COMESA Trade Facilitation Project

FAO support to COMESA trade facilitation programme (GCP/INT/387/COM)

Budget: USD 2,803,069 (total), USD 800,000 (phytosanitary matters) Start: December 2018 End: May 2024

The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) is a free trade area which comprises 21 Countries (Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, D.R. Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Eswatini, Kenya, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Somalia, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe). More information is available on https://www.comesa.int/. The project is implemented by the COMESA Secretariat and funded by the European Union.

The FAO has set up a project to support trade facilitation within the COMESA region. The IPPC Secretariat oversees the phytosanitary component of the project, which includes the following activities:

• Creation of a regional networking platform for sharing information on plant health arising from transboundary pests and diseases; and
• Establishment of an early warning and emergency response system to facilitate collective actions in mitigating priority risks.

Outputs delivered for the period 2018 - 2022

The project “FAO support to COMESA trade facilitation programme” was designed to be implemented from 2018 – 2022, with the project end anticipated to May 2022. The IPPC Secretariat conducted several sub-activities organized as a system and interconnected with each other to cover the overall work plan. Some of the outstanding outputs include, but are not limited to: four e-Learning courses covering subjects such as pest risk analysis (PRA), phytosanitary export certification system, surveillance and reporting obligations, and phytosanitary inspection; Emergency Preparedness: A guide for developing contingency plans for outbreaks of quarantine pests; Prevention, preparedness and response guidelines for Fusarium Tropical Race 4 (TR4) of banana; and Webinar series on Fusarium TR4 diagnostics, surveillance, inspection, and simulation exercises.

Project No-Cost extension

The Project underwent a project no-cost extension, with the new end date being May 2024. The following nine activities are planned for the period of no-cost extension:

• Completion of the inspection e-Learning course;
• Delivery of the study on risk-based border control workflow including technical IT and infrastructural requirements in five selected COMESA countries;
• Delivery of an online tutored course for export certification;
• Planning and coordination of a desktop simulation exercise for Fusarium TR4 in one selected COMESA country (virtual);
• Delivery of a desktop simulation exercise for Fusarium TR4 in one selected COMESA country;
• Order and delivery of laboratory materials for conducting a face-to-face training course on diagnostics and a simulation exercise for Fusarium TR4;
• Delivery of a face to face, hands on training on diagnostics for target pests;
• Planning and coordination of a simulation exercise for Fusarium TR4 in one selected COMESA country;
• Delivery of face-to-face simulation exercises for Fusarium TR4 in one selected COMESA country.

For the no-cost extension period, the overall amount of USD 218 200 (two hundred eighteen thousand two hundred USD) was allocated.

Resources materials developed under this project would be made available to the IPPC community through contributed resources or in some cases would be developed following established procedures under the oversight of the Implementation and Capacity Development Committee.