COMESA/LLPI Participated in the African Union Commodities Strategy Validation Workshop

The African Union organized Commodities Strategy Validation Workshop for Africa and Meeting of the AU Commodities Task Force was held in Nairobi, Kenya from 2 - 4 November 2016. The purpose of the workshop was to validate the recommendations of the AU Commodities Strategy with Private Sector stakeholders and other key actors. More than 30 participants from different institutions across Africa took part in the workshop and COMESA-Leather and leather products institute (COMESA/LLPI) was represented by Prof. Mekonnen Hailemariam, Leather value Chain Expert and Personal Assistant to the Executive Director.

The Commodities Strategy document was developed by the AU Department of Trade and Industry in close collaboration with other key Departments notably, Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture, Department of Infrastructure and Energy, Department of Economic Affairs, the Bureau of the Chairperson. The Strategy lays out a vision for commodity-led industrialization: to use commodities as a driver for achieving the structural social and economic transformation of Africa and Agenda 2063.  The AU Commodities Strategy reviews the state of play for high-priority commodities sectors in Africa, namely agriculture, mining, and energy.  It also focuses on two critical cross-cutting issues: Managing commodity price volatility and Industrialization through Commodities.

During the three days workshop presentations and discussions were held on key recommendations of the Agricultural, Mining and Energy Commodities Sub Committees as well as on crosscutting recommendations. African Commodity Exchanges experiences from Ethiopia and Malawi were also presented and discussed. Prof. Mekonnen from COMESA\LLPI by briefing participants on the economic importance of the leather sector for Africa in general and COMESA region in particular requested to consider it as one of the key commodities.  He also highlighted the activities that COMESA/LLPI is currently working for the transformation of the African Leather Value Chain from Commodity Dependence to Product Development.