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The Southern African Development Community (Sadc) programme in Support to Industrialisation and Productive Sectors (SIPS) is now operational. The SIPS programme is targeting to up-scale grant awards for the development of the leather, anti-retroviral drugs, medical supplies and associated value chains.

Through the SIPS programme, Sadc Member States have begun implementing national leather development strategies under the leather value chain of the Programme. The SIPS Programme aims to assist Sadc’s industrialisation and regional integration agenda, and is supported by funding from the European Union and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

The programme, is estimated to cost €18 million over the period 2019-2023, and will address key concerns of the private sector that hinder investments and industrialisation in Sadc by facilitating expansion of regional value chains and promoting dialogue between private and public sectors.

SIPS is being undertaken in the leather value chain in the agro-processing sector, and the Covid-19-related medical and pharmaceutical products, and anti-retroviral value chain (ARV) in the pharmaceutical sector, as these were given preference due to their potential for job creation.

It is expected that targeting these value chains at regional level will encourage Sadc Member States to address obstacles to regional integration, as well as assist the private sector to upgrade production processes.

Mr Calicious Tutalife, the Sadc Senior Programme Officer for Value Chains, said SIPS will enhance policy, regulatory and business environment on national and regional levels for development and sustainable operation of regional value chains for selected products in the agro-processing and pharmaceutical sectors. This will strengthen private sector participation in the ARV and leather value chains.

In a presentation during a SIPS meeting in Gaborone, Botswana on 4th March 2021, Mr Tutalife said the Programme will be managed by Sadc and German development agency, GIZ over a period of 84 months.

Sadc will implement Component 1, which aims at enhancing of policy, regulatory and business environment on national and regional levels for development and sustainable operation of regional value chains for selected products in the agro-processing and pharmaceutical sectors, while Component 2, to be implemented by GIZ, will ensure that private sector participation in ARV value chains regional leather value chains is enhanced. The Programme will be implemented in a coordinated manner for all the result areas by the Sadc Secretariat.

Sadc will also focus on activities aimed at enhancing policy, regulatory and business environment at the national and regional levels for the development and sustainable operation of the leather and ARV regional value chains, said Mr Tutalife.

In his presentation during the same meeting, Dr Jan Peter Böttcher of GIZ, a key implementer of SIPS, said the regional leather value chains have significant challenges which include inadequacy of supply of inputs, low quality of the goods produced, low levels of productivity, technology, and skills.

This was because most of the livestock population in Sadc, estimated at about 75 percent, is done by smallholder farmers and the collection ratio of hides and skins is below 50 percent in many Sadc Member States as slaughter is not centralised.

Dr Böttcher said in order to meet the potential of the leather regional value chain, there is a need for constant availability and supply of high-quality raw hides and skins, high-quality intermediary inputs available, appropriate technology equipment and skills, and establishing a systematic partnerships among the value chain firms horizontally and vertically.

The leather value chains, he said, is undergoing an inception phase in which an Inception study will be designed to map and profile the leather value chain (including associated value chains) in five selected focal countries. In addition, the study will provide information on the remainder of Sadc Member States, and will use South Africa as a benchmark country.

As Covid-19 limits mobility, a strategic cluster approach has been designed. An international expert will steer a team of five national consultants who can only travel in their countries and according to Covid-19 regulations. National consultants will be responsible to analyse the value for one country cluster and provide in-depth data for their respective focal country.

Cluster 1 countries are the United Republic of Tanzania, Malawi and Seychelles; Cluster 2 comprises Zambia, and Mozambique; Cluster 3 has Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Eswatini; Cluster 4 includes Namibia, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo; and Cluster 5 has Madagascar, the Comoros and Mauritius. Botswana will be carried out individually as leather technical team will be located in Gaborone.

Dr Böttcher also said private sector participation in regional leather value chain will enhance business, entrepreneurial and subject matter knowledge skills, improve capacity for business operating systems and procedures, enhance knowledge of technologically driven high-quality, modern and environmentally sustainable leather production systems, enhance access to efficient input and output markets, and facilitate access to affordable, flexible and innovative financing arrangements.

The proposed intervention under this value chain include facilitating trainings on technical and business management processes; procurement, production and marketing (Cluster approach); production quality improvement and/or products certification procedures; and green technology and resource efficient production.

The interventions will facilitate trade fair participation, back to back and matchmaking meetings, national and regional trade fairs, back-to-back meetings vertically and horizontally, and matchmaking events with available financing products and sources.

SIPS will address policy, regulatory and business environment constraints affecting development of the targeted value chains.

Activities and actions will target identified priorities to unlock the regional value chains potential, such as the facilitation of public and private sector dialogue, implementation of national plans aligned with the Sadc industrialisation strategy, research, innovation and development initiatives, and the participation of the private sector in the ARV and leather value chains. — www.Sadc.int