Border Crossing Monitoring along the Northern Corridor

When one thinks of border crossing in Africa, the image that comes in mind is that of a long queue of trucks waiting idly to fill out paper. The improvement of road infrastructure was expected to reduce transport costs and prices. However, all the benefits derived by this achievement are undermined by time lost at the border. In the last decade, several border posts on main trade corridors in Africa have been converted into One Stop Border Posts (OSBP), which have been perceived as a miracle solution to save time. However, results have rarely met expectations, since coordination between border agencies from different countries is far from simple. With support from SSATP, the Northern Corridor Secretariat has developed a comprehensive corridor performance measurement framework. The surveys shed light on the reasons for slow border processing in Eastern Africa. This publication shows how effective cooperation between border agencies results in a highly improved border crossing and brings a new perspective on the relative importance of infrastructure versus inter agency cooperation.