COMESA has been implementing Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Development (PCRD) activities through the Trading for Peace Project. The Tarding for Peace Project was initiated in 2007 following a Decision of the Seventh Meeting of the COMESA Ministers of Foreign Affairs held in Djibouti in November 2006. The project’s overall objective is geared towards supporting post-conflict reconstruction, development and peacebuilding at the cross-border areas of Democratic Republic of Congo and its eastern neighbours (Burundi, Rwanda, and Uganda) and Zambia in the Great Lakes Region of Africa. In achieving this objective, the Trading for Peace Project uses trade as a mechanism for peacebuilding and compliments the AU PCRD policy.

The PCRD activities have further sought to improve post-conflict communities’ livelihoods by enhancing their socio-economic conditions and promoting human rights, justice and reconciliation through sensitization and targeted capacity-building activities such as skills training in conflict prevention and resolution, and entrepreneurship. In addition, the Project has been rehabilitating post-conflict cross-border infrastructure projects including markets, roads, and bridges amongst others at selected border areas.