Posted in Press Release
The East African Legislative Assembly, Thursday, held a one-day Inter-Parliamentary Relations Seminar on the theme: “Poverty and Good Governance” in Nairobi.
The Speaker of the Kenya National Assembly, Rt Hon Justin Muturi opened the Seminar, often referred to as the Nanyuki Series, saying that, poverty, inequality and governance were inseparably related.
“Without good governance, bad policy choices will be made, the people would neither have voice nor power and the economy may likely deteriorate,” Rt Hon Muturi said.
The Speaker reiterated that poverty and inequality weakens the political processes and promotes deficient governments. He reiterated the importance of good governance, saying it ensures the participation of the poor in decisions that affect them and empowers them to get their views on the policy agenda.
“This gives voice to the people in the policy processes especially on poverty issues, it is a necessary and progressive step in an attempt to promote and sustain growth development and socio-economic transformation”
The Inter-Parliamentary relations Seminar was attended by Parliamentarians from the Parliament of Burundi, Parliament of Rwanda, Parliament of Kenya, Parliament of Uganda and the East African Legislative Assembly. Apologies were received from the Parliament of Tanzania.
In his remarks, the Speaker of the East African Legislative Assembly, Rt. Hon Daniel F. Kidega, remarked that for the region to prosper, it was necessary to reduce poverty and create more opportunities.
Accordingly, 7 out of the 10 persons you see walking out there in the streets are jobless, while another 6 out of 10 live in informal settlements. The largest population, the youth, constitute about 8 out of 10 persons and their age range is below 30 years.
The inflows in terms of Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) also rose from $2.6 Billion in 2013 to $ 4 Billion in 2014. The value of total intra-EAC trade rose from USD 1.8 Billion in 2004 to USD 5.1 Billion Dollars in 2015 representing a significant growth of 190 percent.
“The economic boom seems not to have translated in equal measures with income generation and employment opportunities. Poverty seems to be on the increase in the region with the gap between the rich and the poor widening. The concentration of wealth has remained largely unchanged over the years”, Rt Hon Kidega said.
He remarked that unemployment was a key factor often leading to increased crime, radicalization and terrorism and cited insecurity as one of the issues further compounds the misery of inequalities.
“We could be setting ourselves up for failure should we fail to mop up weapons and silence the guns in some of the Partner States in the region. Peace and security duly enables citizens to enjoy their freedoms and are a panacea to development”, he said.
The EALA Speaker called on Parliaments to unite in a bid to contain the challenges been caused by poverty.“I want to emphasise building a united front devoid of political affiliations in the struggle to contain poverty. I say so candidly because poverty and impoverishment can take advantage of conditions of exclusion, injustice, unresponsive leadership to further depress the wretched populace. Poverty does not delineate who supports Government or who is sponsored by Opposition in Parliament,” he added.
The representative of European Parliamentarians with Africa, Lord David Chigdey reiterated the collaboration between AWEPA and EALA and said the organization remained committed to the partnership.
“AWEPA highly values the close partnership we have built with the EALA since 2002, one year after EALA’s inauguration. Our cooperation has been built on trust and mutual respect. As a result, we continue to be able to jointly run successful programs that benefit East Africa’s citizens”, Lord Chigdey said.
He cited some of the areas of collaboration as hat including the arena of sustainable development goals.Lord Chigdey reiterated AWEPA’s belief in the notion that strong Parliaments at the national and regional levels lie at the heart of Africa’s long-term development, and thus at the heart of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Delivering the key note address, Prof Augustus Nuwagaba termed inclusive growth as a key roadmap to sustainable peace and prosperity.
While making recommendations, the Seminar called on the EAC Heads of State to re-assess the economic policies and make them conducive to empowering citizens to participate fully in economic, political and social affairs. They further want increased co-operation in the exchange of ideas on how to design policies and strategies that success stories in Africa and abroad have used to reduce poverty within short period.
The Seminar further tasks Members and the National Parliaments to increase cohesion in Parliaments and develop frameworks that support inter-party collaboration and collective action. In addition, it is important to enhance public hearings in order to support more participation, accountability and transparency. The issue of building trust is essential with the participants calling on the institution of Parliament to find ways of enhancing trust.
EALA in particular is been called up on to stem the tide of recurrent conflicts which have negatively contributed to poverty cycles in the East African Community Member States.
“It is important to increase awareness and sensitization efforts to mobilize support for East Africa Community affairs and regional integration”, a section of the report says.
Further, the need to broaden the outlook of the impact of poverty on crime, terrorism and radicalization and adopt common regional strategies for addressing factors that fuel such problems are key in stemming poverty and inequality.
On their part, East African political parties were called upon to assess linkages with voters and increase citizen participation in their activities. The participants want the parties to do away with elite capture and become more accountable to their members and the grassroots. This is a way of increasing professionalization and reducing the personalization or ethnicization of leadership.
Posted in Press Release
The East African Community signed the International Energy Charter (IEC) on 25th November 2016 during the 27th Meeting of the International Energy Charter Conference and Ministerial Meeting held on 25th – 26th November 2016 in Tokyo, Japan.
The EAC Deputy Secretary General (Productive and Social Sectors), Hon. Christophe Bazivamo signed the Charter on behalf of the EAC. Other organizations and countries that signed the Charter at the same occasion included Economic Community of Central African Countries (ECCAS), the Permanent Secretariat of the G5 Sahel, Guatemala, Iraq and Iran. By signing the IEC, the EAC joined 73 other countries and organizations that have signed the Charter including four EAC Partner States namely Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
The IEC is a political declaration aimed at strengthening energy cooperation among signatory countries and international organizations. Signatories to the IEC commit to create favorable investment environment in the energy sector including the participation of the private sector. The IEC fosters development of energy resources, energy markets, unrestricted transit and distribution of energy resources, products and services.
The signing of the IEC by the EAC and four other signatories was one of the highlights of the 27th Meeting of the International Energy Charter Conference and Ministerial Meeting hosted by the Japan as the current Chairman under the theme “Relevance of the International Energy Charter to Global Challenges: its potential contributions to sustainable development and global efforts on climate change”.
The meeting issued the Tokyo Declaration on the Energy Charter, which highlighted the following issues: contribution of the Energy Charter to the Energy Sector; Challenges and Opportunities posed by the changing Global Energy Landscape and Energy Charter’s role in providing better investment climate for the Energy Sector.
As way forward, through the Tokyo Declaration expressed the members decision to enhance and support energy resource development and investment protection framework; adding new impetus to energy security and crises prevention; raise awareness of Energy Charter’s goals and values with particular emphasis to regions where demand is expected to increase; and enhance efforts to develop energy markets, free transit and distribution of energy resources, products and services.
In his address to the Ministerial session, the EAC Deputy Secretary General (Productive and Social Sectors), Hon. Christophe Bazivamo noted that the signing of the Energy Charter was an expression of EAC’s commitment to develop the energy sector in a responsible and sustainable manner embracing best practice in cooperation with other members of the Energy Charter.
He outlined EAC’s projects and programmes aimed at provision of sufficient, reliable, affordable and sustainable region. Noting that the EAC is continuously working on improving the existing favorable investment climate, the EAC official called upon developed members of the Charter to invest in the EAC’s energy sector to raise levels of energy access and help EAC attain its commitments to global targets under the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) and UN Sustainable Development Goals. In light of these commitments, the Deputy Secretary General challenged the meeting to consider declaring access to energy as a human right.
On the sidelines of the meeting, the Deputy Secretary General (DSG) held several bilateral meetings. He held discussions with the Japanese Ambassador responsible for Regional Economic Communities, Amb. Fujita; the Secretary General of the Energy Charter and Georgia’s Minister for Energy.
During his meeting with Amb. Fujita, Hon. Bazivamo outlined the integration progress made by the EAC and highlighted Japanese contribution to the process especially in infrastructure and energy development.
He applauded Japan for choosing to host the first TICAD conference outside Japan in East Africa in August 2016 in Nairobi. On his part, Amb. Fujita expressed Japan’s commitment to continue supporting the EAC both at regional and national levels.
He disclosed that during TICAD IV, many Japanese companies expressed interest to invest in East Africa and that over seventy MoUs were signed in that regard. However, he noted that investment by the Japanese companies in the region would be greatly enhanced if Investment Agreements and Avoidance of Double Taxation Agreements were signed between Japan and the EAC Partner States.
While meeting the Secretary General of the Energy Charter, Dr. Urban Rausnak, Hon. Bazivamo discussed ways the EAC could benefit from the Energy Charter. The Deputy Secretary General invited the Energy Charter to organize one of the outreach programmes in the region as it would also help to raise awareness on the Energy Charter and how membership to the IEC can help the region to access opportunities for mobilization of resources for increasing energy access and private investment in the energy sector in the EAC.
The Deputy Secretary General also held a bilateral meeting with Georgia’s Minister for Energy who shared his country’s experience in the development of small hydropower and extended an invitation to the EAC to visit Georgia to draw lessons on small hydropower development. Hon. Bazivamo welcomed the invitation noting that EAC is endowed with small hydropower potential that is currently not fully tapped.
Consultation meetings were also held with the delegations from the EAC Partner States participating in the meeting which included Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. Rwanda and Tanzania were represented by their respective Ambassadors to Japan, while Uganda was represented by the Minister for Energy and Mineral Development, Hon. Irene Muloni.