Key Result Areas

EA-SA VLM Strategy and Implementation Plan, VLM MoU and a Regional Weighbridge Location Plan have been developed and validated. EAC has passed EAC Vehicle Load Control Act in 2016. The VLM Strategy and MoU cover the following:

• Legislation and regulations;
• Infrastructure and equipment;
• Enforcement and operations;
• Institutional/organisational structures;
• Human resources/training;
• Public support and cooperation, and
• Monitoring and evaluation.

These interventions need to be implemented at Member State level and some Member States will need support and assistance for this. The following activities are proposed under this programme.

1.1 Development of model legislative provisions based on the existing EAC legislative regime on VLM for promulgation at Member State level;

1.2 Definition of institutional settings at national and corridor levels and institutional capacity building;

1.3 Development of a system for monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the harmonised VLM strategy. Monitoring will be conducted at the three levels of implementation: national, corridor (involving a cluster of countries served by each corridor), REC and Inter REC level;

1.4 Development of harmonised guidelines for designs, operations, maintenance, management, financing calibration and auditing of weighbridges,

1.5 Establishment of VLM information system and cross border VLM integration with customs and border agencies1.6 Establishment of guidelines and piloting the cross border transporters self-regulation standard and system.

This programme seeks to assist Member States move towards regulatory convergence through harmonisation and standardisation of the following aspects of road transport policy and regulation. These standards and regulations have been developed and the majority have been validated:

• Vehicle Dimensions and Equipment Standards
• Vehicle Testing Stations and Procedures
• Transport Operator Registration
• Transportation of Abnormal Loads
• Transportation of Dangerous Goods
• Training and Licensing of Commercial Drivers
• Third Party Motor Vehicle Insurance Schemes
• Road Transport Management Standards (Self-Regulation)

The following illustrative activities to achieve the desired harmonisation and standardisation of transport and transit policy, laws, regulations, systems and standards are proposed:

2.1 Training, capacity building and technical assistance (TA) to designated regulatory agencies to strengthen their capacity to implement required national transport regulatory reforms, enforce agreed measures and to coordinate with other Member States on joint and cross border activities.

2.2 Provision of TA to develop model laws and regulations for the different legal regimes in the region and for domestication at Member State level;2.3 Support the development of national transport regulatory monitoring systems.

The specifications providing the system architecture for an EA-SA Transports Register Information Platform and System (TRIPS) have been developed and validated and approved by the SADC Ministers. Preliminary assessment indicates that while some countries are already fully compliant with the proposed Transport and Operator Systems, others are not and the extent of the gap is variable. Furthermore, a harmonised legal framework for cross- border road transport operations (in the form of a Multilateral Cross-Border Transport Agreement – MCBRTA) is necessary before the TRIPS can be implemented.

This project will undertake all the necessary preparations to create the conditions for the deployment of TRIPS. This includes the following activities:

3.1 Assistance to domestication by member states of the MCBRTA in order to, among others, facilitate joint regulation, data sharing and joint management of TRIPS;

3.2 Assistance in the development of national transport information systems and national transport operator registers in order to make them compatible with the TRIPS specifications;

3.4 Strengthening the capacity of existing transport regulatory agencies that manage national and the regional registers;

3.5 Development of centralised data systems and data protection communications protocols;

3.6 Development of arbitration rules and procedures;3.7 An institution to manage and operate the TRIPS needs to be identified and/or established. The process of identification of potential candidate institutions will be undertaken during the implementation of this programme.

The majority of corridors lack formally defined governance and legal frameworks and do not have coordinated elaborated corridor development plans to guide joint actions by beneficiary Member States. To address these deficiencies the following measures are foreseen:

4.1 Assistance in implementation of Multilateral Cross Border Road Transport Agreement;

4.2 Support the implementation of harmonised cross border third party motor vehicle insurance schemes in the 6 countries that are currently not part of the COMESA Yellow Card system;

4.3 Rapid needs assessments and design of targeted corridor transport and transit facilitation measures on priority corridors, focusing on transport-related barriers that need policy, legal or regulatory changes in offending countries;

4.5 Strengthening corridor governance legal and institutional frameworks. This will entail finalisation of the development, signing and ratification of the MoUs for the North South Corridor, Lobito, Nacala, Beira Corridors and Djibouti Corridor and assistance in their implementation;

4.6 Support the development of corridor performance monitoring systems.