Our team of national and international experts has been in the forefront, contributing to a wide range of development interventions in agriculture and business development. They have been instrumental in devising economic development activities required to meet the aspirations of rural communities across Sub-Saharan Africa.
AESDC in partnership with DAI[1] is implementing the USAID East Africa Trade and Investment Hub and provides long-term technical assistance to the Eastern African Region so as to substantially increase regional and international trade of agricultural commodities thereby directly contributing to economic growth and consequently to the attainment of Feed the Future outcomes. Our teams of experts take a leading role in the Agriculture and Agribusiness component where they work to increase the access, availability and utilization of African-grown staple foods in regionally integrated markets.
Our work at the Hub covers the entire East African Community (EAC) countries with the overall goal of doubling intra-regional trade in staple foods by the end of the project. To date we have supported an increase of 36 percent in value ($176 million) and 25 percent in volume (491 million kg.) of staple foods traded within the EAC and facilitated transactions worth more than $20.3 million.
At the policy level, our experts have supported the EAC Partner States to expedite the ratification of the EAC sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) Protocol, which Kenya ratified in June 2016.
They also helped EAC Partner States to draft the revision of East African Standards of Staple Foods and the SPS bill, both expected to be enacted soon.
Our work in the sector provides a catalyst for change, development and a platform upon which greater equity and economic prosperity can be built. Achieving pro-poor growth and promoting income diversification amongst rural households requires consistent economic growth. As rural economies evolve, the focus has to shift towards creating a robust, market-oriented business environment in which rural entrepreneurs can invest in innovations, expand their market potential, and compete in an increasingly global marketplace.
Our experience and expertise in the rural and natural resource sectors is exceptional amongst our competitors; we blend our thorough knowledge of agricultural technology with a profound understanding of the issues surrounding the development, diversification and strengthening of local economies, the rejuvenation of rural community capacity, enterprise and infrastructure. This knowhow, along with our people-cantered approach, provides the foundation for a unique perspective on the challenges faced by developing rural economies. The above-mentioned strengths have helped invent genuine innovations in the identification of long-term, sustainable interventions to meet these challenges.
[1] DAI is a private development company based in Bethesda, Maryland, DAI operates worldwide, with a particularly strong presence in Central America, South America, Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, South Asia, and the Asia-Pacific region. It has worked in 160 developing and transition countries in the areas of water and natural resources management, energy and climate change, governance and public sector management, private sector development and financial services, economics and trade, agriculture and agribusiness, crisis mitigation and stability operations, and HIV/AIDS and avian influenza control.