East African Community
UNIDO-NORAD Programme
TRADE CAPACITY-BUILDING IN AGRO-INDUSTRY PRODUCTS
FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT AND PROOF OF COMPLIANCE
WITH INTERNATIONAL MARKETS REQUIREMENTS
BACKGROUND TO THE PROJECT
The Trade Capacity Building Project for Agro- Industry is a three year initiative funded by Norwegian Agency for Development (NORAD) and implemented by United Nations Agency for Industrial Development (UNIDO) in the East African Community (EAC). The programme was launched by the Secretary General EAC in December 2006. The main development objectives of the programme are to enhance the capacity of enterprises to produce according to international market requirements; and to strengthen export oriented support services mainly relating to conformity assessments. The programme is managed by UNIDO through EAC Secretariat, a Regional Steering Committee with membership drawn fromPartnerStates and National Steering Committees at national level.
FIRST MEETING OF THE REGIONAL STEERING COMMITTEE
ARUSHA, 20-21 JUNE 2007
This first Regional Steering Committee meeting was convened to establish work plans for the regional project. The meeting was attended by delegates from Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda as well as development partners from NORAD and UNIDO and the EAC Secretariat.
During the deliberations the UNIDO representative in Tanzania stated that UNIDO has had a long experience at the national level in the region in capacity building initiatives involving various sectors. The UNIDO representative emphasized the importance of the project in enabling the EAC Partner States compete in international trade.
The NORAD representative, Mr. Jan Arne Munkeby, stated the willingness of Government of Norway in supporting developing countries to develop their capacity to participate competitively in international trade. He stated that the private sector is key to the development of the economies of countries. The Government of Norway is committed at the political level to offer enabling support to the developing countries in this regard.
The statement by the Director-General (DG) Customs and Trade EAC, was read by the Director of Trade, EAC, Dr. Flora Musonda. In the statement, the DG welcomed the delegates to Arusha.
The DG informed the meeting that the EAC Development Strategy, 2006-2010 was recently launched. Key objectives of the strategy are to promote value addition, productivity and competitive agricultural supplies for cross-border and international trade and sustainable food security in the EAC.
Another key aspect of the EAC Development Strategy is to promote balanced and competitive industrial manufacturing sector in the EAC.
The DG expressed satisfaction that the current project will play a vital role in the achievement of the objectives of the EAC Development Strategy and thanked UNIDO and NORAD for their financial and technical support.
UNIDO Project Managers gave a presentation highlighting the achievements of the project since its launch on December 12th, 2006.
UNIDO informed the meeting that NORAD had agreed in principle to allocate additional funding for integrating Rwanda and Burundi into the project.
The delegates deliberated on the work plans through identification of region-wide activities and common products. Six products, namely; fish, fruits and vegetables, honey,coffee, tea, and meat and meat products were agreed upon as priority items for targeted interventions.
The priority output activities were agreed upon by taking into consideration those being conducted currently with assistance of various other development partners.
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