Agenda 74 Agency

Mission for COMESA

Care to Change the World

Introduction: Mission for COMESA

Building Africa’s Food Future through Regional Integration and Agricultural Transformation

The COMESA Mission under the Agenda 74 Agency is a strategic implementation effort focused on transforming agriculture, ending systemic hunger, and positioning COMESA as the world’s leading food-producing region. With 600 million people across 21 member states, COMESA holds the demographic, geographic, and institutional capacity to lead Africa’s agricultural renaissance. Yet, 120 million of its citizens live in poverty and starvation, and 9 out of 10 children are born into poverty.

This mission is not a humanitarian response—it is a structural intervention. It is designed to build sovereign food systems, empower rural economies, and align COMESA’s development trajectory with continental and global agendas.

This mission is not a response to crisis—it is a structural intervention. It is designed to reverse generational inequality, unlock the region’s agricultural potential, and position COMESA as the world’s leading producer of food—produced ethically, sustainably, and equitably.

Strategic Importance of COMESA

COMESA is the largest REC in Africa by population and geographic coverage. It includes some of the continent’s most fertile land, diverse agro-ecological zones, and dynamic rural economies. Its strategic importance lies in:

Its potential to feed Africa and the world
Its role in stabilising fragile economies through rural development
Its capacity to lead the transition to circular, sustainable food systems
Its institutional readiness to implement large-scale, multi-country programs

COMESA is not only a market—it is a mechanism for transformation.

Agenda 74 Agency’s Role in Regional Integration

The Agenda 74 Agency serves as the operational arm of Agenda for Social Equity 2074, coordinating implementation across RECs through structured programs, institutional partnerships, and regional missions. In COMESA, the Agency facilitates:

Deployment of the SFPSEI framework
Integration of SDEP and ECHO modules into national development plans
Alignment with COMESA’s agricultural and trade strategies
Engagement with AfDB, IFAD, SIDA, and other strategic partners
Monitoring, evaluation, and learning across member states

The Agency ensures that COMESA’s agricultural transformation is not fragmented, but unified and scalable.

Alignment with Regional Agendas

The COMESA Mission is fully aligned with:

Agenda 2063 – The African Union’s blueprint for inclusive growth and sustainable development
Vision 2050 – COMESA’s long-term strategy for regional integration and prosperity
Agenda for Social Equity 2074 – A global framework for equity-centered development, led by African institutions

This alignment ensures coherence, legitimacy, and access to continental platforms and financing instruments.

Partnership Models and Stakeholder Engagement

The COMESA Mission is implemented through multi-level partnerships:

Government Ministries: Agriculture, Trade, Social Development, and ICT
Regional Institutions: COMESA Secretariat, ACTESA, and GSIA
Development Partners: AfDB, IFAD, SIDA, Swedfund, Nordic Development Fund
Private Sector: Agribusiness firms, cooperatives, and digital service providers
Civil Society: Farmer associations, women’s networks, and youth platforms

Stakeholder engagement is structured through the Flowhub PPP framework, ensuring transparency, shared value, and long-term sustainability.

SFPSEI – Sustainable Food Production and Social Equity Initiative

A Structural Framework for Ending Hunger and Building a Circular Food Economy

The Sustainable Food Production and Social Equity Initiative (SFPSEI) is the core framework of the COMESA Mission. It is designed to transform agriculture from a subsistence activity into a strategic engine for equity, employment, and regional prosperity. SFPSEI is not a program—it is a structural blueprint for how food systems, governance, and social development can be aligned to deliver long-term, systemic change.

SFPSEI is implemented through two foundational modules:

SDEP – Social Development Empowerment Program
ECHO – Equity-Centered Hubs for Opportunity

Together, these modules operationalize the vision of a COMESA where no child is born into hunger, no farmer is left behind, and no region is excluded from the benefits of a sustainable food economy.

What Is SDEP?

The Social Development and Empowerment Programme — SDEP — is a continent-wide implementation model designed to operationalize social equity in practice. Rooted in the long-term vision of Agenda for Social Equity 2074, SDEP transforms high-level goals into localized, actionable initiatives that respond to the real needs of communities across Africa.

It is a framework for capacity-building, skills development, and inclusive growth — built around technology, vocational training, local governance, and cross-sector partnership. SDEP is not a grant programme; it is a systemic shift toward agency, ownership, and long-term resilience.

SDEP – Social Development Empowerment Program

SDEP is the foundational platform for rural transformation. It integrates digital infrastructure, vocational training, cooperative governance, and local service delivery into a unified model for community empowerment. Under SDEP, rural communities are equipped with:

Digital tools for land registration, market access, and cooperative management
Vocational training in agriculture, logistics, and digital services
Access to microfinance, insurance, and social protection
Local governance structures that ensure transparency and accountability

SDEP is designed to be scalable, modular, and locally owned. It is the entry point for building resilient rural economies that are digitally connected and socially inclusive.

The Core Pillars of SDEP

SDEP rests on five foundational pillars:

Workforce Empowerment – Vocational training aligned with national priorities, delivered in cooperation with local ministries, institutions, and employers.
Technology & Systems – Implementation of ECHO for project logistics and FlexSus for oversight, accountability, and predictive governance.
Social Infrastructure – Establishing physical and digital hubs for implementation, including community centers, offices, and digital access points.
Policy Alignment – Integrating national plans and international frameworks, including Agenda 2063, Agenda 2074, and INFF models.
Public-Private Delivery – Coordinated implementation via subcontractors, PPPs, and regional councils under the governance of GSIA.

ECHO – Equity-Centered Hubs for Opportunity

ECHO hubs are integrated rural development centers that combine agricultural services, education, healthcare, and cooperative enterprise under one roof. Each hub serves as a local anchor for:

Agricultural extension services and input distribution
Primary healthcare and maternal services
Digital classrooms and youth training centers
Cooperative processing, storage, and logistics infrastructure

ECHO hubs are designed to reduce rural-urban inequality, decentralize service delivery, and create dignified employment in underserved areas. They are the physical embodiment of SFPSEI’s commitment to equity, access, and opportunity.

Strategic Objectives of SFPSEI

SFPSEI is guided by five strategic objectives:

End Hunger and Child Poverty: Eliminate extreme hunger and reduce child poverty through systemic agricultural reform and targeted social development.
Build a Circular Food Economy: Promote regenerative agriculture, local processing, and zero-waste value chains that restore ecosystems and create jobs.
Empower Rural Communities: Equip farmers, women, and youth with the tools, training, and infrastructure needed to thrive in a modern food economy.
Digitalise Agriculture and Rural Services: Deploy digital platforms for extension services, market access, land registration, and cooperative governance.
Position COMESA as a Global Food Leader: Align regional production with global demand, ensuring that COMESA becomes a net exporter of food produced ethically and sustainably.

Implementation and Scale

SFPSEI is implemented through national partnerships, regional coordination, and global engagement. It is supported by:

Ministries of Agriculture, Social Development, and ICT
COMESA institutions including ACTESA and the COMESA Secretariat
Development partners such as AfDB,, SIDA, and private bankers and investors
Private sector actors in agri-tech, logistics, and finance
Civil society organizations and farmer cooperatives

The initiative is governed through the Flowhub PPP framework, ensuring transparency, shared value, and long-term sustainability.

What Implementation Looks Like

At the heart of the COMESA deployment lies a set of clear, actionable components. First, the programme introduces a dual operational model — combining localized implementation in each member state with central support and coordination from Sweden. Country-specific task forces have been established, and local project offices are being set up to ensure national anchoring, stakeholder visibility, and institutional legitimacy.

Technology plays a foundational role. The ECHO platform functions as the digital backbone of the implementation — linking data, contracts, operations, and communication. Complementing this, FlexSus is deployed as the decision-making and monitoring system, designed to support transparency, real-time reporting, and high-trust environments for both funders and implementing partners.

Vocational training programs form the social pillar of the mission. These are built around scalable training-of-trainer models, aligned with national workforce strategies and co-developed with local ministries and regional partners. Where needed, the programme integrates digital learning and modular pathways to meet learners where they are — not where policy assumes they should be.

Governance, Compliance, and Partnership

SDEP is not a standalone initiative. Its success is rooted in the architecture we’ve built around it. The Global Social Impact Alliance (GSIA) provides the governance and compliance framework, ensuring that implementation is accountable, de-risked, and financially transparent.

Institutionally, we are in active collaboration with actors including UNDP, FAO, AfDB, and SIDA, with each bringing sectoral insight and in-country legitimacy to the table. These partnerships allow SDEP to integrate with — rather than duplicate — existing systems, ensuring that our efforts align with national development strategies and regional priorities.

As a complement, the integration of INFF principles (Integrated National Financing Frameworks) ensures that each country’s implementation has a budgetary and fiscal base, allowing donor financing to flow in line with both public sector systems and private sector expectations.

From Execution to Strategy: Laying the Foundation for the Future

While the mission is deeply operational, it also carries strategic weight. It represents the initial vehicle through which COMESA’s agricultural and development ambitions can be updated and expanded — particularly through the mandate transformation of ACTESA, which will gain a more dynamic and implementation-ready role.

At a higher level, the mission feeds directly into the institutional growth of the Unity Center of Excellence (UCE) and the Unity Academy Center of Excellence (UACE), where capacity-building and research activities will evolve alongside field operations. Furthermore, it provides the legitimacy and evidence base for launching the Council for Global Social Advocacy — the policy voice tasked with pushing forward global equity frameworks grounded in real implementation experiences.

The mission also carries a direct financial consequence: it underpins a regional funding package, approved in principle, to the scale of $300 billion. This capital is designed not only to fund infrastructure and human capital but also to scale trade, food systems, and digital inclusion — all within the boundaries of climate-smart planning.

Where It All Began

This mission was the spark. It began with a single introduction — from a multilateral bank to a regional bloc — and grew into a coordinated, long-term vision for how equity can be institutionalized. Not just through words, but through budgets, tools, systems, and human capacity.

From this mission, the broader power of SDEP becomes visible. It is not a single program. It is a replicable engine for development that can be adapted, scaled, and sustained — within COMESA and far beyond.

The Next 24 Months

The near-term focus remains sharp and logistical. We are building out project offices, recruiting field staff, training trainers, finalizing deployment schedules, and linking systems across ministries and stakeholders. FlexSus dashboards are coming online. ECHO is onboarding contractors. The first learning cohorts are being prepared. The framework is alive and moving.

Simultaneously, we are coordinating with COMESA member states to prepare the model for handoff — so that national agencies, once capacitated, can take increasing responsibility. It is not enough to build structures; we must also prepare for continuity.

The Pan-Continental Power Play

From the beginning, our mission has never been limited to one region, one bank, or one political bloc. The Pan-Continental Power Play was created as a strategic response to a common realization across three continents: the systems required to drive equity, productivity, and sustainability are not just possible — they are overdue.

This initiative now connects Africa, Asia, and the Americas through a single architectural strategy for social transformation, economic inclusion, and regional resilience. Each continental Power Play is shaped by local realities but grounded in a unified methodology: Agenda for Social Equity 2074.

The African Power Play began in the COMESA region with the ACTESA-led mandate and the rollout of SDEP — backed by a $300 billion commitment designed to unlock implementation. From that model, replication is already underway. In Asia, regional blocs and national ministries are exploring similar frameworks for vocational training, trade facilitation, and infrastructure equity. In the Americas, initial entry points are being designed country-by-country, guided by partnerships with development finance institutions and innovation clusters.

Each Power Play acts as a sovereign space of design and action, but all are linked through shared systems, joint accountability, and common reporting mechanisms. This includes digital platforms such as ECHO, monitoring systems like FlexSus, and frameworks such as Integrated National Financing Frameworks (INFFs) and compliance standards derived from our public-private governance structure.

The Power Play is not about exerting pressure. It’s about creating momentum — a structured offer that empowers local actors, strengthens institutions, and de-risks impact-driven investment. Every mission leads to the next, and each success makes the next country more ready.

We are not here to experiment. We are here to deliver — and the Pan-Continental Power Play is how global action becomes continental progress