The State Department for Trade in collaboration with the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) are working on a Strategy and Action Plan for sustainability of Kenya’s tea and coffee sectors in the wake of climate change.
Director for External Trade at the State Department for Trade Joseah Rotich underscored the urgent need for adoption of strategies to ensure sustainability in the tea and coffee sectors for effective implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Speaking in Nairobi during a validation workshop on the Green Supplement to National AfCTA Strategy and Action Plan for Kenya in the tea and coffee sectors, Rotich said that climate change is a critical challenge facing the agricultural sector and underscored the urgent need for adaptation of strategies to ensure sustainability in these sectors.
“Issues of sustainability are becoming extremely important in trade. Agriculture and trade are inseparable hence the need to mitigate climate change and especially for tea and coffee which are key sectors for the Kenyan economy,” said Rotich.
Tea and coffee account for 23% of the country’s total exports and supports over five million livelihoods including 650,000 farmers.
The sectors are however vulnerable to climate change due to erratic weather patterns and the strategy aims to guide Kenya to harness green intra -African trade and climate adaptation opportunities by harmonising trade and environmental objectives to create a climate resilient and environmentally sustainable trade system for Kenya’s tea and coffee.
The validation workshop provided a platform for stakeholders to reflect on, discuss and validate the draft green supplement strategy.
Different stakeholders drawn from government ministries, the State Law Office, Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA), Kenya Tourism Federation, Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA), Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA), Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM), NGOs, Faith Based Organizations the Civil Society and the academia attended the two-day exercise.
Dr. Souleymane Abdallah an Economic Affairs Officer at the Regional Integration and Trade Division-ECA said that the commission is committed to integrate green and climate change policies into AfCTA implementation strategies for member states.
He pledged ECA’s support for Kenya to create a sustainable and a resilient future using the green supplement to strengthen the implementation of AfCTA.
Dr. Abdallah said that UNECA through its African Trade Policy Center (ATPC) based in Addis Ababa, and its Subregional office for East Africa, based in Kigali, supported the Kenya government in elaborating and validating its National African Continental Free Trade Area Strategy with funding from the European Union in 2019.
“At UNECA, we remain committed to developing partnerships that will better assist Kenya and the region to take advantage of regional and international trade to address the perennial challenges of poverty and inequality, unemployment and fragile economic growth. Our interventions continue to be anchored in the three main functions of the ECA: supporting research and policy analysis, undertaking capacity building and facilitating multi-stakeholder dialogue,” said Dr. Abdallah.
He highlighted that the change in weather patterns in the region is affecting agriculture, reducing hydropower and disrupting livelihoods.
“That is why we at UNECA, under the leadership of our ATPC, are working to integrate green and climate-smart policies into AfCFTA implementation strategies. Climate change is upon us, and going forward, all our strategies, policies and actions – be it trade policy, industrial policy, agriculture development strategy, infrastructure development or energy policy – will need to incorporate a sustainability dimension so that our Member States are not only better prepared to deal with the impacts of climate-related shocks, but are also positioned to take advantage of the opportunities that the global transition to a green economy will unleash,” said Dr. Abdallah.
He explained that building green value chains under the AfCFTA will be an important part of a forward-looking and sustainable trade and industrial strategy for Kenya to deepen its gains from regional and international trade.
“Kenya’s agriculture and forestry sectors, particularly the tea, coffee, seeds and fruits and wood and paper value chains, play a crucial role in driving economic growth and reducing poverty. In this context, UNECA, in collaboration with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), has implemented a project funded by the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) to identify green value chain opportunities and climate adaptation needs across 19 African countries and five regions, including Kenya,” Dr. Abdallah disclosed.
By Joseph Ng’ang’a
