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Issue #126 - Friday 19 October 2007 newsletterIssue 279 - 21st January 2011 newsletter

This bulletin is published by the COMESA Secretariat Public Relations Unit but does not necessarily represent views of the Secretariat.For Feedback: pr@comesa.int

Contact Address : COMESA SECRETARIAT, COMESA Center , Ben Bella Road P.O. Box 30051, 260 1 229 725, 260 1 225 107

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consecutive food crop surpluses and

controlled animal diseases in recent

years.

However, we have also encountered

some challenges such as poor state

of infrastructure – roads, bridges

and storage facilities, limited access

to agricultural markets – both

domestic and international, limited

development in irrigation farming and

reduced fish catches from our natural

water,’’ President Banda added.

The other challenges that Zambia and

most African countries are facing is

lack of adequate and affordable credit

to agriculture, inadequate investment

in agricultural research, lack of

adoption of new technology and poor

livestock productivity.

However, the Zambian Government

has embarked on a vigorous

programme of constructing and

ZAMBIA Signs CAADP Compact

rehabilitating roads, bridges, storage

facilities and markets. A new ministry

of Livestock and fisheries development

is also in place to address the

challenges facing the livestock and

fisheries sectors. To this effect, a

livestock disease free zone is being

created which aims at controlling and

preventing livestock diseases. This will

enable Zambia export livestock and

livestock products within the region

and other foreign markets.

Zambia’s Ministers of Finance and

National Planning, Agriculture and Co-

operatives, Livestock and Fisheries and

Foreign Affairs attended the signing

ceremony.

Other organizations that committed

to and signed the compact are

cooperating partners, the African

Union, civil society, the Zambia

National Farmers Union and

the New Partnership for Africa’s

Development (NEPAD).

Zambia has become the

eighth Member State of the

Common Market for Eastern

and Southern Africa (COMESA) to

sign the Comprehensive African

Agricultural Development Programme

(CAADP) compact. At a colourful

ceremony in Lusaka on Tuesday

18th January 2011, the Zambian

Government, cooperating partners,

the civil society, farmers and Regional

Economic Organisations appended

their signature to the Zambia CAADP

Compact. COMESA Secretary General

Sindiso Ngwenya, signed on behalf of

COMESA.

CAADP is an initiative that aims at

accelerating Africa’s development by

using agriculture as the engine to drive

development. Under this programme,

each African country should allocate at

least 10% of the country’s total annual

budget to the sector.

Zambian President Rupiah Banda was

represented at the official opening

ceremony of the signature by His Vice

President George Kunda.

In his speech, the Head of State

revealed that his government is

committed to start implementing

well focused and comprehensive

programmes that will help speed up

the development of the agricultural

sector in Zambia.

“As a country, we have come a

long way in terms of improving our

agricultural sector. We have recorded

Zambia’s Ministers of Agriculture and Co-operatives, Finance and National Planning, Livestock and Fisheries signing the CAADP compact

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The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) region needs to allow trade in staple agriculture products in the open market because agriculture, to give enhance incentives to agribusiness. COMESA Secretary General Sindiso Ngwenya says if exports of staple foods are not liberalized, then commercial farmers will only grow non staple crops which they can sell to forward markets even before they plant the crops. This provides certainty to farmers due to the high risk involved in farming.

“This, therefore, means that only small scale farmers can grow staple products which they cannot sell above the cost of production. The implications are that the small or peasant farmer is caught in a perpetual poverty trap,” Ngwenya added.

Secretary General Ngwenya made this call at the signing of the Zambia CAADP Compact that took place early this week.

Mr. Ngwenya commended the Government of Zambia for its

‘Allow trade in staple foods’ – Ngwenya tells Member States

commitment to developing the agriculture sector.

“This event is taking place at a time when Zambia’s agriculture potential has been clearly demonstrated by the recent bumper harvest of 2.7 million metric tonnes of maize collected in the last agriculture season 2009-2010 compared to 1.8 million metric tones in the previous season,”

He pledged that COMESA Secretariat as the lead Secretariat in assisting Member States to prepare national CAADP Compacts is readily available to provide technical, logistical, and financial and any other form of support needed to ensure the smooth implementation of CAADP Compacts.

To fast track the implementation of some CAADP Pillars, COMESA established the Alliance for Commodity Trade in Eastern and Southern Africa (ACTESA). ACTESA aims to develop efficient and effective regional markets through the promotion of agriculture inputs use and to integrate smallholder farmers into national and regional markets.

COMESA is also implementing the Programme for Building African Capacity to Trade (PACT II), an initiative aimed at increasing the regions competitiveness through effective value chain development including agro-processing.

COMESA Secretary General Sindiso Ngwenya, signing Zambian CAADP compact

CBT WHO ARE WE?

Belittle us at your own peril. We do not own big chain stores but we make a big chain to supply big chain stores. We do not own big fat bank accounts, but big fat people bank on us. Why?Because we provide the just-in-time delivery to their businessesWe are adept to adapt to any prevailing situationWe are the unofficial backbone of most African economiesSome use us while some abuse usYou may call us informal but we are informedInformed of where to get the goods you so dearly need.Our identity is how we identify areas of surplus.Surplus to supply areas in needWhen life gets tough you need us. Why?Because we are old and experienced enough to pull through tough situationsWe are like bees, we know where and which trees are blossomingWe are bees of the economic eco-systemThere is no distance too far for us.Determination is what oils our wheelsGiving us the will to cross borders and bridgesYes we salute COMESA.Hats off to COMESAFor recognizing and rewarding usFor recognizing that we deserve a simple system of paying tax at the borderA system exclusively for use by usA simplified tax regimeA Simplified Trade RegimeWe do not deserve to continue crossing the border while crossWho are we? We are the small CROSS BORDER TRADERS!Help us to help ourselves

CBT Poem by Ephias Mambume

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The United Nations Conference of Parties (COP16) took place in Cancun, Mexico from 29 November to 10 December, 2010. This was sixteenth Conference of The Parties (COP16) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the sixth Conference of Parties serving as the meeting of the parties to the Kyoto Protocol (COP/MOP6).

One hundred and ninety-four Parties attended the conference. COMESA was one of the official observer organisations that attended the COP16/CMP6 meetings. The COMESA team was led by Stephen Karangizi, the Assistant Secretary General responsible for Programmes and included 18 sponsored delegates from COMESA member states.

The Conference took place at two levels, namely, meeting of experts (Parties) and the meeting of Ministers (high level segment). During the negotiations informal meetings took place in group sessions consisting of Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, signatories to the Convention and representatives of regional groups. Notable regional groups included, the EU, Africa Group, G77+China, Association of Islands States (AOSIS)

group of least developed countries (LDCs), several umbrella groups, just to mention a few.

Exhibitions and numerous side meetings and events played an important role in information sharing, networking and alliance building, project promotion as well as resource mobilization. A Tripartite (COMESA-EAC-SADC) side event on “REDD Without Borders” was held on 4th December 2010 where country experiences from Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania and Kenya were shared and presentations made by the Regional Economic Communities (RECs). This event was organized by the SADC Secretariat with the support of GTZ.

COP16 saw the adoption of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation plus (REDD+) as one of the potential climate change mitigation mechanisms. The objective of REDD+ is to enhance forest carbon stocks using forests as sinks thereby advancing the sustainable management of forest resources. The motivation under the REDD+ mechanism will be that the developed Parties will provide adequate and predictable

financial resources, technical and technological support to developing countries Parties in accordance with national circumstances and respective capabilities. The proposal for establishment for a REDD+ was adopted in principle, with final details to be developed further and opened up for discussion by Parties at the next COP, with the hope to start implementing REDD+ as a climate change mitigation mechanism after COP17 to be held in Durban, South Africa in 2011.

The Parties also adopted proposals for the establishment of a Technology Executive Committee (TEC) and the Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN) as well as the Green Climate Fund (GCF). Capacity building would strengthen endogenous capacities at sub-national, national or regional levels as appropriate taking into account gender aspects, to contribute to the achievement of full, effective and sustained implementation of the Convention. The governance structures of the Fund and institutional arrangements will be finalized at COP17.

There are still divergent views on the quantified levels of emission reductions under the shared vision. There was talk of limiting global temperature increase to no more than 2°C when parties especially from the developing world are demanding not more than 1.5°C increase.

The modalities on the Operationalisation of the Adaptation Fund remained unresolved as Parties sought more clarity on guidelines and who the Trustee should be, arguing that the World Bank could not be the Trustee for the Adaptation Fund.

It is evident that Climate Change is no longer just an environmental issue

COMESA AT COP 16, CANCUN MEXICO

Assistant Secretary General Stephen Karangizi (left), led the COMESA delegation

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The COMESA Council of Ministers

at its Twenty Ninth Meeting on

6 December 2010 requested

the Secretariat to assist the

Government of Zambia and the

Member States to adequately

prepare for the Tenth AGOA Forum,

which the Honourable Minister

of Trade of Zambia will host and

co-chair. The Forum is planned for

6-8 June 2011 and will be held in

Lusaka.

The US market remains an

important export market for

eligible COMESA countries,

though there is a lot of room for

improvement of utilisation, which

requires that key constraints

be satisfactorily addressed. The

Eighth AGOA Forum hosted by the

Trade Minister of Kenya in August

2009, and the African Union Trade

Ministers at their Sixth Ordinary

Session held in Kigali in November

2010, have both identified key

constraints and called upon Africa

to work together in engaging the

US to address them.

In order to adequately prepare

to elaborate concrete issues and

workable solutions and programs,

it is important to have technical

and practical papers that deal with

specific areas and that are usable

by policy makers and implementers

in the Member States.

It is important to have these

papers in good time to assist the

preparatory process. To this end,

the Secretariat welcomes papers

on AGOA, and requests that the

papers be finalised and submitted

by Thursday 31 March 2011. The

submissions should be sent to the

COMESA Director of Trade Customs

and Monetary Affairs, Francis

Mangeni, at fmangeni@comesa.int.

The summary of The Honourable

Amos Kimunya in closing the

Eighth Forum and the Declaration

of the African Trade Ministers,

meeting in their Sixth Ordinary

Session, are available on request.

Available as well as are an update

on AGOA and the COMESA Editorial

Policy.

The papers should deal with

topical issues on the AGOA

agenda, providing empirical case

studies, and making concrete

recommendations that can

be considered in formulating

programs to be implemented.

The papers should be concise and

preferably not more than 10 pages.

The Secretariat will select up to

12 papers for publication at the

Forum. A selected paper will get an

honorarium.

but one that impacts all aspects of the human experience. Climate Change is now all about development and the future has to be looked at through the Climate Change lens, as the world is on the verge of a major paradigm leap into low carbon growth and development.

The African group is becoming more coherent and vocal in the process. The RECs are fairly advanced in facilitating their Member States positions. The African Union Commission has applied for its status in the UNFCCC to be upgraded from observer to Party. This will pave the way for the AU (supported by its constituent RECs) to better co-ordinate and represent the interests of Africa and its people.

While the negotiations proceeded smoothly, the numerical representation of Africa negotiators remained low. Within the G77 + China Group, Parties from Latin America, Arab States and India dominated the discussions by virtue of their numbers, with the voices from the African States being out-numbered. This may be an indication of financial constraints among Africa Group Parties in mobilizing enough funding to support a large number of negotiators.

It was also observed that legal expertise within the African Group negotiators was visibly low judging by the respective capacities displayed by other Parties when it came to articulate the negotiating texts.

The full decisions adopted by the COP 16 and CMP 6 can be found on their website www.unfccc.int.

COMESA AT COP 16, CANCUN MEXICOfrom page 3

THE TENTH FORUM ON THE AFRICA GROWTH AND OPPORTUNITY ACT

6-8 JUNE 2011, LUSAKA, ZAMBIA