COMESA was formed in 1994 by replacing the former preferential trade area which had existed from the earlier days of 1981.COMESA was established “as an organization of free independent sovereign states which have agreed to co-operate in developing their natural and human resources for the goods of all their people” and as such It has a wide-ranging series of objectives which necessarily include in its priorities the promotion of peace and security in the region. However, due to COMESAs economic history and background its main focus is on the formation of a large economic and trading unit that are faced by individual states. COMESAs current strategy can thus be summed up in the phrase “economic prosperity through regional integration” with its 21member states, population of over 583 million a gross domestic product of $805 billion, a global export /import trade in goods worth US$324 billion. Geographically COMESA is almost two third of the continent with an area of 12 million sp km.
The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) was created in 1996 to succeed the Intergovernmental Authority on Drought and Development that was founded in 1986 to deal with issues related to drought and desertification in the Horn Africa. IGAD came to existence with a new name, organizational structure and a revitalized ambition of expanded cooperation among its member States. The mission of IGAD is to assist and complement the efforts of the member States to achieve, through increased cooperation: food security and environmental protection, peace and security, and economic cooperation and integration in the region. The objectives of IGAD are to:
