SG BLOGS ON PROGRESS IN REGIONAL CO-OPERATION & FRIEDRICH EBERT STIFTUBG (FES) SUPPORT

I would like to thank the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) for the EAC Vision Consultative Group initiative. The initiative is timely and will contribute to propelling the EAC integration process forward.

The EAC appreciates the longstanding association with the FES and the support which the Foundation has extended to EAC integration, particularly in the area of raising popular awareness and mobilizing popular participation in the regional integration process.

Right from the inception of the EAC, FES stepped forward with support involving a series of workshops and seminars on the theme of Good Neighborhood in East Africa, Civil Society involvement and the Role of Women in the integration process. FES also sponsored several publications to popularize the EAC Treaty.

SG BLOGS ON EAC PRIORITIES OVER THE NEXT FIVE YEARS

The EAC has, within a relatively short time since its establishment 11 years ago, realized tremendous progress in regional co-operation and significant impact on regional development. In real growth terms, the region’s combined GDP has risen to $ 75 billion, up from $ 20 billion in 1999. Following the enlargement of the EAC in 2007, the EAC region now boasts a sizeable market of a combined population of 130 million. The membership of the EAC has expanded from the original three, Kenya Uganda and Tanzania, to the current five that includes Rwanda and Burundi which joined in 2007. Buoyed by this success, EAC is today considering further enlargement. The DRC and South Sudan are among the countries of eastern, central and southern Africa that have indicated interest to join.

From time immemorial, the people of what are the modern States of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda and beyond interacted and traded relatively freely, within the dictates of their socio-political formations. Historians have chronicled the free movement of the East African peoples that was characterized by free migrations, both forward and reverse migrations, across East Africa.

SG BLOGS ON HIS PRIORITIES DURING HIS TERM

I have identified the realization of a single Customs territory, making the Common Market work, achieving a Monetary Union, infrastructure development and industrialization as the priorities for my term.

My priorities have been laid out by the Summit [of EAC Heads of State] both within the Treaty Establishing the East African Community and the Protocols therein.

But within those broad areas and in the context of implementing the Treaty and the attendant Protocols, there are four or five areas that are critical.