Services
Our firm offers a variety of business and trade development services covering private sector development; export strategies; project design and evaluations; studies and trade policy design, management and review.
Private Sector Development
Focusing mainly on MSMEs we carry out diagnostic assessments of the business environment and enterprises with a view to identifying choke points that hinder faster growth and competitiveness. This entails detailed needs assessment for businesses and supporting institutions, policy gaps and external regulatory concerns. We successfully prepared private sector development strategies for Botswana and Tonga as well as SME development plans for Kenya, Lesotho, Tanzania and Swaziland.
Export Strategies
Our team has been instrumental in the development of various national export strategies including those for Botswana, Rwanda, Uganda and the Gambia. These strategies prioritized key high potential sectors for which detailed value chain analysis work was done. We have cumulative knowledge and experience in the following sectors: Beef, cashew nuts, cassava, chili, cocoa, coconuts, coffee, handcrafts, hides & skins, horticulture, leather, precious stones, vanilla and textile products.
Project Design and Evaluation
Our consultants designed successful project proposals for the Swaziland Sugar Authority (EU/CDE), Kingdom of Tonga (TradeComII) and for Botswana- Private sector development programme concept (CDE). We developed a horticulture plan of action, drawing from value chains analyzed under the Botswana Private Sector Development Programme. We have also carried out numerous project evaluations for AfDB (Botswana), EC(Botswana), Commonwealth Secretariat (Nigeria and Tonga), UNDP (Botswana and Malawi), Trade Mark East Africa (Rwanda). GIZ (SADC) and USAID (Botswana). The evaluations covered a wide range of trade related programmes including regional trade interventions, country strategies, national export strategies, trade policies and private sector development programmes.
Trade Policy Review and Development
Decisive Aggregates, through our consultants developed or contributed substantially to several of the components that defined Botswana’s trade policy prior to end of Vision 2016. These were the National Export Strategy, Private Sector Development Strategy and the Investment Strategy. In addition, we were engaged to review Rwanda’s trade policy and develop a revised one.
Trade Negotiations
Our work in market access has been most pronounced in the participation of our consultant for many years in Botswana’s National Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiations (NCTPN) and the support to trade negotiations in South Pacific, PACER Plus Trade Agreement between Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific Island countries. In addition, provided advisory services to Mozambique (towards ratification of the Tri-Partite Free Trade Area), to Kiribati (whether or not to join the Economic Partnership Agreement with EU) and to the government of Rwanda on the ongoing AfCFTA negotiations.