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Issue #126 - Friday 19 October 2007 newsletterenewsletter

This bulletin is published by the COMESA Secretariat Public Relations Unit but does not necessarily represent views of the Secretariat.

Contact Address : COMESA SECRETARIAT, COMESA Center , Ben Bella Road P.O. Box 30015, 260 1 229 725, 260 1 225 107

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Issue #218 11th September 2009

Burundi the First Country to Benefit from the COMESA Adjustment Facility

Today ( Friday 11th Septem-ber 2009), COMESA disbursed Euro 4.4 million (7.7 billion

Burundi Francs equivalent) under the COMESA adjustment facility. The COMESA Secretary General Mr Sindiso Ngwenya presented the cheque to the Burundian Minister of Finance Mrs Clotilde Nizigama at a ceremony held in Bujumbura, Burundi. Also present were Burundi’s Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tour-ism, Mrs Euphrasie Bigirimana and the Head of the European Com-mission to Burundi Ambassodor Alain Darthenucq, Mr Peter Kiguta Director General of Customs and Trade represented the East African Community ( EAC).

In his speech, COMESA Secretary General Sindiso Ngwenya gave a background to the fund noting that it came about as a result of foresight by COMESA that had anticipated that regional governments were ex-pected to make some adjustments resulting from integration. “In 2000, when COMESA launched the Free

Trade Area, it was envisaged that the progress towards achieving the level of integration desired by the region would entail adjustments by the vari-ous Governments. With foresight, the COMESA Secretariat started to think of how we would support our coun-tries in this process”, added Secretary General Ngwenya.

As a result, COMESA created the COMESA fund, with two windows one of which is the adjustment facility. Mr Ngwenya pointed out that there was a need for provision of adjust-ment support to Member States to enable them more easily commit and implement their regional integra-tion commitments. “For this aspect, a second window, called the COMESA Adjustment Facility, would be cre-ated” he noted.

“We went through a rigorous process which entailed showing that COMESA is indeed an institution with the capacity and credibility to handle direct provision of such support to its Member States through its own mechanism.”

Addressing a press conference after the ceremony Mr Ngwenya explained that the 4.4 million Euros a grant to Burundi meant to assist her integrate herself into COMESA and EAC and does not have to be repaid.

Speaking at the same ceremony, Burundi’s minister of Finance Madam Nizigama Clotilde, pointed out that the 4.4 million Euros is only 65% of the funds that Burundi expects to get and that data required collection with the view to get the remaining 35% is on an advanced stage. She thanked COMESA Secretariat for having sup-ported her country leading to being the first to access the fund.

In the same vein, Mr. Ngwenya equally pointed that Burundi has in-dicated that she is committed to meet her part of the MoU “In her request, Burundi has provided a programme for implementation of commitments which includes the elimination of non tariff barriers; support to the COMESA Common Investment Area; and fiscal and monetary harmoniza-tion” Mr Ngwenya said. Adding that, it is commendable to see that the overall objective of the programme has a private sector focus and aims to address constraints that limit the ca-pacity to effectively benefit from larger markets” pointed out Mr Ngwenya.

Secretary General Ngwenya also held bilateral discussions with Burundi’s Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism Mrs Bigiri-mana Ephrasie, and is scheduled to meet (this afternoon) with Burundi’s Second Vice President in charge of economy and Social Affairs Hon Gabriel Ntisezerana.

COMESA Secretary General Mr Sindiso Ngwenya presenting a cheque to Burundi’s Minister of Finance Mrs Clotilde Nizigama at a ceremony held in Bujumbura, Burundi

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Mozambican Prime Minister H.E Luisa Diogo (left) receiving the award on behalf of the President

FANRPAN Food Security Policy Leadership Award ceremony

President Armando Emilio Guebuza, of Mozambique is the recipient of the 2009 FANRPAN

Food Security Policy Leadership Award for spearheading his country’s Green Revolution.

The Award was presented at a special ceremony by Mr. Sindiso Ngwenya, the Secretary-General of COMESA, in his capacity as Chairman of the FANRPAN Board of Governors.

Accepting the award on behalf of the President, the Prime Minister of Mozambique, H.E. Luisa Diogo, noted that the Award reinforced Mozambique’s resolve to put in practice the Rome Declaration on World Food by ‘reaffirming the right of everyone to have access to safe and nutritious food’. This is consistent with the universal right of access to adequate food and the fundamental human right of everyone to be free from hunger.

The Award -- whose inaugural winner was the President of Malawi, H.E. Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika -- recognises individuals or organizations that have made effective and evident contributions towards food security and poverty alleviation in the region.

Mozambique has made huge progress on ensuring the political, social and economic environment to eliminate poverty and hunger. In the last five years, the level of poverty decreased by 15%, testifying to the visionary and dynamic leadership of H.E. President Guebuza and his efforts to address hunger and malnutrition in Mozambique.

In the citation, FANRPAN CEO, Dr. Lindiwe Majele Sibanda highlighted that Southern Africa is neither poor nor incapable of feeding itself, but lacks fresh initiatives which empower, encourage and support efforts to promote food security, policy development and poverty alleviation. As part of the Award, the CEO announced benchmarks against which the Mozambican government would be evaluated. These include;

government budgetary allocation to agriculture in line with CAADP’s call for at least 10 percent investment in agriculture; Land under irrigation, given Mozambique’s; Million hectares with potential for irrigation and abundant water resources; the uptake of fertilizer usage by small holder farmers; Uptake of improved seed, and; The empowerment of women.

In Mozambique, agriculture is essential for economic growth, poverty reduction and food security. This sector employs more than 80 percent of the labour force and generates 25 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). Under the leadership of H.E. President Guebuza, the Government of Mozambique approved the Food Security and Nutrition Strategy (ESAN II), which includes food security as human right. The Government also approved the Action Plan for Food Production which is instrumental in reducing the food deficit of main staple foods in Mozambique during the three years (2008-2011).

During the same event, FANRPAN honoured Ms. Cellina Cossa with the inaugural FANRPAN Civil Society Policy Movers and Shakers Award. Ms. Cossa is the founder and President

of the General Union of Agricultural Cooperatives, an organization of 10,000 peasants, 95 percent of whom are women. The 200 cooperatives under UGC produce food for self substance and trade.

A former school teacher by training, Madame Cossa, had a vision for building food supply in her country and empowering the poorest people, most of whom are women. She started small cooperative groups of women growing vegetables to supplement family income. Initially some were reluctant to join but soon realised her vision. From a network of six cooperatives around Maputo these soon increased to more than 224. The vegetable farming soon expanded into other commercial enterprises such as poultry production and marketing, credit, insurance, industry, and construction. The ventures were complemented with training programmes to give women accounting, banking and project management skills.

Today, Madame Cossa, is a source of inspiration as a fighter for food security and a proponent of an African Green Revolution led by women in Mozambique.

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COMESA Ministers of Agriculture and Environment Meet in Zimbabwe

The Second Joint Meeting of the Ministers responsible for Agriculture, Environment

and Natural Resources was held in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe on 3rd and 4th September 2009. The purpose of the meeting was to review the implementation of the regional agricultural, environmen-tal and natural resources develop-ment programmes in the COMESA region.

The meeting was attended by Ministers and Heads of Delega-tions from Burundi, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Kenya, Libya, Malawi, Mauri-tius, Seychelles, Sudan, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. In addition, the meeting was at-tended by representatives of the USAID/East Africa, RUFORUM, Michigan State University (MSU) and the Food and Agriculture Or-ganisation (FAO).

The meeting was officially opened by His Excellency, Sena-tor Dr. J.M. Made, MP, Minister of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development of the Re-public of Zimbabwe. In his speech, he welcomed the participants to

Zimbabwe and the meeting. He noted that despite agriculture be-ing central to the economy in the region, the sector’s overall produc-tivity remains relatively low.

He further noted that changing Climate Patterns are posing chal-lenges to agriculture in the region. The Fourth Assessment Report of the Inter-Governmental panel on Climate Change states that Africa will suffer the most from the im-pact of Climate Change.

The meeting agreed on the fol-lowing issues :

Request member States to 1. increase investments in the ag-ricultural sector and ensure the targeting of key drivers of the sector as guided in the CAADP framework.Member States commit them-2. selves to align their Agricultural development programmes to the CAADP Framework.Urge the international com-3. munity to ensure that support to Africa under the future cli-mate regime should be based on the priorities determined

by Africa: adaptation, capacity-building, research, financing and technology development and transfer, including support for South-South transfer of knowledge, in particular indig-enous knowledge.Member States agree that the 4. financial resources required to tackle Climate Change should be new and additional, adequate, predictable, apoliti-cal, sustainable and provided primarily in the form of grants and other innovative financing mechanisms and instruments.COMESA member States com-5. mit themselves to up scaling of climate resilient food pro-duction technologies such as Conservation Agriculture. The Region should ensure that one million farmers have access to conservation farming technol-ogy by 2012.COMESA Secretariat to facilitate 6. the formulation of the frame-work on biofuels and neces-sary policies to ensure that the food security and energy concerns are addressed.

Uganda Re-aligns the National Cotton-to-Clothing Strategy with the COMESA Regional Strategy for Cotton-to- Clothing

Value Chain

With the assistance of the USAID/East Africa, the Government of Uganda

hosted a two-day National Valida-tion Workshop on Cotton –to- Cloth-ing Strategy in Kampala on 31st Au-gust – 1st September 2009, a week after the Parliament approved the National Cotton and Textiles Policy. The event was attended by forty five participants drawn from public and private sectors, civil society, and academia, ITC, all in the value chain. It was opened by Honourable Rev.

Father Simon Lokodo, the Minister of State for Industry and Technol-ogy, Ministry of Tourism, Trade and Industry.

The textiles and clothing sector is one of the 5 priority sectors that were highlighted by the heads of State Summit which was held in Dji-bouti in 2006 as major source of in-come and wealth and an important source of foreign exchange earn-ings. Textiles and clothing have, over time, provided an opportunity for some African countries to di-

versify their exports while clothing production is labour intensive, eas-ily offering opportunity for employ-ment in producing countries. More-over, the labour requirements can be met with low and semi-skilled workers especially women.

In line with the implementation of the heads of State Summit and the Council of Ministers which met in Djibouti in 2006 and Nairobi, Ke-nya, in 2007, which directed COME-SA to support member States to de-

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COMESA Court of Justice to Open the 2009 Session on 14 th Sept 2009

The COMESA Court of Justice will open the 2009 court ses-sion on Monday 14th Sep-

tember 2009. The ceremonial open-ing of the session will be held at the COMESA Secretariat in Lusaka, Zambia.

President of the Court of Justice Hon. Nzamba Kitonga is delighted that the court will finally sit after postponements.

“The main challenge which the Court has been facing is that of financing. The Court has not been conducting sessions in a timely manner so as to dispose off pending cases. The Sessions that were sched-uled for September 2008 could not take place. Clearly, justice delayed is justice denied.

He was speaking at the opening of the seventh administrative meet-ing of the COMESA Court of Justice in Lusaka on 9th September 2009.

Recently, the COMESA Court of Justice embarked on a set of

reform programmes embodied in its strategic plan, which were aimed at strengthening its systems so that it can be able to operate efficiently and prepare for the challenges which lie ahead.

A group photo of the Honourable Justices from the COMESA region plus part of the Executive management at COMESA Secretariat

Uganda Re-aligns the National Cotton-to-Clothing Strategy with the COMESA Regional Strategy for Cotton-to- Clothing

Value Chain

velop industrial strategies, COMESA in partnership with the African Cotton, Textiles and Industry Federation (ACTIF), and supported by key partners including ITC, and FAO developed a Cotton – to – Clothing Strategy for eastern and Southern Africa.

The Regional Strategy was validated in Johannesburg, South Africa within the Tripartite Frame-work and was launched during the Business Forum which was held in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, on 4th – 6th June 2009, back to back with the Heads of State Summit.

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A group photo of participants at the Cotton-To-Cotton National Validation workshop held in Kampala, Uganda

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Rwanda Records Major leap on the List of ease in doing business

KIGALI - Rwanda did not only achieve the double digit ranking it was eyeing in the 2010 World Bank ‘Doing Business Report’, but the nation emerged as the top reformer in setting up a conducive business environment.

It took a massive leap from its previous ranking of 143rd, to 67th out of 183 countries. The Doing Busi-ness 2010 Report named “Reforming through Difficult Times” was officially unveiled at the World Bank Country office by Penelope Brook, the acting Vice President, Financial and Private Sector Development at the World Bank-IFC.

In attendance were Prime Minis-ter Bernard Makuza, senior govern-ment officials, as well as donors.

“We have seen 67 reforms in 29 Sub-Saharan economies this year and we get to celebrate the fact that we have two African countries in our top ten reformers. Rwanda is the top reformer worldwide,” Penelope Brook said.

“It jumps 76 places in the rank-ing to number 67 and by reforming in seven of the areas that we cover. That is the biggest jump that we have ever seen in the Doing Business Ranking. This calls for a celebration,” she said amidst ululations and ap-plause.

Brook who flew in to announce the results to different African coun-tries by a video link, commended post-conflict countries, including Rwanda, Liberia and Sierra Leone, for major improvements in easing doing business.

Out of the 10 indicators of the World Bank, Rwanda registered massive reforms-the best globally, in starting a business, employing workers, dealing with construction permits, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, trading across borders and closing business.

It also emerged the most consis-tent reformer, moving from 143 to 67 in the rankings followed by Mauri-tius, which is 17th overall, from 24th position in the previous report.

Reforms in the company law passed this year, simplifying the start-up process from 14 days to just 2 days, and time taken to register property, largely boosted Rwanda’s new ranking.

Also outstanding is the improve-ments in access to credit and pro-tecting investors which were all strengthened by the new company law. Alongside the company law is the new labour law, security interest in movable property and the law on commercial recovery and settling of issues arising from insolvency helped Rwanda rank highly.

The business reforms are part of the government’s wider efforts to promote Rwanda as a business and investment destination, in order to drive the growth of the private sec-tor and generate wealth.

“On behalf of the Government of Rwanda, I want to acknowledge and welcome the results of Doing Busi-ness 2010 Report. This year we have done a major overhaul of our legal framework by modernising key busi-ness laws, following the best laws worldwide,” said Makuza.

He stressed that Rwanda focused on investment, service delivery and access to credit and simplifying taxa-tion procedures.

“While achieving the double digit is very rewarding, we remain focused on the implementation of sustain-able reforms and ensuring that they trickle down to all administrative levels. We envision doing further reforms to streamline procedures to do business.”

The Prime Minister expressed the willingness and determination of the government to continue implement-ing major reforms, bearing in mind the competitiveness of the countries, adding that the Rwanda will aim even higher in the next rankings.

“This achievement is a result of extensive efforts by the government in the last few years aimed at estab-lishing a conducive legal framework, streamlining procedures, reducing bureaucracy and improving ser-

vice delivery in order to encourage domestic and foreign investments,” said the Trade and Industry Minister Monique Nsanzabaganwa.

In a year of fast-paced reforms, Rwanda’s unprecedented leap in the Doing Business ranking sets a firm foundation for continued efforts to enhance progress beyond World Bank indicators to the business and investment climate as a whole, and consolidation of reforms beyond Kigali to district levels.

“In times overshadowed by the global financial and economic crisis, business regulation can make an important difference for how easy it is to reorganize troubled firms to help them survive, to rebuild when demand rebounds, and to get new businesses started,” Brook said.

“Rwanda’s progress is impressive and richly deserved. For the first time an African country is the top per-former,” said Jean Philippe Prosper, the Director of IFC, Eastern and Southern Africa.

In the region, Rwanda again emerged the most favourable place to do business with its neighbours ranking behind it.

Kenya is the nearest ranking at 95th, Uganda 112th, Tanzania 131st, Burundi 176th and DRC a lowly 179th.

Meanwhile, a cabinet meeting that sat yesterday evening chaired by President Paul Kagame welcomed the report and called for more efforts to aim higher in the next rankings.

The meeting set a target of be-ing among the top ten in the Doing Business rankings, calling upon all leaders in different capacities to put more emphasis on service delivery to expedite the country’s development.