In January 2012, the African Heads of State and Governments endorsed a Framework, Road Map and the Architecture for Fast Tracking the establishment of the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) and the Action Plan for boosting Intra-African Trade (Action Plan) and decided that the CFTA should be operationalised by the indicative date of 2017.
This proposed deadline has since then considered to be over optimistic, given the complexities that this level of agreement entail. UNCTAD was closely involved in the elaboration of support actions for implementing the Action Plan with other development partners1. At the African Trade Ministers’ meeting (UNCTAD XIII at Doha on 20 April 2012) UNCTAD presented a note on its proposed support to the implementation of the African Union (AU) Action Plan.
Subsequently a request to United Nations Development Account (UNDA) was submitted for a pilot project to assist African countries with dedicated support to their efforts in accelerating the formation of the CFTA, and this was discussed and approved with an overall budget of US$490,000 for an initial duration of January 2013 to December 2015.
The overall goal of the project is to foster and boost intra-African trade expansion, leading to sustained economic growth and inclusive development through dedicated support to the establishment of the CFTA, and thereby facilitating a process of inclusive structural transformation of African countries.
The two expected accomplishments of the project are summarised as:
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1: Enhanced knowledge among policy-makers, experts and private sector on requisite policies and measures for establishing the CFTA.
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2: Increased capacity of policy-makers, experts and private sector to adopt and implement policies and measures to promote establishment of the CFTA.
The beneficiaries of the project were intended to be:
- Selected AU member States
- AU Member States not involved directly (to benefit indirectly through dissemination of the results)
- The 8 Regional Economic Communities 2 recognized by the AU
- The AU and its Commission
- Individual participants, (including policy-makers/experts from member states, and suitable private sector representatives) identified by the UNCTAD secretariat.
The project started in 2014 instead of 2013 due to late receipt of funds. Because of this, a project extension was requested by the project management and granted (by the UNDA Office) until November 2016.
