Kenya has abolished the auction of sugar import licenses after the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) bloc said it hampered free trade, its sugar regulator said on Monday.

The Operations Evaluation Department of the African Development Bank is currently undertaking an independent evaluation of the assistance given by the Bank to COMESA for public procurement reform in its 19 Member States, during the period 2001-2009. The Bank’s assistance was channelled through two projects, viz. a) Public Procurement Reform Project 2001 (completed); and Enhancing Procurement Reforms and Capacity Project 2006 (ongoing).

COMESA and the Alliance for Commodity Trade in Eastern and Southern Africa (ACTESA) on March 1, 2010 signed an agreement on the implementation of agricultural programmes in the region.

The Kingdom of Swaziland has signed the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Compact becoming the fourth COMESA country to do so.

Agence Française de Développement (AFD), a French bi-lateral development finance institution established in 1941 that works on behalf of the French government whose mission is to finance development according to France’s Overseas Development Assistance policies, this week sent a delegation to COMESA to explore possible areas of cooperation.

The next COMESA Business Forum and Regional Trade Fair are scheduled to take place in August 2010, at Manzini, Kingdom of Swaziland, in the margins of the COMESA Heads of State and Government Summit. The COMESA Business Forum (CBC) and the Trade Fair provide opportunities for the COMESA private sector to network and deliberate on regional trade related policy issues impacting their operations on the ground, and to show case their products and services to a wider regional market.

The Director of Gender and Social Affairs at the COMESA Secretariat Mrs Emiliana Tembo has called for the public’s commendation of women in the COMESA region from the different sectors of life for their hard work in managing to put food on the table in the majority of households and contributing to the socio-economic development of the region.