COMESA in 3 mins or less: REC update CAADP process

The third in our series of Regional Economic Community updates on the CAADP (Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme) from the Food Security team at ECDPM. This time Fabien Tondel gives the latest on the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa - and the three priorities for a COMESA regional compact. Subscribe for updates www.ecdpm.org/subscribe www.ecdpm.org/foodsecurity Music: The Polish Ambassador Ritual Revival Transcript: The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa is making good progress in implementing CAADP. Last year the regional Compact, which provides a framework for the agricultural policy of COMESA, was validated at the technical level. (The COMESA CAADP process has gone well so far as it has been supported by the CAADP MDTF. Farmers organisations of Eastern and Southern Africa were involved in the preparation of the regional Compact.) Now, the COMESA ministers of agriculture (and other stakeholders) are expected to sign the regional Compact in the fall of 2014. The COMESA Compact has set three priorities: Increasing production for crops, livestock, fisheries and forestry Increasing agricultural trade and improving market access for farmers Reducing vulnerability and enhancing resilience as regards food and nutrition insecurity The COMESA Secretariat is currently preparing a regional investment plan to implement the regional agricultural policy. It is a challenging task as it has to work with many actors and across many sectors to foster regional cooperation and to develop the regional infrastructure, remove non-tariff barriers to trade in agricultural products and inputs, accelerate technology dissemination, and ensure that CAADP leads to concrete developmental outcomes. In a regional economic community comprising 20 MS and overlapping with other regional communities, the COMESA CAADP has to find synergies with the actions of COMESA MS, EAC and SADC. As the recent Malabo Declaration on agricultural development in Africa recommends, the COMESA CAADP has to engage the private sector in an effective manner to improve the business environment for SMEs in the agricultural and food sectors, raise private investment, and develop inclusive regional value chains.