Loading
  • EN
  • FR
  • AR
  • PT
  • SW
  • AM
  • 0Shopping Cart
PACCl
  • Facebook
  • Linkedin
  • Twitter
  • Home
  • About
    • Membership
    • Executive Council
    • Partner with PACCI
  • Projects
    • Empowering Marginal Economic Actors
    • Improving Trade Facilitation in IGAD Region
    • African European Entrepreneurs B2Match
    • BILL OF RIGHTS: for an Enabling Business Environment in Africa
  • Trade matters
    • African Continental Free Trade Area [AfCFTA]
    • Regional Economic Communities
      • The Community of Sahel-Saharan States- CEN-SAD
      • Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa- COMESA
      • East African Community-EAC
      • Economic Community of Central African States- ECCAS
      • Economic Community of West African States- ECOWAS
      • Intergovernmental Authority on Development- IGAD
      • Southern African Development Community- SADC
  • Events
    • Mayors Private Sectors Conference 2022
    • Prosperity Africa Conference 2022
    • 7th EU AFRICA Business Forum 2022
  • Chamber Africa Connect
  • Search
  • Menu

Improving Trade Facilitation Environment in the IGAD Region Through Knowledge Generation and Capacity Building [ITFE]

Project Duration: 2020 – 2022

Inception Phase: April 2020 – July 2020

Implementation Phase: August 2020 – August 2022

Countries: IGAD Member States

Sector: Transport and Trade Facilitation, Private Sector Development

Project Partners : IGAD & PACCI

Funded by : AfDB

Inception Phase
0%
Implementation Phase
0%

STUDIES COMPLETED

Trade Facilitation Study
Regulatory Framework Study
BSO & Regulatory Bodies Capacity Assessment

Project Objective

  • To enhance capacities of the IGAD, PACCI and its organizations to facilitate cross-border trade and SMEs’ capacity enhancement in terms of competiveness and knowledge of trade facilitation issues and their development along the Ethiopia-Djibouti Corridor, and ultimately the broader Eastern Africa Region

DOCUMENTS PRODUCED

THE IGAD REGIONAL TRADE POLICY 2022-2026

The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) is a Regional Economic Community (REC) in Eastern Africa and one of the eight building blocks of the African Economic Community (AEC) of the African Union (AU). IGAD was launched during the 5th IGAD Heads of State and Government Summit held on 25 and 26 November 1996 in Djibouti, replacing the Intergovernmental Authority on Drought and Development (IGADD) founded in 1986 by Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda. Eritrea and South Sudan joined IGAD in 1993 and 2011as the seventh and eighth Member States respectively. The original mandate of IGADD was to mitigate the effects of the droughts and other natural disasters that inflicted famine, ecological degradation and widespread social and economic hardships to the region. However, with new emerging political and socio-economic challenges in the region, the Assembly of Heads of State and Government, meeting in Addis Ababa in April 1995, resolved to revitalize IGADD and expand the areas of cooperation among the Member States under IGAD in three priority areas: (a) agriculture and environmental protection; (b) economic cooperation, regional integration and social development; and (c) peace, security and humanitarian affairs.

Download ENG

DOCUMENTS PRODUCED

DE L’AUTORITE INTERGOUVERNEMENTALE
POUR LE DEVELOPPEMENT: POLITIQUE COMMERCIALE REGIONALE 2022-2026

Le mandat initial de l’IGADD était d’atténuer les effets des sécheresses et autres catastrophes naturelles qui ont causé la famine, la dégradation écologique et les difficultés sociales et économiques répandues dans la région. Toutefois, compte tenu des nouveaux défis politiques et socio-économiques dans la région, l’Assemblée des Chefs d’État et de Gouvernement, réunie à Addis-Abeba en avril 1995, a décidé de revitaliser l’IGADD et d’élargir les domaines de coopération entre les États Membres dans le cadre de l’IGAD dans trois domaines prioritaires: a) l’agriculture et la protection de l’environnement; b) la coopération économique, l’intégration régionale et le développement social; c) la paix, la sécurité et les affaires humanitaires.

Download FRN

DOCUMENTS PRODUCED

THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON TRADE AND TRADE FACILITATION ALONG THE ETHIOPIA-DJIBOUTI CORRIDOR

ANALYSIS AND RESPONSES NEEDED

This paper aims at providing a rapid assessment of the immediate effects of COVID-19 on trade and trade facilitation in the IGAD region with a particular focus on the Ethiopia-Djibouti corridor. The Ethiopia-Djibouti corridor is a main conduit for trade in the IGAD region. It is the dominant gateway for Ethiopia, accounting for over 95 percent of the country’s exports and imports, with other routes (e.g. Port Sudan, Berbera and Mombasa) being of limited importance.

The objective of this briefing paper is to provide the two direct beneficiaries of the African Development Bank’s (AfDB’s) ‘Improving Trade Facilitation’ project, the IGAD Secretariat and the Pan-African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PACCI) with a summary of the impacts of the pandemic on trade along the Ethiopia-Djibouti corridor and trade facilitation more in general, as well as with broad recommendations on how to counter the effects. Because the Corridor is mainly used by Ethiopia, the focus of the analysis, in particular the economic analysis, is on Ethiopia rather the Djibouti.

Download ENG

DOCUMENTS PRODUCED

TRADE LOGISTICS AND FACILITATION ALONG THE ETHIOPIA-DJIBOUTI CORRIDOR

Trade facilitation is needed to enhance Ethiopia’s foreign trade performance. To contribute to this need, this study assesses features of Ethiopia’s trade facilitation from both the supply side (such as policies and institutions) as well as from the demand side (e.g. trading companies).

The present report analyses the trade facilitation and trade logistics issues which affect trade along the Ethiopia-Djibouti transport corridor. Because Ethiopia is the main user of the corridor, the analysis in this report primarily concentrates on this country’s trade performance, whereas the corridor’s performance is assessed for Ethiopia and Djibouti. Section 2 reviews recent trends in trade performance, also considering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Section 3 introduces key concepts related to trade facilitation and logistics, before section 4 analyses trade logistics along the corridor. Institutions, policies, and regulations as well as recent reforms are reviewed in section 5. Section 6 addresses non-tariff measures affecting exports and imports; section 7 concludes.

Download ENG

DOCUMENTS PRODUCED

BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT AND REGULATORY FRAMEWORKS ALONG THE ETHIOPIA-DJIBOUTI CORRIDOR

The report is organized as follows: Section 2 reviews the main policies, strategies and plans in Ethiopia and Djibouti that constitute the regulatory basis for trade and transport along the corridor. Section 3 introduces the main relevant regulatory institutions in Ethiopia and Djibouti. Section 4 identifies and analyses the regulatory challenges impacting on trade and transport along the corridor. Section 5 presents conclusions and recommendations.

The report utilizes two main tools in its analysis. First, the methodology involves a review of existing studies, reports and other relevant documents. This desk review is used to assess policies, strategies and plans as well as legislation relevant to the Ethiopia-Djibouti corridor. Previous studies conducted on the corridor were also utilized to identify challenges and examine these challenges under current circumstances. Second, the report utilizes information gathered through interviews with logistics operators and regulatory institutions.

Download ENG

DOCUMENTS PRODUCED

CAPACITY ASSESSMENT OF BUSINESS ORGANISATIONS ALONG THE ETHIOPIA-DJIBOUTI CORRIDOR

Among the activities under the project was an assessment of the capacity of business organizations along the Ethiopia-Djibouti corridor. This report presents the findings of the capacity assessment. The approaches, findings, and recommendations of the study are presented in the next chapters. Chapter 2, Research Methodology, reviews the approach used to conduct the capacity assessment. It gives a brief overview of the research methodology, data collection methods, and data analysis tools implemented in this study. Chapter 3, Stakeholder Mapping, presents the main stakeholders involved in trade along the Ethio-Djibouti corridor. Chapter 4, Capacity Assessment, highlights the key findings from the capacity assessment study.  Chapter 5, Capacity Development Plan, states the recommended capacity building support, based on the findings of the assessment.

Download ENG

Project Rationale

Despite steady increases in trade volumes and complexity in recent years, the IGAD region continues to experience substantial cross border and business environment related bottlenecks along its transport corridors. These include border delays occasioned by complicated documentation requirements, infrastructure congestion, smuggling, fraud, and security-related problems, which result in increased trade costs and high prices for consumers. These “hidden” costs of trade negatively affect the cost of doing business and economic development along the trade corridors and beyond in the IGAD member nations.

Facilitating trade and promoting private-sector participation in economic development are therefore essential to hasten the transformation of transport corridors into full-fledged economic corridors. The economic corridor approach emphasizes the linking of infrastructure improvements with real economic opportunities such as trade and investment. This includes efforts to address the social development and other outcomes of increased regional connectivity and cross-border trade. A recent analytical piece in the RDGE for the Ethiopia-Djibouti corridor, as well as a number of Analytical Briefs on regional integration that were prepared to inform the preparation of the Eastern Africa Regional Integration Strategy Paper (EA-RISP), as well as the Bank’s Regional Integration Strategy Framework (RISF 2018-25), also confirmed the need for improved trade facilitation for enhanced cross border trading, private sector competitiveness, and regional growth agenda.

In this regard, the PACCI and IGAD are each found to have prioritized and clearly articulated the need to design and implement measures that improve trade flows and competitiveness through better participation and capacity of the private sector, notably the SMEs along transport corridors within the neighboring countries. To transform these corridors from transport conduits for overseas imports and exports into economic corridors, some IGAD region countries have also identified the need to complement trade facilitation and business environment reforms together with improved business support services that focus on the route linking Ethiopia and Djibouti and Ethiopia and Somaliland.

For PACCI, the key role in this process includes identification of trade-related bottlenecks and business environment issues that affect the private sector, including the needed capacity building programs for private sector operators in understanding and adhering to the rules and procedures of dealing with trade facilitation procedures and capacity of the MSMEs and other private sector agents in creating better value addition as well as participation in the value chain of economic activities along the corridor. In addition, it also works to enhance business and trading environment for private sector operators through its mandate and role of advocacy on behalf of its members.

The complementary yet key role of the IGAD, in this process includes the development of coordinated and harmonized trade policy and trade facilitation procedures, identification and advocacy for the removal of recurring NTBs, institutional capacity building and awareness creation to different stakeholders along the corridors such as CSOs, customs officials and trade policymakers, officials of OSBPs and the like.

Consortium of Partners Introduction

IGAD - Intergovernmental Authority on Development

The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) was created in 1996, with a revitalized mission and superseding the former Intergovernmental Authority on Drought and Development (IGADD) that was originally founded in 1986. The mission of the IGAD is to assist and complement the national level efforts of its eight Member States namely Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, Eritrea and South Sudan) that are meant to achieve the following through increased cooperation: i) Food Security and environmental protection; ii) Promotion and maintenance of peace and security as well as humanitarian affairs, and iii) Economic cooperation and integration. The vision of IGAD is to be a premier regional organization for achieving peace, prosperity and regional integration among its member countries.

Within the above context, IGAD’s institutional documents clearly articulate that the objectives of IGAD (which is one of the eight RECs recognized by the AUC) include, among many1 the following: i) Promote joint development strategies and gradually harmonize macroeconomic policies and programs in the social, technological and scientific fields; ii) Harmonize policies with regard to trade, customs, transport, communications, agriculture, and natural resources, and promote free movement of goods, services, and people within the region; iii) Create an enabling environment for foreign, cross-border and domestic trade and investment; iv) Develop and improve a coordinated and complementary infrastructure, in the areas of transport, telecommunications and energy in the region; v) Promote and realize the objectives of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the wider African Economic Community.

PACCI - Pan African Chamber of Commerce and Industry

PACCI is an international organization established in 2009 representing over 20 million businesses in Africa through 51 members(42 national associations of chambers of commerce and industry and 4 sub-regional chamber organizations, 5 industry associations). PACCI acts as the eyes, ears and voice of the business community at AU level. More than 95% of these businesses are small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). To keep pace with the ever-evolving continental trade landscape, PACCI actively participated in all the technical advisory committee meetings related to the AFCFTA negotiation. PACCI organized three biennium conferences under the theme ‘Africa Prosperity’discuss the challenges and opportunities of the AfCFTA with government officials, lawyers, traders and company representatives from various industries.

The efforts of a remarkably large and qualitative group of African business and trade experts has allowed PACCI to provide the AUC Secretariat in Addis Ababa and African government trade officials with practical input on ways to engage the private sector in the implementation of the AfCFTA. With the support of the UNECA/ATPC, PACCI supported the interregional pilot projects on advancing the concept of the Single Window, the publishing of the SW implementation guide, the cooperation agreements to collaborate with the African Alliance for Electronic Commerce to implement the African portal for foreign trade aimed at boosting intra-African trade.

 

Funded By

Upcoming Updates:

  • COVID-19 Project Mitigation
  • Project scope and timeline updates

Interesting links

Here are some interesting links for you! Enjoy your stay :)

Latest News

  • African BusinessEast African Community inches towards financial integrationFebruary 3, 2023 - 10:00 am

Archives

Follow us on Facebook

Followon TwitterSubscribeto RSS Feed

Contact Us

info@pacci.org

+251 11 691 0011

P.o Box 518

Gulf Aziz Building. 4th floor 402,

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Scroll to top

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

OKLearn more

Cookie and Privacy Settings

How we use cookies

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.

Essential Website Cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, you cannot refuse them without impacting how our site functions. You can block or delete them by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website.

Other external services

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

Google Webfont Settings:

Google Map Settings:

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:

Privacy Policy

You can read about our cookies and privacy settings in detail on our Privacy Policy Page.