Great Lakes Trade Facilitation Program: Training Needs Assessment Report

Kenya - 7 May 2018

The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) has been implementing a work programme supporting small-scale traders, through the COMESA Simplified Trade Regime (STR) and COMESA Trade Information Desks (TIDs) at key border crossings in the region. The COMESA STR and TIDs were further strengthened by the Regulations on Minimum Standards for Treatment of Small Scale Cross Border Traders adopted by the COMESA Council of Ministers at the Thirty-Third Council meeting held in December 2014. These regulations enshrine the Charter for Cross-Border Traders, the implementation of which is supported by the Great Lakes Trade Facilitation Project (GLTFP). The project contributes to implementation of the COMESA Gender Policy through mainstreaming of gender in the GLTFP activities.
The purpose of this assignment is to contribute to capacity building and a sustainable information dissemination mechanism especially tailored for the cross-border traders’ level of understanding. The objectives are to develop five manuals for the Training of Trainers (TOT) and delivery of the training itself. The 5 TOT manuals include: STR aspects; customer management; gender and development concept; gender-based violence (GBV); and; training management and delivery. After the training manuals have been developed, potential trainers from each of the three GLTFP participating countries will be trained who will in turn train cross border traders and border officials from their respective countries.
To inform the process of the training manual development, a field visit to three of the 5 GLTFP borders points was undertaken with a purpose of carrying out training needs assessment.

Author