Final Narrative Report: Regional Partnership to Promote Trade & Investment in Sub-Saharan Africa

The “Regional Partnership to Promote Trade and Investment in Sub-Saharan Africa: Final Narrative Report,” summarizes the results of a three-year effort sponsored by the Government of Finland and designed and facilitated by MCI to enhance the capacity of three Millennium Cities – Kumasi, Ghana; Mekelle, Ethiopia; Tabora, Tanzania – to stimulate and expand opportunities for private sector investment and trade. The Regional Partnership built on MCI’s earlier efforts to spur economic development in Kumasi and Mekelle and created a comprehensive new program as well for Tabora.

The project’s many outputs included:

• Identifying and profiling several viable investment opportunities in each city;
• Creating and disseminating published and online materials to showcase and encourage promising sectors as well as specific investment opportunities;
• Promoting investment in the Millennium Cities both by organizing local and international events for prospective investors and by bringing them to the cities;
• Strengthening capacity for investment promotion and facilitation at the city/regional level, including through regular public-private sector dialogue;
• Developing a methodology and set of tools to help cities formulate their own strategies to attract sustainable local and foreign direct investment;
• Facilitating the creation of a guidance paper focused on evaluating the relative sustainability of FDI proposals at the subnational as well as the national levels;
• Making a substantial contribution to the international body of work on FDI.

There are concrete leads for Kumasi, Mekelle and Tabora that are likely to result in large-scale investments that can lead to new jobs and enrich the economies of each city and the surrounding countryside.

Click here to access the “Regional Partnership to Promote Trade and Investment in Sub-Saharan Africa: Final Narrative Report,” prepared by former MCI Senior Researcher and Advisor Dr. Karin Millett in consultation with the Millennium City Investment Teams in Kumasi, Mekelle and Tabora.