Intra-Africa Trade: What Role for the Private Sector?
A key source of livelihoods, agriculture is also a significant source of foreign exchange earnings as well as raw materials for the manufacturing sector.
Policy LINK has brought together two Africa-led research organizations to explore how the private sector can help spur trade across nine member countries of the East African Community and Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa.
Only 12 percent of global trade is considered “intra-Africa,” a figure that lags behind other continents and not commensurate to the investment made in regional trade facilitation, according to a Policy LINK inception report introducing the impact-driven research effort. Led by Akademiya2063 and DevPact, the joint effort is part of the global Feed the Future program’s collaborative approach to generating—and applying—knowledge to advance better policy systems and partnerships for regional trade.
Together, the Policy LINK-supported organizations will offer a “menu” of models for facilitating trade, especially in agricultural sectors. A key source of livelihoods, agriculture is also a significant source of foreign exchange earnings as well as raw materials for the manufacturing sector.
Building on the work of other USAID programs, like the East Africa Trade and Investment Hub and Africa Lead as well as the promise of a recently launched African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTA), the Policy LINK-led effort will explore ways to boost competitiveness across five value chains, including through digitization and regional infrastructure development.