1st Annual Regional Agricultural Outlook Symposium and Gala Dinner held in Lusaka Zambia from 4th- 5th November, 2014

The Regional Network of Agricultural Policy Research Institutes (ReNAPRI) hosted the 1^st Annual Regional Agricultural Outlook Symposium and Gala Dinner in Lusaka Zambia from 4^th- 5^th November, 2014 at the Intercontinental Hotel. The meeting ran under the theme “Anticipating and Responding to the Region’s Policy Challenges in the Decade Ahead,” and aimed at facilitating and fostering ownership in the development and implementation of regional agricultural policy by bringing together an extensive regional cadre of around 200 high level guests and experts from both the public and private sector to discuss issues pertinent to the development of sustainable, coherent, and consistent agricultural policy.

 ReNAPRI is a regionally coordinated group of national agricultural policy research institutes duly established and operating in the Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) region, namely; the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia. ReNAPRI strives to support the national agricultural policy research institutes in these countries to be centers of excellence that guide and inform national and regional agricultural and food security policy issues. 

ReNAPRI hosted this event in conjunction with the FoodTrade ESA programme and the Guiding Investments in Sustainable Agriculture in Africa (GISAIA) Programme. The symposium aimed to demonstrate ReNAPRI’s acuity in producing empirical evidence for regional agricultural policy formulation and development in line with its mission to;“support  dynamic  collaboration  amongst  national  agricultural  policy  research institutes  to  produce  sustainable  and  high-quality  research,  outreach  and  capacity  development  that promotes national and regional agricultural policy objectives.”

High Level public private dialogue on opportunities and challenges in the iron and steel industry value chains in the East African Community (EAC)

The EAC Secretariat has prioritized investment in iron and steel sector as a strategic value chain that can enable job creation and facilitate socio economic transformation in the region. In this regard it has commissioned a value chain study in order to generate comprehensive information on investment potentials in the sectors, identify policy and other regulatory constrains to the growth of the sectors and propose actions required to stimulate investment and development of the value chain.

To enable consultations in the investment opportunities identified in the study and the proposed policy interventions, the EAC Secretariat in collaboration with the Ministry of Industrialization and Enterprise Development and the Mining Associations organised a National dialogue among stakeholders in the public and private sectors that was held at the Laico Regency Hotel in Nairobi on the 11^th November 2014.

During the dialogue, presentations were made by the private sector, key government officials, development partners and other stakeholders highlighting the strategic role of each stakeholder towards the realization of the study recommendations

The forum was attended by stakeholders drawn from the Private Sector, Government Policy makers, Development Partners, Academia, Financial Institutions and other stakeholders.

During the Forum, Mr. Richard N. Muteti, the CEO of the Kenya National Federation of Jua Kali Associations and Chairman of the COMESA Business Council SMEs Workgroup made a presentation on “Opportunities and Challenges in the development of Iron and Steel Metal Fabrication Sector”