EU AfCFTA Technical Assistance Facility (TAF), 2021-2024 EU AfCFTA Technical Assistance Facility (TAF), 2021-2024 The African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) is one of the African Union's flagship projects in Agenda 2063. The main objective is to "create a single market for goods and services with free movement of people and investment", to increase intra-African trade, strengthen competitiveness and support economic restructuring.
Fully implementing the AfCFTA will involve more than just complying with state, regional and continental requirements and obligations in the agreement. Experience to date shows that the implementation of regional trade agreements within the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) in Africa is uneven and relatively weak. This is mainly due to a number of market barriers, bureaucracy, lack of infrastructure, political and institutional challenges, and a lack of political will to implement regional commitments.
The EU AfCFTA Technical Assistance Facility (TAF) is a Team Europe initiative and will be implemented through a programme management unit, consisting of GIZ, Expertise France and possibly FIAAP (Spain). Contributions to the TAF will come from the European Commission, BMZ (Germany), AFD (France) and Sweden. Sida will contribute through a transfer agreement with the European Commission.
The programme consists of two components, an institutional support and a demand-driven instrument where individual countries, regional organizations can primarily apply for support in the form of: studies, education, technical expertise, etc. Afrikas kontinentala frihandelsavtal (AfCFTA) är ett av Afrikanska unionens flaggskeppsprojekt inom Agenda 2063. Huvudmålet är att ”skapa en inre marknad för varor och tjänster med fri rörlighet för människor och investeringar ”, för att öka den intra-Afrikanska handeln, stärka konkurrenskraften och stödja den ekonomiska omstruktureringen.

Att till fullo genomföra AfCFTA kommer att innebära mer än att bara implementera åtaganden i avtalet på kontinental-, regional-. och landnivå. Erfarenheterna hittills visar att genomförandet av regionala handelsavtal inom de regionala ekonomiska gemenskaperna (REC) i Afrika är ojämnt och relativt svagt. Detta beror främst på en rad marknadshinder, byråkrati, brist på infrastruktur, politiska och institutionella utmaningar, samt brist på politisk vilja att genomföra regionala åtaganden.
EU AfCFTA Technical Assistance Facility (TAF) är ett Team Europe-initiativ och kommer att genomföras genom en programhanteringsenhet, bestående av GIZ, Expertise France och eventuellt FIAAP (Spanien). Bidrag till TAF kommer från Europeiska Kommissionen, BMZ (Tyskland), AFD (Frankrike) och Sverige. Sida kommer att bidra via ett överföringsavtal med Europeiska kommissionen.

Programmet består av två komponenter, ett institutionellt stöd och ett efterfrågestyrt instrument där enskilda länder, regionala organisationer främst kan söka stöd i form av: studier, utbildning, teknisk expertis m.m. The AfCFTA is one of the AU flagship projects under the ten-year implementation plan of its Agenda 2063. The main objective is to create a single market for goods and services with free movement of people and investments, thus expanding intra-African trade across the continent, enhancing competitiveness, and supporting economic transformation in Africa. 

Due to the low level of intra-regional trade in Africa and the high costs related to trading across borders in the African continent, supporting further trade integration and harmonisation is a priority for the AU and its member states to promote economic diversification and  industrialisation that leads to economic development, employment and poverty reduction. 

Through an EU regional "Team Europe Initiative" (TEI), within the current EU regional multiannual indicative program 2021-2027, the EU TAF to support the AfCFTA was created by the EU and participating member states. The TAF is currently jointly financed by the EU Commission, France, Germany and Sweden and is meant to be an efficient, reactive and flexible mechanism to answer to the needs of African Union (AfCFTA Secretariat, AUC and some AU specialized agencies), RECs, its Member States and potentially regional private sector organisations relevant to the AfCFTA. 

The overall objective of the EU Technical Assistance Facility to support AfCFTA (EU-TAF), is to contribute to the African economic integration process through the realisation of the African Continental Free Trade Area.

The specific objectives of the Action are to contribute to enhancing the capacity for preparing and conducting the remaining negotiations (all phases) of the AfCFTA. Strengthening the institutional capacity of targeted African institutions and countries to successfully implement the AfCFTA priority areas and manage the next steps towards a single market.