The purpose of the TradeMark Southern Africa (TMSA) programme is to improve trade performance and competitiveness of the Eastern and Southern Africa regions – contributing to sustainable, rapid and inclusive growth and poverty reduction.
As such, the TradeMark Southern Africa programme supports the work of the 26-member Tripartite of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
The £100m, 5-year programme is funded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) as a Follow-on from the highly successful Regional Trade Facilitation Programme (RTFP), funded by DFID between 2003 and 2009.
TMSA formally opened Project Management Unit in Pretoria, South Africa, on 15 July 2010. TMSA's work programme has three main components, namely infrastructure development, trade policy capacity development and trade facilitation.
TradeMark Southern Africa is hosted by the COMESA and is governed by a Memorandum of Understanding between DFID and COMESA.
