COMESA Heads of State and Government Summit is the forum that brings together the Heads of State or Government of the Member States and is officially referred to as The Authority. The Authority is the supreme Policy Organ of the Common Market, responsible for the general policy and direction and control of the performance of the executive functions of the Common Market and the achievement of its aims and objectives and shall have such other powers as are vested in it under the Treaty.
The 23rd Summit of the COMESA Heads of State and Government takes place in Bujumbura, Burundi on 31st October 2024. As per its Treaty, the COMESA Summit is held after the meetings of Policy Organs that include the Intergovernmental Committee (IC), and the Council of Ministers (CM), and the meeting of the Committee of Ministers of Foreign Affairs (MoFA).
COMESA held the last Intergovernmental Committee and the Council of Ministers meetings on 21 to 22 and 23 November 2023 respectively. The meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs will be held on the 29 October 2024, and it will consider reports on peace, security and governance in the COMESA region from the meeting of officials which is scheduled for 25 and 26 October 2024.
The 23rd Summit is expected to consider reports on several subjects including the following:
- State of integration in terms of fulfillment of the COMESA Mid Term Strategic Plan for the period 2021-2025.
- Ministers of Foreign Affairs Report on Peace and security in the COMESA region.
- Council of Ministers Report.
- Business Forum Declaration
- Priority Issues on COMESA Programmes and Activities
- Annual Report for the year 2023.
As per the COMESA Treaty, the Authority is expected to meet once every year and may hold extraordinary meetings at the request of any member of the Authority, provided that such a request is supported by one-third of the members of the Authority. Recent Summit was conducted in Zambia (2023) and Egypt (2021). The country that hosts the Summit takes over the chair of COMESA with the Head of State and Government serving as the chair of the Authority.