Support to Industrialisation and Productive Sectors (SIPS) Programme participates at the Bio Africa Convention

This year’s Bio Africa Convention will be held in Durban, Republic of South Africa, on the 3rd to 6th September 2023. Bio Africa Convention is an annual event that facilitates an enriching and collaborative platform for exchange of groundbreaking ideas and opportunities in the biotechnology industry and innovations pertaining to health, energy, agriculture and entrepreneurial sectors. The sixth annual BIO Africa Convention will focus on food security, sustainability and biotech innovation. The theme for BIO Africa Convention, 2023 is Re-imagining Biotechnology Innovation for Africa’s Development and Security. This aligns well with the Support to Industrialisation and Productive Sectors (SIPS) Programme initiatives.

The primary objective of the BIO Africa Convention is to get Africa talking about biotechnology developments and to address challenges ranging from food security and medicine to vaccine manufacturing. Regionally, the Support to Industrialization and Productive Sector (SIPS) Programme, seeks to accelerate the SADC regional industrialization agenda by supporting regional value chain development in the agro-processing and pharmaceutical value chains. 

In order to contribute to the implementation of the SADC Industrialisation Strategy, the European Union (EU) and SADC developed a programme: the Support to Industrialization and Productive Sectors (SIPS) Programme. SIPS is a five-year programme (2019 – 2024), jointly implemented by the SADC Secretariat and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ). The Programme is funded under the 11th European Development Fund (EDF) to the tune of €18 million, with an additional €2.8 million to be made available by the Germany Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), through GIZ. 

The overall objective of SIPS is to contribute to the SADC industrialisation and regional integration agenda, particularly focusing on improving the performance and growth of selected regional value chains and related services within the agro-processing and pharmaceutical sectors. The specific objective is to enhance policy, regulatory and operational business environment on national and regional levels for the development and sustainable operation of the selected value chains. It was formulated with the following three key results:

• Result 1: Enhanced policy, regulatory and business environment on national and regional levels for development and sustainable operation of regional value chains

• Result 2: Private Sector Participation in Regional Pharmaceutical and Medical Value Chains Enhanced. 

• Result 3: Private sector participation in Regional Leather Value Chain enhanced. 

The SADC Secretariat is responsible for implementing Result 1 and collaborates with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ) in the implementation of some activities in Results 2 and 3. In order to support the implementation and coordination of the SIPS programme, the SADC Secretariat and the GFA Consulting Group (GMBH) signed a 4-year Service Contract, which started with the deployment of a Technical Assistance Team (TAT) in March 2021.

At the Bio African Convention 2023, SIPS Programme intends to participate and raise awareness about some of its initiatives that focuses on the development and production of IK-based herbal remedies and innovative integrated electronic application to disseminate HIV/AIDS treatment guidelines and enhance regulatory and supply chain efficiencies in the management of HIV/AIDS and associated opportunistic infections through grants that have been awarded under the programme and exhibit SIPS programme. This event will also provide an opportunity to create awareness and share information on the SIPS Grants awarded to the following beneficiaries:

a. Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), South Africa in partnership with Eswatini and Zimbabwe (ARV Value Chain);

b. Mitch Investments Malawi in partnership with Lesotho (ARV Value Chain); and 

c. Solidaridad partnership between Tanzania and Zimbabwe – (Leather Value Chain).

A side event workshop will be convened on the 3rd September 2023 to get an update on the funded projects, sharing of experiences and information and facilitate discussions on issues related to the ARV and Leather value chains and Intellectual property rights.