Governance of Transport Corridors in OIC Member States:
Challenges, Cases and Policy Lessons
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Under the EAC integration agenda, Uganda ratified the EAC common market and signed the EAC
monetary Union protocol. Under COMESA, Uganda joined the COMESA Free Trade Area by signing the
COMESA FTA in 2012. Efforts have continued to harmonize the EAC and COMESA trade regimes.
Uganda has actively participated in the negotiations and has signed the EAC/COMESA/SADC Tripartite
Free Trade Area, viewed as a feasible framework through which harmonization between the three
blocks can be promoted to solve the challenge of multiple membership of countries to regional
economic communities. The priority for Uganda‘s integration agenda is the East African Community,
then COMESA and the EAC-COMESA- SADC tripartite” (APRM, 2017).
As a member of the East African Community (EAC), the African Union (AU) and United Nations (UN),
there are a number of binding treaties relevant to our research. These are:
 The Constitutive Act of the African Union, 2000;
 The Treaty for the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, 1993;
 The Treaty for the establishment of the East African Community (EAC), 1999; and the Northern Corridor
Transit and Transport Agreement, 2007 (ERM, 2016).
Uganda is, of course, also part of the Northern Corridor Transit Transport Coordination Authority
(having signed the Northern Corridor Transit Agreement) and The Central Corridor Transit Transport
Facilitation Agency. As such, there is an interplay (or overlap) between national and corridor specific
interests (ERM, 2016).
MOZAMBIQUE
General Information
According to a World Bank report from 2012, Mozambique does not live up to its potential when it
comes to its infrastructure network. It is not as “efficient, seamless and cost-effective” as it could be,
and therefore does not help regional integration as well as it could. The report advices improvement
and extension of the road network, and the connection of the east-west transport corridors to each
other. Furthermore, the rail network needs improvement to “meet growing demand from increased
cross-border trade”. The World Bank does see the potential of Mozambique in the region as it has “a
privileged and strategic location as the natural exit to most of its landlocked neighbors”. Although in
need of upgrading, the road and rail quality along its corridors is “relatively good’ (World Bank, 2012).
A UKaid report from 2011 has the same view on these matters, adding that regional coordination also
needs improvement and “trade constrains to be removed.” (UKaid, 2011).
Corridor Objectives and Political Support
The institution responsible for trade and transport facilitation (and its corridors) within the country
is the Mozambique Ports and Railways Authority (CFM). On their website, they state that this sector is
“one of the main driving forces of real and sustainable growth and development of Mozambique”.74
The transport sector is considered to be an important part of Mozambique’s economy, and has been
regarded as such since the country was founded.75 “During the ’90s the government initiated several
institutional reforms and projects to rehabilitate and maintain road infrastructure in selected priority
districts and corridors, easing transportation bottlenecks. Mozambique managed to establish a large
road-infrastructure base.” (Dominguez-Torres and Briceño-Garmendia, 2011).
Institutional Framework
The Maputo Corridor Logistics Initiative (MCLI) is an organization with members drawn from the
private and public sector in Mozambique, Swaziland and South Africa. “MCLI co-operates closely with
organised business to engage with relevant authorities in order to coordinate and represent the
combined views of all stakeholders involved in the investment, utilisation and provision of the
infrastructure and services on the Corridor.” The Ports and Railways Authority of Mozambique is a
founding member of the MCLI, and one of the executive directors. The Department of Transport and
Communications is a boardmember, while the Department of Transport and Communications is a non-
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