News

Integration Begins, Not Ends, with Proximity: Writing The Next Chapter of African Integration

Saturday, 25 July 2026 06:51

Africa’s integration story has historically been written through geography. Countries first integrated with those closest to them, building regional economic communities (RECs) around shared borders, established trade routes and common interests. The EAC, ECOWAS, SADC and COMESA have created important institutional and economic spaces, and their role remains indispensable. Proximity is, after all, where most integration initiative begin: neighbours trade first with neighbours, infrastructure develops along the shortest routes, and political cooperation is easier to build where economic relationships already exist. But proximity is a beginning, not an endpoint. The difficulty is that Africa’s regional blocs have not yet been sufficiently integrated with one another. The continent has progressively built economic neighbourhoods, but it has struggled to connect those neighbourhoods into a functioning continental system.

When the Green Transition Redraws Economic Power: Africa’s Race to Build the Green Economy

Friday, 24 July 2026 06:54

For decades, trade agreements were primarily about opening markets, reducing tariffs, facilitating cross-border commerce and establishing preferential access. That architecture is now changing. Trade agreements are increasingly becoming instruments for managing energy security, critical minerals, supply-chain resilience, renewable energy, industrial decarbonisation and climate policy. The new Trade & Climate Tracker developed by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) captures this shift. Its analysis of 71 trade and economic agreements signed between January 2025 and June 2026, including 10 involving African countries, shows how rapidly trade, climate and economic security are converging. Of the 46 agreements for which texts were publicly available, 70% contained energy provisions, 59% broader climate provisions and 54% provisions on critical minerals. Renewable energy featured in 37%, while 17% addressed heavy-industry decarbonisation or circularity.

Opportunity to participate in IGAD workshop on the AfCFTA

Wednesday, 22 July 2026 16:24

Are you a manufacturing company based in Kenya or another IGAD member state? This is your opportunity to share your experience, challenges, and priorities regarding the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Complete this short questionnaire and provide your company details here. You may be selected to participate to the IGAD regional AfCFTA workshop, planned in October. Your input will help shape the discussion and ensure that the workshop reflects the realities and needs of businesses operating in the region.

July edition of Supply Chain Insights Bulletin out

Wednesday, 22 July 2026 16:17

The July edition of the joint African Institute for Supply Chain Research (AISCR)/Desiderio Consultants Supply Chain Insights Bulletin is out! To download it, click on the image below.

New Rules of Origin self-assessment tool set to be integrated into the African Trade Observatory

Tuesday, 21 July 2026 06:13

The International Trade Centre, with funding from the European Union, is developing a new Rules of Origin self-assessment tool to be integrated into the African Trade Observatory (ATO). This is an important development for the implementation of the AfCFTA, and potentially much more than a digital compliance tool. The mechanism is comparable to the EU's ROSA (Rules of Origin Self-Assessment) tool, which helps EU businesses determine whether their products meet the applicable rules of origin to benefit from preferential treatment under the various trade agreements that the EU has concluded with third countries and economic blocs. The tool is aimed at addressing a key challenge faced by African businesses: the fact that the AfCFTA operates in parallel with a complex and overlapping architecture of rules of origin associated with other Regional Economic Communities: including the EAC, COMESA, SADC, ECOWAS, ECCAS, CEMAC and other trade arrangements.