On Tuesday 21 October 2025, COMESA Secretariat hosted the Kazini Caravan, a youth-led continental initiative, which promotes inclusive regional integration by using art, culture and innovation as tools for trade awareness and empowerment, with the aim to simplify complex trade policies for youth innovators and women entrepreneurs across Africa’s 55 countries.

This initiative supports COMESA’s broader efforts to enhance youth engagement, women’s economic empowerment, and creative industry participation in regional development. It also aligns with COMESA’s strategic objective of ensuring that integration is people-centered, practical and inclusive of all sectors, including the cultural and creative economy.

Speaking during the event, Secretary General of the Lozi Arts and Culture Association– a Zambian based group, Ms. Diana Namakau Wasamunu emphasized the power of art in translating trade into lived experience, stating: “Trade agreements can sometimes seem abstract—numbers, charts and protocols. But when a poet performs a verse about cross-border opportunity, when a dancer interprets freedom in movement, when a painter captures the spirit of Pan-African unity, then trade becomes real, felt in the hearts of our people.”

COMESA Acting Secretary General, Dr. Dev Haman, commended the Kazini Caravans impact, noting that it embodies COMESA’s vision of an integrated, prosperous, and peaceful region. “This is a powerful intervention that encourages all 54 African countries to open their doors to cultural exchange—allowing creativity to be shared, celebrated, and economically empowering for those who make a living through it, ” he said.

By connecting to initiatives such as this, COMESA continues to strengthen the link between culture, trade and economic development, ensuring that regional integration is not only a policy goal but a lived reality for Africa’s youth, women and creative communities.