Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and South Sudan validated a new regional roadmap in Nairobi to facilitate cross-border trade over the period 2026-2031. The document includes 14 strategic objectives, including digital interoperability, border management, corridor governance and integration of transport and logistics networks.
Meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, representatives of the five member countries of the Horn of Africa Initiative (HoAI) discussed the second edition of the regional trade facilitation road map.
The document covers the period 2026-2031 and builds on national consultations conducted between June and July 2026 with government, the private sector and development partners. It follows a first road map covering the period 2022-2025.
The programme includes 14 strategic objectives with priority activities. Key areas include interoperability of digital systems, improved governance of corridors, simplification of cross-border trade for small traders, strengthening border management, and integration of transport and logistics systems into regional networks.
The Nairobi discussions also focused on coordination between the agencies responsible for implementing these reforms and the organization of their governance.
The roadmap is now to be submitted to the Trade Ministers of the five countries at a ministerial meeting to be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in September 2026. Ministers should review the document and provide guidance for its implementation.
The Horn of Africa Initiative brings together Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and South Sudan around several areas of cooperation, including regional infrastructure, economic and trade integration, resilience and human capital development.
The measures envisaged concern corridors linking in particular the landlocked countries of the region to the main maritime access. Ethiopia and South Sudan thus depend on the infrastructure of neighbouring countries to access international markets, while Djibouti and Kenya have port platforms used for regional trade.
The aim of the new roadmap is to harmonize the procedures and systems that govern these flows in order to reduce the constraints associated with the movement of goods between the five countries.
