Posted in Press Release
The East African Community Secretariat in collaboration with Kenya’s State Department of East African Affairs and the Ministry of Health is organising a five-day dissemination workshop on EAC regional Health Projects and Programmes for health sector stakeholders, line ministries, departments, agencies, and County Health Officers taking place from 28th September to 2nd October 2015 in Nairobi, Kenya.
The overall objective of the workshop is to bring on board different stakeholders and policy makers at different levels with the aim of raising the participants’ awareness and uptake of EAC Health Projects and Programmes.
It is expected that the workshop will lead to better understanding and improved knowledge about the EAC health sector, its vision, projects and programmes among the policy makers and the general public in Kenya.
It is also anticipated that the forum will result in improved support, buy-in, ownership and implementation of EAC Health Projects and Programmes; enhanced coherence in policy development and implementation of health programmes within government in view of ongoing initiatives at the EAC level; and, enhanced information sharing between the National and County Governments.
The EAC Secretariat has developed a Regional Health Sector Strategic Plan 2015-2020, which has a number of projects and programmes aimed at the realisation of better health in the region.
These include the Open Health Initiative; East African Medicines Regulatory Harmonisation Programme; Population Health and Environment Programme; and, the EAC HIV and AIDS, TB and STI Programme whose Strategic Plan and Implementation Framework (2015–2020) was approved by the EAC’s policy-making organ, the Council of Ministers.
Despite the fact that all these initiatives are ongoing at the regional level, policy makers, the general public and other relevant stakeholders are not well informed of them.
This knowledge gap extends to health stakeholders and practitioners, manufacturers and distributors of pharmaceutical products, line ministries and institutions and more recently, county government officials. Health is a devolved function under the new Constitution of Kenya which came into effect in 2010.
The lack of adequate information on EAC Health Projects and Programmes makes it hard for implementation of various decisions and directives by the EAC Health Ministers at the national level.
This further impacts negatively on the ability by various stakeholders and pharmaceutical manufacturers to take advantage of emerging markets within the EAC region.
Though health is a devolved function, decisions at the regional level have direct impact on the delivery of health care services; hence, the need for policy makers at both levels of government to be conversant with the various directives / decisions and resolutions.
There is also a need to increase the uptake of the EAC programmes and projects by the general public for full realisation of the envisioned benefits.
It is therefore critical that the health stakeholders and practitioners, manufacturers and distributors of pharmaceutical products, line ministries departments and agencies as well as health officials in the county governments are sensitised on the ongoing projects and programmes.
The dissemination workshop will be conducted at two levels. The high-level government policy makers will briefed on spot visits in their boardrooms on specific EAC Health Programmes and Projects. It is expected that each of these sessions will have targeted messages and will last for not more than one hour.
The proposed Ministries to be visited include: Ministry of Health, National Treasury, Ministry of Devolution and Planning, Ministry of Industrialisation and Enterprise Development, County Government of Nairobi City, and the State Department of East African Affairs. This will then be followed by a two-day workshop for targeted middle-level policy makers and implementers scheduled for 1st and 2nd October 2015 at the Grand Laico Regency Hotel, Nairobi, Kenya.
Posted in Press Release
A Japanese delegation led by Hajime Iwama, Director, Africa Division 2 in charge of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Tanzania program, Africa Department; Kenji Isomoto, JICA Technical Advisor; and, Kimanari Takahashi, Team Leader of JICA Study among others paid a working visit to the EAC Headquarters on Friday, 25 September to discuss funding for the completion of the dualling of the road from Tengeru to Usa in Arusha, rehabilitation of the Usa-Holili section including complete re-location of the dangerous Kikafu Bridge and the feasibility study.
The EAC Deputy Secretary-General in charge of Planning and Infrastructure, Dr Enos Bukuku welcomed the delegation to the EAC and noted that their visit was adding to the recent three visits made by the new JICA Chief Representative in Tanzania, the Ambassador Extraordinary, and Plenipotentiary and the Deputy Ambassador of Japan to Tanzania, all aimed at cementing the cordial relationships not only between Japan and Tanzania but also between Japan and the East African Community.
“It is in recognition of the need for facilitating integrated, efficient and cost-effective transport systems along the EAC Corridors that the Government of Japan, through JICA, accepted the request made by the East African Community in May 2014 to support the rehabilitation of the Tengeru-Holili road section”, affirmed Dr Bukuku, adding that “the current constructions cover only 14.1km out of the envisaged 22.3km to Usa. This means that there is a gap of around 8.2km to be upgraded to dual carriageway”.
The Tengeru-Holili road section has no Project Affected Persons and, therefore, no resettlement issues. “However, it has a very special safety consideration in particular at Kikafu Bridge”.
Dr Bukuku highlighted and urged that the JICA Study Team critically reviews the provisions of the current design and addresses all constraints that could become impediments to smooth flow of local and transit traffic along the road.
Although the project section is wholly located in Tanzania, it has corridor-wide / regional impacts on traffic flows as it links the Northern Corridor, the Trans African Highway No. 8 (Great North Road) and ultimately, the Central Corridor. It will also be a link to Rwanda and Burundi from the Port of Mombasa.
The project road has been designed to conform to the EAC agreed standards, which are hybrids of existing standards among EAC Partner States. The EAC standards have been adopted through harmonisation framework contained in the East African Transport Facilitation Strategy.
The Deputy Secretary-General thanked the Japanese Government for the interest shown in this project and requested that JICA considers providing a grant component to the funding support, especially for the Kikafu Bridge.
“The grant assistance we seek for the Kikafu Bridge and associated approach roads will enhance the symbolism of the Japanese emotional connection to the site, which has been an annual pilgrimage area for Japanese visitors to Tanzania”.
The JICA Director for Tanzania, Mr Hajime Iwama, expressed his gratitude for the generous hospitality the delegation received from EAC and restated that the main purpose of their visit was to ensure smooth running and kickoff of the rehabilitation operations and feasibility study respectively.