10th-14th Dec. 2018, Coral Port Sudan, Sudan

Theme: Focusing on Innovation to Transform Africa’s Leather Sector towards Productivity and Competitiveness!

ALLPI Strives to Pursue SDG 8, 9, 12, and 17 in Implementing its Regional Leather Sector Strategic Objectives (2016 - 2025)

WHAT IS THE ALLPI REGIONAL consultative FORUM about?

This is a special forum, anchored on the Triple Helix Approach. It brings together stakeholders from the Leather Sector, which includes the Public and Private and the Academia sectors. ALLPI’s intent for the forum is to create platforms to enhance technology transfer, collaboration, networking, reasearch development, and innovation to promot the regional inter and intra trade.

Executive Director's Welcome Message

Welcome to the ALLPI Regional Consultative Forum, 2018, to be held in Port Sudan, most famous for its unspoiled off-shore coral reefs which make it one of the world’s most exciting diving destinations. With the theme of “Focusing on Innovation to Transform Africa’s Leather Sector towards Productivity and Competitiveness!”, the Forum promises to build on the achievements of the 2017 Forum, which was held in Livingstone, Zambia. The 2018, forum promises to bring new practical interactions: technology transfer – tanning symposium, B2B meetings and showcasing of new products designs from the SMEs platform.

We are excited to share with you an incredible Forum program, which will include the following keynote events and speakers, who will be drawn from across the world:

Tanning clinic from raw hides and skins to high quality finished leather, ready for various fashion displays;
New Technology on Leather Recovery, Product development, Waste management and Cleaner Production;
Awards for trending leather products designs under the Regional Designers Studio Project;
B2B Meetings SMEs and potential buyers from the national, regional and global arena;
Key note address from leading Business, Public and Academia speakers from renowned institutions;
and Election of the New Regional Core Team and SMEs Committees.

Along with these fantastic activities, our social program provides the following menu:

An afternoon excursion to the exquisite Port Sudan – mixing Business with Pleasure
The Executive Director Annual Dinner.

We invite you, to be part of history in the transformation of the Africa leather sector, from Commodity to Product Focus. Face to Face with the premier players, who are ready to take leather to the next level.

Prof. (Dr⁴.) Mwinyikione Mwinyihija Executive Director

About ALLPI

Africa Leather and Leather Products Institute (ALLPI), previously known as COMESA/LLPI, was chartered in 1990, with the endorsement of 17 COMESA Heads of States. The COMESA Council of Ministers in its Thirty-Seventh Meeting decided that starting from 1st January 2018 COMESA - Leather and Leather Products Institute to be rebranded as Africa Leather and Leather Products Institute (ALLPI). ALLPI’s main Mandate is to support the development of the leather sector in the Region.

ALLPI is headquartered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; and its membership encompasses ten COMESA countries, namely Burundi, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, Sudan, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The Institute is expanding its operations to Swaziland, Mauritius, Egypt, DRC, Madagascar, and other African countries.

The Mandate of ALLPI is defined in its Charter and complimented by the COMESA Treaty, COMESA Summit Decisions, Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), Africa Union Commission (AUC) – Agenda 2063, Council of Ministers Directives, COMESA Secretariat Strategy, COMESA Regional Leather Value Chain Strategy, Member States Leather Value Chain Strategies, Public and Private Sector Stakeholder’s inputs through the Regional Core Team, Triple Helix and SME Technical Committee platforms, among others. The diversity of the platforms’ members have expanded to include leading global players of the industry to provide in-depth and real-time solutions to the leather sector.

Recent Accomplishments:

In past 5 years ALLPI has delivered tangible outputs, which have set a firm basis of transforming the Regional Leather Value Chain from a Commodity to a Product focus. Some of the outputs are as followings:

National leather Value Chain Strategies were formulated, validated and launched for Burundi, Eritrea, Ethiopia (National Leather Strategy, Ethiopia Leather Industries Association, EIFCCOS Cluster), Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Sudan, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe;
About 750 artisans were trained on Footwear Making, Record Keeping, Costing & Pricing, and Cluster Management;
Consultancy work was done to develop Leather Sector Strategy for Swaziland, DR Congo, and Djibouti;
Business Plans were also developed or in the process of development for the following incubation centers, clusters and vocational institutions: TPCSI-Kenya, Bulawayo Cluster-Zimbabwe, FLEMEA-Uganda, TCFC-Uganda, Kerari-Sudan, SUST incubation Center-Sudan, Satellite Design Studio and Business Incubation Center – Malawi, and Feasibility Study and Business Plan for Incubation Center DRC;
Curriculum was developed for Technical and Vocational Centers in Burundi, Eritrea, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Zambia, and Uganda. ALLPI, with the objective of regional curriculum harmonization at artisanal level, setup a regional curriculum Committee and designed about 21 short-term courses in business, leather tanning, and leather footwear and leather goods manufacturing;
With the objective of establishing the basis for close partnership between ALLPI and partner organizations, ALLPI signed about 35 umbrella Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Universities and Research Institutions, Financial Institutions, Government organizations, Training Institutions, Sectoral Associations, and different funding agencies;
ALLPI understands the strength of collaboration with partners and regularly organizes Leather Sector Core Team Meetings, Regional SMEs Committee Meetings and Stakeholders Consultative Fora every year;
ALLPI supported the formation of different clusters in different countries: eg. Zimbabwe, Malawi, Burundi & Uganda, Kenya, Sudan, Zambia, etc;
In partnership with the Commonwealth Secretariat, ALLPI is working on establishing the Regional Design Studio that will address the long-standing weakness in product development, design and fashion forecast for the leather sector in the region. Satellite Design Studios have already been identified at Member States level and capacity building work is being underway;
ALLPI disseminates information related to leather and leather products production, investment and marketing through online bi-annual Scientific Journal, quarterly Newsletters, Web Portal and Posters & Brochures;
ALLPI has attained full Certification of Quality Management System (QMS) integrated with Environmental Management System (EMS) to further enhance the capacity to deliver quality services to Member States and other stakeholders.

About Port Sudan

Port Sudan, the country’s main port, is the capital of the Red Sea State. Founded in 1909 as a railway linking sea towards the Nile River, Port Sudan is now a favourite destination among tourists especially when they scout for beaches and exquisite scuba diving areas.

Port Sudan is a common departure point for many Muslims en route to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for a once in a lifetime pilgrimage (Hajj) to Mecca.

Ports Sudan boasts of a great oil refinery that handles petroleum, and also an oil pipeline that links to Khartoum. With a near-desert climate, tourists will surely enjoy basking under the sun here and getting a tan, or seeing great aqua life when diving. Eating and sleeping are both good for tourists in Port Sudan. You will enjoy great seafood, and accommodations with astonishing views. Whether, you eat, swim, dive, or walk around, you will enjoy Port Sudan for its uniqueness; having a hot, arid, desert like climate, with a location that’s just an inch away from a clean, refreshing body of water.

Port Sudan has a hot desert climate with extremely hot summers and moderately hot winters, requiring the acquisition of fresh water from Wadi Arba’at in the Red Sea Hills and from salt-evaporating pans. Temperatures can easily exceed 30 °C (86 °F) in winter and 45 °C (113 °F) in summer. Over 90% of the annual rainfall falls between October and January, mostly in November, The average temperature is 28.4 °C (83.1 °F) in this time of the year.