International Conference on Industrialization through Diversification, Regional Value Chains Development, and Food Security within the Framework of the AU’s African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement of 2018

Landmark Resort and Conference Center Mbezi Beach, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

International Conference on Industrialization through Diversification, Regional Value Chains Development, and Food Security within the Framework of the AU’s African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement of 2018 The Institute of Finance Management (IFM) proudly invites the Tanzanian German Center for Eastern African Legal Studies (TGCL) Alumni, other German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Alumni and other scholars within and outside East Africa to an International conference as titled above. IFM is a public higher education Institution fully owned by the government through the Ministry of Finance and Planning. Established in 1972 by Act of Parliament No. 3, the Institute is charged with three core responsibilities namely: Teaching, Researching and providing consultancy service to the public. In the upcoming conference, IFM seeks to bring together members of the TGCL Alumni Association, DAAD alumni networks and other scholars to a multidisciplinary conference focusing on African integration. The conference offers a platform for academic exchange of views on the newly formed African trading platform. It is through this approach that Africa’s effective participation in the world economy can be fostered. Most of the African economies are characterized by export of raw materials (agricultural commodities and natural resources) and import of finished goods while facing the challenges of high levels of unemployment and food insecurity. These challenges compelled the African leaders to declare the need to develop agriculture and promote the establishment of industries while attempting to create a self-reliant market for imports and exports. To this end, they agreed to exploit existing comparative advantages among member states as mechanisms to promoting intercontinental trade. Thus, individual countries, as well as regional trading blocs, were tasked to devise their policies geared towards the attainment of this goal, industrialization being the main agenda. Amidst all this, trading between African countries is still very low, majority of women are in the informal sector, and food insecurity remains to be a persistent problem. Free movement of goods and services that was expected to enhance trade among African countries, including enhancing food security, has been faced by a myriad of challenges such as trade restrictions and non-tariff barriers, leaving alone challenges of climate change. It is from this background that the African Continental Free Trade Agreement comes into play. In a bid to furthering the academic discourse and contributing towards the realization of the African vision of attaining sustainable and inclusive development, this conference is being organized to contribute to this debate. Mindful of the common interests between IFM and DAAD, the Institute of Finance Management (IFM) has offered to coordinate the conference.