MOBILE APP THAT KEEPS DRIVERS SAFE
The East Africa Community (EAC) Secretariat and its Partner States rolled out the Regional Electronic Cargo and Driver Tracking System (RECDTs). Funded by the European Union, Global Affairs Canada, Danida, Finland, Netherlands and United Kingdom through TradeMark East Africa, the app enables issuance of EAC COVID-19 digital certificates that are mutually recognised by Partner States, thus eliminating need for multiple testing.
SAFE TRADE ONE TEAM, ONE PROGRAMME
TradeMark East Africa is partnering with six other agencies namely; IGAD, German development agency GIZ, International Organization for Migration (IOM), TradeMark East Africa (TMEA), UNICEF and UNOPS to deliver the European Union’s €60 million COVID-19 response project aimed at supporting 8 IGAD Member States including- Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Uganda – to tackle the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
EMERGING IMPACT, LESS PAPER WORK, SIMPLIFICATION WORKS!
Exporters and importers of fresh or dry produce to Kenya are required to register with Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS). Until recently, this registration took between 10 to 28 days with the traders completing a total of 10 steps and filling in 13 documents. A time-consuming effort that was also costly. Simplification of processes by KEPHIS have reduced the number of steps by half – to 5- and requirement to submit only 3 documents, translating into a 62 % reduction of traders’ transactional costs. Find out how TMEA supported this!
GULU LOGISTICS HUB: A GAME CHANGER
TradeMark East Africa together with Uganda’s Ministry of Works and Transport and Uganda Railways Cooperation commenced construction of the Gulu Logistics Hub in March 2020, a project of Euros 7.76 million (about 33 billion Uganda Shillings), supported by the European Union (Euros 5 million) and the UK`s Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO – Euros 1.76 million). Major features of the Hub include: container and break-bulk, handling and storage facilities with a handling capacity of more than 500,000 per year, space for stakeholders dealing with freight transport and the provision of accompanying services.
WHAT WE’VE LEARNT DURING COVID-19
TradeMark East Africa (TMEA), through its $23 million Safe Trade Facility, has been working on a multi-pronged approach to tackle the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic in the region. While working earnestly with partners to ensure trade moves in East Africa in a safe and reliable manner, several challenges have continued to emerge. Here are some lessons from the field that can help other regional blocs learn from challenges and build on gains made.
RESEARCH AND LEARNING
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, such was the scale of the economic disruption caused by lockdown measures that there was much talk of the collapse of global trade. In the midst of the lockdowns, in April, the World Trade Organization estimated that the decline would amount from anywhere between 13 and 32 percent. In a similar vein, UNCTAD was forecasting a 20 percent decline in global trade for 2020. Things took a turn !