This Regional Trade Facilitation Roadmap has been developed according to the methodology described in the “Guide to drafting a National Trade Facilitation Roadmap” of the United Nation Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)1 , appropriately adapted in order to be applicable in a regional, rather than National context, as well as the International Trade Centre (ITC) guidelines on designing a regional trade facilitation roadmap2 . Its purpose is to provide the Horn of Africa Initiative (HoAI) member States with a common vision to ensure that all Trade Facilitation (TF) stakeholders (including public and private agencies) are aligned on the strategic Goals indicated in this document so that they are able to move in the same direction and achieve better results.
The document opens with a vision statement for implementing TF reforms in the Horn of Africa (HoA) that is further developed in a series of strategic Goals to be achieved within the next three years, with a description of the Activities that is necessary to put in place in order to reach them, including milestones and indicators for measuring performance.
This Roadmap is mainly addressed to policymakers in HoAI member countries, Multilateral Financial Institutions and other donor agencies that plan to fund or implement trade facilitation measures in the region, and provides guidance for setting up objectives, timelines, responsibilities and technical assistance programmes needed for implementing the Goals and Activities described.
The elaboration of the HoAI Regional Trade Facilitation Roadmap has been preceded by an analysis of the current actions and initiatives in the HoA in areas relevant to trade facilitation, in order to ensure that it builds on any existing initiatives such as those under COMESA and IGAD. To this end, a series of consultations have been arranged in HoAI member States with key Ministries and government agencies responsible for trade matters. Moreover, the Roadmap takes into account the World Trade Organization (WTO) TF Needs Assessments and National TF Implementation strategies developed by those HoA member States that have adopted these plans, and complements other TF planning tools such as the Consolidated Priority Matrix for TF in the HoA elaborated by delegations of officials from the governments of Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Djibouti during the HoAI Trade Workshop held in Nairobi on 6 and 7 April 2022.