial Meeting, held on the sidelines of the World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington, the HoAI Ministers of Finance discussed a package of projects divided into two groups (quick wins and high gains), aimed at promoting trade and economic integration in the Horn of Africa, a region adversely affected by political instability, climate change and internal conflicts, and characterized by a high level of trade informality. The paper describing these projects was prepared based on consultations with both public and private stakeholders in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and South Sudan, as well as with the Developing Partners supporting the HoAI. As next steps, the Finance Ministers agreed to deepen discussions and conclude, jointly with the Trade Ministers of the region, a Memorandum of Understanding on the development of an innovative Simplified Trade Regime (STR) “plus” with additional benefits compared to those provided by the existing ones, and a Joint Ministerial Declaration on the establishment of a Regional Trade Facilitation Committee, as an advisory body to the Ministers which will coordinate the design and supervision of regional trade facilitation programmes covering all the HoAI countries. During the event, the Chairmanship of the HoAI rotated to the Minister of Finance of Somalia, who will lead the HoAI for the next year. The HoAI Regional Trade Faciltiation Roadmap has been extended for further 3 years.

AfCFTA implementation strategies are policy documents that define strategies for expediting the implementation of the AfCFTA Agreement and identify risks and opportunities arising from such implementation. They are based on a decision adopted on 15 May 2018 by the Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development in Addis Ababa, which urged the African Union member States to prepare such documents “to identify the key trade opportunities, current constraints and steps required to take full advantage of the African market", including modalities for increasing trade performance, map country priority sectors, and identify opportunities for regional and global value chain integration. In practice, they are policy documents that set out a roadmap, with an associated implementation plan, to address the main constraints, challenges and gaps needed to seize the opportunities offered by the AfCFTA in the various African nations and exploit the full potential of the agreement. In addition to national states, such strategies have been adopted also by some Regional Economic Communities (RECs), like IGAD, EAC and ECOWAS, while the SADC one is under development.

Read more...