Archives 2020

Chisamba, Zambia, Monday 16 November 2020: Over ten civil society and private sector organizations in Zambia participated in a two-day national consultation workshop on 16-17 November to enhance their role in the COMESA Peace and Security programme as the country prepares to hold general elections in 2021.

COMESA in collaboration with the Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) organized the workshop as part of efforts to strengthen collaboration with Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and the African Union. This is in addition to establishing a Civil Society National Chapter for ECOSOCC in Zambia.

Under this initiative, the capacity of Zambia’s CSOs will be enhanced for better engagement in matters of peace and security in line with the African Union 2020 theme of Silencing the Guns. It will also improve the CSOs engagement with the Zambian Bureau on the implementation of the COMESA Early Warning System (COMWARN). During the same workshop, the participants reviewed the accreditation of local CSOs to the COMESA Programme on Peace and Security (GPS).

The The GPS programme was tasked to ensure the involvement of private sector and civil society organisations on matters of peace and security on a consultative basis. Thereafter, the Rules of Procedure were developed for accreditation to the COMESA Peace and Security Programme.

Head of the Unit, Ms. Elizabeth Mutunga told the participants that once CSOs are accredited to the COMESA programme, the Secretariat provides numerous opportunities to meet and share experiences and to review the impact of the accreditation. Over the years, the Secretariat has collaborated with these organisations to develop and implement some of the current programmes in GPS. Among them is the programme on building the capacity of Member States to address war economies which the accredited CSOs participated in developing.

Accredited organisations also helped during the conceptualisation of the COMESA Early Warning System. The Secretariat has also benefited from their support in activities such as training of COMESA election observers and small-scale cross border traders.

“You will be pleased to know that out of all accredited organisations, Zambia has provided us the greatest support and in addition they have involved us in their programmes and activities,” Ms Mutunga said.

So far, similar national consultations have been held in 16 countries, including Burundi, Comoros, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Eswatini, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Head of Programmes for the ECOSOCC, Mr. Nana Kyeretwire addressed the delegates.

Lusaka, Friday, 24 July 2020: Selected Permanent Secretaries (PSs) from the Zambian Government, their representatives and members of the civil society have been sensitized about the COMESA Early Warning System Vulnerability Assessments (COMWARN SVAs) strategy and the Continental Structural Vulnerability and Resilience Assessment (CSVRA).

The one-day session was conducted in Chisamba, 50 kilometers north of Lusaka. The objectives were to obtain PSs inputs on the implementation of the SVA programme for Zambia, and to appraise them on the progress made to institutionalize the SVA process in the country. This is a follow-up on the national multi-stakeholder consultations conducted in September 2018 and May 2019.

The participants also discussed and develop a roadmap on how to take forward the African Union CSVRA process. With the COVID-19 pandemic in the region, Member States such as Zambia can utilize an efficient early warning system to track, monitor and prepare adequately for any disaster.

Zambia’s Minister in the Office of the Vice President Olipah Phiri indicated that the government is on course to undergo a voluntarily structural vulnerability assessment in line with the African Union resolution. Speaking when she opened the workshop, the minister added that in order to effectively respond to all emergencies, the Government has prioritized the establishment of a people-centred early warning system which will ensure timely dissemination of information to communities at risk for them to take early action.

“To this end, the Disaster Management  and Mitigation Unit (DMMU) under the auspices of the World Bank is currently putting up a modern National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) which will act as a command and control centre for  handling all emergencies in the country,” she said.

She described the COMWARN Training as timely given that the country is also preparing for the General Elections in 2021 adding that the government was establishing a Situation Room soon to act as an early warning system for monitoring all the indicators that may trigger internal conflicts.

The meeting noted that conflicts triggered by Climate Change related issues such as access to water and land due to droughts are on the increase. For Sub Sahara Africa alone, Climate change accounts for about 30% of internally displaced persons. However politically, socially or economically motivated conflicts also contribute to the internal displacement of people hence the need to have structural vulnerability and resilience assessment and mitigation strategy.

Secretary General Chileshe Mpundu Kapwepwe, urged the PSs to champion the SVA and CSVRA processes at the national level and start the process of undertaking the process forward by officially writing to the AU.

“COMESA and the AU will work closely together to mobilize the necessary resources for the CSVRA process and we look forward to Zambia being a leader in the region in volunteering and undergoing the CSVRA Process,” she said in a statement presented by Assistant Secretary General in charge of Programmes, Ambassador Kipyego Cheluget.

The PSs were trained on the various aspects of the SVA including its methodology, data sourcing, extraction and interpretation and creation of a national bureau to coordinate SVA process at the national level.

Meanwhile,  the African Union through its representative Ambassador Fred Ngonga who joined the meeting virtually said his organisation was ready to provide support to all its Member States in their efforts to promote peace and stability.

COMESA has so far disseminated SVA outputs including holding of national multi-stakeholders’ consultations in Uganda, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Zambia.  The Secretariat has also conducted two Training of Trainers (ToT) workshops in Zambia and Kenya for members of their national bureaus.

Antananarivo, Friday, March 6, 2020: COMESA Maritime Security (MASE) programme has trained 54 law enforcement personnel to strengthen the country’s and the regional capacity to fight money laundering and terrorism financing. They include magistrates, prosecutors, police/gendarmerie, officials from financial intelligence unit, anti-corruption commission, central intelligence services, among others.

The latest capacity building event was a two-day workshop that took place on 4th and 5th March 2020 in Antananarivo, in response to a request from Madagascar authorities. The Director General of Madagascar Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU- SAMIFIN), Mr Boto Tsara Dia Lamina opened the workshop.

At the same time, a Numeric Platform that was developed by the COMESA MASE programme was handed over to Mr Lamina for use by stakeholders in the country.

Mr. Lamina thanked COMESA for the support, which he said will facilitate information sharing thus reinforcing the efforts to crack down on transnational organized crimes such as money laundering and other related illicit financial flows crime.

COMESA has also supported Madagascar to attain full membership of the Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group (ESAAMLG).

During the workshop, participants were taken through various investigative techniques including surveillance, undercover operations, wiretapping and accessing computer systems.

The COMESA Component of the MASE programme, has the overall objectives of strengthening the capacity against money laundering and the financing of terrorism. It is customized to fit the specific needs of the respective countries in view that the countries are at different stages of the development of their Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regimes.

MASE Coordinator for COMESA, Ms. Dalitso Bonongwe encouraged the Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) to work together and put in place formal means of cooperation, such as Memoranda of Understanding over and above the informal settings, with Financial Intelligence Units.

“In the fight against money laundering, the interventions of LEAs need to be effective in order to deter criminals from perpetrating such crimes,” she said adding that ineffective interventions can provide a conducive environment for prospective criminals.

“As LEAs, think beyond the traditional offenses of money laundering and illicit financial flows and start to follow the dirty money and recover all the associated “dirty” assets,” Ms Bonongwe said.

Respective countries are expected to work with COMESA to identify the specific AML capacity building needs that can be supported by the Programme.

The task of law enforcement agencies in the fight against money laundering includes investigations, prosecutions and asset recovery. LEAs are tasked to use the intelligence from FIUs to bring criminals to book. Hence, if LEAs lack the expertise to investigate and prosecute the criminals, then all invested efforts by other stakeholders will be in vain.

COMESA is one of four regional bodies implementing the EU funded Regional Maritime Security Programme, each of which is implementing a component based on its comparative advantage. The others are the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD); the Indian Ocean Community (IOC) and the East African Community (EAC).