Report of the Intergovernmental Committee of Senior Officials and Experts for Southern Africa on the work of its twenty-seventh session

Abstract

The twenty-seventh session of the Intergovernmental Committee of Senior Officials and Experts for Southern Africa was held in a hybrid format under the theme “Building back better from COVID-19 in Southern Africa: fostering commodity-based industrialization, manufacturing and regional value chains”. The Committee considered three statutory reports submitted by the secretariat on: economic and social conditions in Southern Africa in 2020 and prospects for 2021; program performance of the Sub-regional Office for Southern Africa; and progress in the implementation of regional and international agendas and other special initiatives in the sub-region, focusing on progress and status of Agreement implementation. The findings of the study on the theme “Building back better from COVID-19 in Southern Africa: fostering commodity-based industrialization, manufacturing and regional value chains” were presented and discussed by the Committee. Furthermore, the Committee reviewed the recommendations of the ad hoc expert group meeting on the topic “Agriculture value chains, linkages and transformation in Southern Africa: opportunities from the African Continental Free Trade Area”.