During the past 40 years or so, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and East African Community (EAC) have taken various actions to enhance intra-regional trade. These efforts have included, and not limited to, free trade area, customs union protocol, common market protocol, trade facilitation, harmonized road transit charges, one-stop border posts, anti-dumping, competition policy and law, re-export of goods, removal of non-tariff barriers to trade and standards and measures for trade and investment, consumer protection, establishment of Alliance for Commodity Trade in Eastern and Southern Africa (ACTESA) to facilitate seed trade among others.  

Despite all these investments, an assessment to support the promotion of regional trade of certified seeds of major staple food crops in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Zambia carried out by Agri-Experience in 2018 found that seed trade was not growing steadily despite substantial regional, national, and development partner investments to harmonize regulations and reduce barriers. As a follow-up, Africa Lead, a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded program, implemented a Regional Pilot Seed Activity in 2019 centred around facilitating national and regional conversation including holding learning events to address the key bottlenecks to seed trade. The key recommendations from the Seed Activity were to convene regular regional stakeholder dialogues, develop an information guide on all the cross-border seed trade requirements, and establish a seed sector audit mechanism. 

The above recommendations were part of the interventions supported by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) through the Improved Regional Seed Trade in Common Market of East and Southern Africa and the East African Community Region Project (2020-2022). The project was implemented by six (6) partners including the African Seed Trade Association (AFSTA), Emerge Centre for Innovations – Africa (ECI-Africa), New Markets Lab (NML), CellSoft, and AgCuity Consulting. The purpose of the consortia was threefold: 

i. Strengthen the convening of dialogue forums at national and regional levels.  

ii. Develop and put in place regionally aligned seed laws and regulations. 

iii. Develop an information guide to facilitate seed movement including digitizing COMESA/EAC seed certification procedures. 

The above-mentioned objectives were collaboratively implemented by leveraging the capacities of the six (6) partners, each of whom had integrative objectives. The project relied on a consultative and collaborative approach with the key stakeholders, aiming to capitalize on the momentum gained by the Africa Lead Pilot Seed Activity in 2019. This meant maintaining the relationship with the stakeholders i.e., Regional Economic Community (RECs) officials, inspectors, seed traders, border and customs officials and the designated heads of the national seed authority. In each country, partners worked through various institutions, including members of the Seed Work Advancement Team (SWAT), National Seed Authorities, National Seed Traders Associations, Border Authorities etc. These key contacts were crucial in identifying and mobilizing the right people who would facilitate the development of the various tools (i.e., information guide, seed system audits, SeedAssure etc.). The highly consultative process was to ensure ownership and to obtain goodwill in implementing the project during the Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). Due to the pandemic and the ensuing closure of borders, the process had to be done in a hybrid setup.