Improving the Border Agency Cooperation

Among the OIC Member States for Facilitating Trade

been a major success, the implementation was not straightforward and the operation has also

experienced challenges. All of these will be discussed next.

Strong political drivers at the highest levels are necessary for achieving something as

ambitious as the Chirundu OSBP, and there must be a formal agreement on its implementation.

Such an agreement must be accompanied by a legal framework providing extraterritorial

authority to implement the OSBP. Development of appropriate legal framework takes a long

time. Establishment of leadership at all levels is cardinal, and importance of well-structured

committees and subcommittees has become evident. The Chirundu OSBP benefitted from a

steering committee that included permanent secretaries from the parent ministries of

government agencies at the border and representatives of the private sector from both

countries. Results-oriented subcommittees were established including (i) a procedures

subcommittee to develop OSBP procedures to coordinate the activities of border agencies, (ii)

a legal subcommittee to develop the OSBP legal framework, (iii) a facilities subcommittee to

ensure that facilities at the border are adequate and properly shared between the two

countries and (iv) an ICT subcommittee to develop IT solutions.

In addition, it was considered important to first reach a consensus on the OSBP concept and

functions at the national level before issues were addressed at the bilateral level. Also, site

visits during stakeholders’ meetings were found to be useful for giving participants the

opportunity to better understand the challenges at the border. The role of donor and funding

agencies was critical for the establishment of the Chirundu OSBP. The donors provided funds

for the development of both soft and hard infrastructures for which donor coordination was

important.

A regional approach to infrastructure projects with involvement of regional blocs

seems to be more effective, especially when it comes to unlocking external funds.

Ultimately, a major challenge implementing the Chirundu OSPB was the erratic and

bureaucratic disbursement of funds for the project.

One of the main problems was

convincing all the stakeholders and ensuring they bought into the initiative and supported it.

There are thus a number of challenges in implementing an OSBP on a border that was not

designed for that from the outset. Therefore, some modifications to physical infrastructure

should be done in order to adjust the procedures to take into account the limitations of the

physical infrastructure. Another challenge was that the procedures anchored on high

utilisation of unavailable technology that was not available delayed the signing off the

procedures.

Also, there were incompatible clearance procedures for the multiple border

agencies at the border and lack of comparable facilities. Furthermore, various change

management challenges were encountered since OSBP is a new concept in Africa. Sensitisation

and change management programs through the electronic and paper media are important for

the successful implementation of OSBPs.

AfDB Expert interview, 2016

Ministry of Industry and Commerce of Zimbabwe, 2011

Republic of Zambia, 2011

Ministry of Industry and Commerce of Zimbabwe, 2011