Second Quarter Report Financial Year 2012

This document presents SATH's second quarter report for fiscal year (FY) 2012.

Among others, during this quarter:

SATH launched the 2012 Trade Audit in conjunction with the SADC Secretariat. This year's Trade Audit, the final audit to be undertaken by SATH, will include a review of all SADC Member States as well as trade facilitation instruments, rules of origin (ROO), sugar policy, an economic assessment of the impact of the FTA and a review of progress on related initiatives such as competition policy.

SATH facilitated a Dar es Salaam Corridor Committee (DCC) Executive Committee meeting which was also attended by the World Bank. It was reported at this meeting that, as a result of the SATH grant, the World Bank has pledged to support the DCC with US$5 m for Secretariat capacity building and US$5 m for the implementation of projects over the next 3-5 years. This pledge is expected to be formalized by August 2012.

SATH carried out research and information gathering necessary for the update of the Lesotho Diagnostic Trade Integration Study (DTIS); interviewing key private and public sector stakeholders, gathering reports, policy briefs and legal texts, surveying clearing agents to gauge the ease of importing and exporting goods to and from Lesotho and conducting extensive regional consultations in four districts as well as Maseru.

SATH funded a regional renewable energy regulation training course in partnership with the Regional Energy Regulators Association (RERA) in Lusaka, Zambia from March 26-31. A total of 99 people from within and outside the SADC region, representing ten countries in the public and private sectors, took part in the training. Trained regulators in the public and private sectors have a crucial role to play in creating an enabling environment for clean energy development and investment.

SATH completed three technical studies in the selected value chains: Value chain approach to aflatoxin mitigation in groundnuts; Assessment of Aflatoxin Testing Facilities in Zambia and Malawi and Maize Value Chain in the SADC Region as well as a study on private equity in agribusiness in Southern Africa.

SATH engaged the Botswana Export Credit Insurance and Guarantee Company (BECI) to establish interest in taking up similar products SATH developed for ECIC. BECI requested that SATH conduct a seminar next quarter to present medium/long term export credit insurance and outward investment insurance best practice models, costs, benefits and potential outcomes.

SATH continued work on two reports which profile the strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats of Lesotho and Swaziland in textile and apparel. These reports contain a significant amount of empirical data related to the cotton, textile and apparel manufacturing sectors in these countries.