The European Economic Social Committee (EESC) commissioned a study on assessing the involvement of civil society in the EPA between the EU and the SADC EPA states. From 2013, it has become more common to involve the role of civil society and social partners in trade agreements e.g. the EU-Japan Free Trade Agreements and the EU-South Korea FTA, and the implementation of domestic advisory groups (DAGs). A relevant example is the Consultative committee (CC) which was instituted by the Cariforum-EU EPA – providing monitoring of the agreement by economic and social partners, and representatives of civil society organisations from both participating sides.

Imani Development was commissioned by the EESC to examine the role of the Consultative Committee of the Cariforum EU EPA in monitoring – not only sustainability chapters, but all chapters of the EPA in comparison to traditional DAGs and identify best practices, and provide policy recommendations for EESC based on the findings.

Key Activities conducted by Imani Development:

1. Baseline of CSOs participation in the EPA at a regional and national level – Imani conducted baseline assessments made up of the following components (i) the framework established by the EPA and the scope of change; (ii) the regional and national structures of relevance and (iii) Experiences to date – gathering insights from civil society’s engagement through KIIs and reviewing evaluations, materials from previous EPA outreach programmes and media.

2. Case studies of SADC EPA member states  – Case studies included (i) lessons from NEDLAC in South Africa – reviewing the functioning of the Trade and Industry Chamber; (ii) The EU – SACU Poultry Safeguard – reviewing the first trade dispute in the context of the EPA; (iii) CSO engagement in the SADC framework and lessons learnt and; CSO experience with the development of the SADC EPA monitoring and evaluation framework – examining the experiences in Botswana, South Africa and, Mozambique involving various engaged CSO’s, particularly the Southern African Trust.

3. Analysis of the Consultative Committee of the Cariforum and benchmarking best practices – This involved forming a benchmark to evaluate the existing and potential engagement of civil society in trade agreements. Imani utilised KIIS with members of the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery and Cariforum who have previously engaged in dialogues with the SADC EPA countries. Benchmarking assessed the following: Stakeholder mapping, clear communication channels, transparency and access to information, capacity building for civil society, feedback mechanisms, independent oversight, flexibility and responsiveness, evaluation, and learning, defining key metrics, monitoring framework and scope.

4. Policy recommendations 

Read more from the final report; Involvement of civil society in the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the European Union (EU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) EPA states.