East African Community, Sandton, South Africa 13th November, 2019: The East African Community (EAC) and the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) signed a strategic partnership agreement at the African Investment Forum in South Africa.
The strategic partnership with EAC will enable the DBSA to support collaborative initiatives that will crowd-in resources for the development of infrastructure that promotes regional integration. The partners will also work together on project preparation and ultimately co-financing of projects and capacity building.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 9th November, 2019: The 2nd East African Community Development Partner’ Group (DPG) Thematic Groups (TGs) meeting on Infrastructure and Economic Integration was convened at the EAC Headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania.
The key objective of the thematic groups meeting was to discuss thematic strategic issues in details, while ensuring alignment with Development Partners’ respective strategic goals and also resource implications.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 2nd August, 2019: The Federal Republic of Germany has committed Euro 35 million to East African Community to be invested in vaccination programmes in the Partner States.
Speaking at the EAC headquarters, Senior Policy Officer from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Ms Claudia Imwolde-Krämer said Germany is contributing Euro 35 million to immunization programmes in the EAC. “I appreciate and acknowledge the EAC’s efforts to immunize every child in the region”.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, 21st March, 2019: The Director General for Eastern Africa Region at the African Development Bank (AfDB), Mr. Gabriel Negatu has pledged more support to agriculture and industrialization in the East African Community (EAC) bloc.
The Director General made the statement yesterday when he paid a courtesy call on the EAC Secretary General Amb Liberat Mfumukeko at the EAC headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania. He noted that investment in agriculture and industrialization is the crucial for the development of the region.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 19th February, 2019: The Government of the Federal Republic of Germany committed a grant of over USD 35 million (EUR 31.5 million) to the East African Community (EAC) to further support the regional organisation in the areas of health, regional economic integration and education.
The EAC Secretary General, Amb. Libérat Mfumukeko, and the German Ambassador to the EAC, Dr. Detlef Wächter, jointly signed the Agreements in Arusha today.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 15th February, 2019: The Secretary General, Amb. Liberat Mfumukeko today met with the President of African Development Bank(AfDB) Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina at the AfDB headquarters in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
The Secretary General briefed the President on the status of EAC integration, highlighting the progress in the 4 pillars of integration and articulated the support needed from the Bank.
Amb. Mfumukeko appreciated and acknowledged the great support provided by the Bank especially in the area of Infrastructure Development and the Financial Sector.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 22th November, 2018: The Secretary General of the East African Community, Amb. Liberat Mfumukeko and Chinese Ambassador to Tanzania and EAC H.E Wang Ke today signed the grant agreement worth 200,000 USD to support EAC integration process.
Speaking during the signing ceremony the Chinese Ambassador noted the great contribution China is making to the region especially in infrastructure both as an investor and contractor. Ambassador Ke said China is committed to to continue support peace building and good governance process in the region.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 23rd October, 2018: The 2nd East African Community Development Partners Consultative Forum aimed at promoting better coordination of development support to the EAC by various development partners was held today at the EAC Headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania.
The forum sought to foster synergies and leverage available resources while avoiding duplication of efforts in financing EAC programmes and projects.
Addressing the forum, the EAC Secretary General, Amb. Liberat Mfumukeko saidover the last five years, Development Partners had committed about $500 million direct and technical support to various aspects of the EAC integration.
“With this revamped collaboration, the EAC has been able to progress the integration agenda with remarkable speed,” said the Secretary General.
He diclsosed that the main contributors to the EAC Development Programmes include Germany, the USA through USAID East Africa, European Union (EU), and the African Development Bank. The total German contribution to EAC amounts to€286,541,354.42; USAID $237,823,555; and the EU Euro 65,000,000.
Amb. Mfumukeko expressed EAC appreciation for the approval of the African Development Bank Regional Integration Strategy Paper for Eastern Africa (EA-RISP 2018-22), in which EAC Projects worth about US$2 billion have been considered in the RISP indicative operational programme. This includes loans to the EAC Partner States for regional programmes and grant to the EAC.
The Secretary General said that the EAC has transformed itself from a loose co-operation framework into a fast-emerging, solid and dynamic regional economic bloc. He added that the EAC has evolved strong institutions and vigorous programme delivery, which are already making an impact on the economies of the region.
Amb. Mfumukeko disclosed to the participants that the EAC has been ranked as first among the eight (8) Regional Economic Communities (RECs) from the recently Africa Regional Integration Index Report launched in Addis Ababa through the collaboration between the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the African Union Commission (AUC)
He however called for more partnerships with the business community and, in particular, the East African Business Council in industrial development through investment in private sector development, improvement of doing business environment and finally an enhance.
On his part, the head of Delegation of the European Union, Amb. Roeland van de Geer, said the forum is valuable for Development Partners to ensure an alignment of their respective cooperation programmes with those of the EAC.
He appreciated the willingness of the EAC Secretariat to engage on sector specific priority areas particulary on key regional priorities given the wide and ambitious portfolio of EAC.
Amb. Roeland emphasized the need for involving all EAC institutions and representatives of key regional non-state actors including the private sector in the forum to share their valuable experience of regional integration.
Amb. Roeland assured the EAC that all Development Partners are willing to support the key priorities of as EAC articulated in the 5th Development Strategy endorsed in February 2018.
In his remarks, Mr. Marcellin Ndong Ntah, the lead Economist from the African Development Bank said the Development Partners Consultative Forum promotes the principle of ownership of the development assistance that may be availed to the EAC and its Partner states to drive Region’s development agenda.
Mr. Ndong hailed the EAC for establishing the forum noting that it would enable better coordination of development assistance by Development Partners to the Community.
The 2nd EAC Development Partners Consultative Forum was attended by: Ambassadors accredited to the EAC; Members of the Proposed EAC Development Partners Group; Other EAC Development Partners and Representatives from EAC Organs and Institutions among other.
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For more information, please contact:
Mr Owora Richard Othieno Head, Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Department EAC Secretariat Arusha, Tanzania Tel: +255 784 835021 Email: OOthieno [at] eachq.org
About the East African Community Secretariat:
The East African Community (EAC) is a regional intergovernmental organisation of five Partner States, comprising Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, with its headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, 15th October 2018: The African Development Bank (AfDB) and African Development Fund (ADF) have approve the Regional Integration Strategy with Projects worth USD2 Billion for EAC Region. The African Development Bank is among the top EAC Development Partners. The Bank’s support in the Region is oriented toward “Accelerating East Africa’s Transformation through Regional Integration”.
Since July 2017, the EAC Secretariat has been working with the Bank on a proposal to support the EAC priority projects under the Bank’s Regional Integration Strategy Paper (RISP) for Eastern Africa (EA-RISP 2018-22). The efforts to engage with the Bank are in line with the outcome of the Joint EAC Heads of State Retreat concluded on 28th February 2018 in Kampala, Uganda, at which the Secretariat was called upon to collaborate with development partners to “Mobilize resources required for implementation of new and ongoing priority infrastructure projects”.
A total of 20 projects worth $2 billion to be implemented by the EAC and EAC Partner States are included under the EA-RISP approved by the Bank’s Board of Directors on 10th October 2018 for the next five years.
Accordingly to a press release issued by the Bank on 12th October, 2018 the RISP is the Bank’s strategic and programming instrument to guide its support to regional operations in 13 countries, comprising the six EAC Partner States and their congruous neighbours in the greater Eastern Africa region such as Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia and Sudan. EA-RISP is anchored on two mutually reinforcing pillars, namely ‘regional infrastructure for competitiveness and structural transformation’, and ‘strengthening the policy and institutional frameworks for market integration, growing investments and value chains development.
In line with this strategic thrust, the EAC priority projects included in the RISP cover regional transport connectivity, regional energy infrastructure, regional ICT connectivity, and management of transboundary water resources.
Under the second pillar, the Bank will support projects aimed at accelerating implementation of the EAC single market, trade development including tackling of non-tariff barriers (NTBs), and putting in place policy frameworks for industrialization and promotion of EAC as a single investment destination. On financial market integration, the Bank aims to scale up implementation of the EAC payment and settlement systems integration. A number of knowledge products have also been prioritized, including publication of the flagship Eastern Africa Industrial Competitiveness Report in collaboration with UNIDO.
The Bank has indicated that the indicative operational program updated at the Mid-Term Review in 2020. A range of instruments will be deployed to finance the selected projects, including the Bank concessional resources under the African development Fund (ADF) window, its non-concessional resources under the African Development Bank (ADB) window, trust funds and blending instruments, including through collaboration with other development partners such as the European Union, French Development Agency (AFD), and China’s Africa Growing Together Fund (AGTF).
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For more information, please contact:
Mr Owora Richard Othieno Head, Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Department EAC Secretariat Arusha, Tanzania Tel: +255 784 835021 Email: OOthieno [at] eachq.org
About the East African Community Secretariat:
The East African Community (EAC) is a regional intergovernmental organisation of five Partner States, comprising Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, with its headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 5th October, 2018: Germany has committed funding worth 61.5 million Euros to mark the 20th anniversary of her joint partnership with the East African Community.
On 5th October, the EAC Secretariat welcomed a delegation from the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany to discuss the future cooperation between both sides. These Government Negotiations are another milestone in the close EAC-German development cooperation.
The negotiations were led by H.E. Libérat Mfumukeko, Secretary General of the EAC, and Mr Niels Breyer, Head of the Division East Africa at the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in Germany.
The Head of the German Delegation commended the EAC on its accomplishments and underlined that EAC-German cooperation contributes significantly to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Mr Breyer further elaborated that Germany’s support to the EAC is based on Germany’s strategy as set forth in the Marshall Plan with Africa that aims to support partner countries in implementing the development visions and reform goals of the African Union's Agenda 2063.
Mr Breyer stressed the need for mutual commitments and called on the EAC to strengthen their own financial resources. He pointed out that closer economic cooperation will lead to the creation of job opportunities and improve the long-term prospects for young people throughout the region. With reference to the health sector, Mr Breyer stressed that a functioning health system is an important element in supporting the EAC in its further sustainable development and serves as a foundation for a strong workforce and thus for sustainable economic development.
In his remarks, EAC Secretary General Amb. Liberat Mfumukeko hailed German support over the past two decades which had enabled the Community to record significant achievements in diverse sectors, namely: Health and Pharmaceuticals, Trade and Customs; Gender and Education; monetary harmonization; institutional capacity strengthening, and; support to the Partnership Fund.
“We at the EAC fully embrace the priority areas embedded in the German Marshall Plan which include: economic diversification and boosting private sector investment and mobilization of private capital; value addition; investment in entrepreneurship, and technical and vocational training,” said Amb. Mfumukeko.
Both sides agreed to continue and extend their ongoing cooperation in the two focal areas of cooperation: “Regional Economic and Social Integration” and “Health”. In total, the German government committed €61.5 million for programmes with the EAC Secretariat in those fields.
In the area of “Regional Economic and Social Integration”, the German side committed €9.5 million for the follow-on programme “Support to the EAC integration process” that will go to promoting intra-regional trade through value addition in productive sectors, better market access, improved customs processes and harmonized standards.
Euro 1 million will be in support for the ongoing programme “Strengthening of a Regional Quality Infrastructure” that focusses on reliable quality control mechanism and services for products traded in the EAC region and exported abroad, specifically in the pharmaceutical sector as well as in subsectors of agro-processing.
In the area of health, the German government has committed €30 million for the Immunization programme which is implemented through Gavi, the Vaccine alliance. Moreover, €13 million will be for additional support of the Regional Network of Laboratories for Communicable Diseases that aims at enabling the EAC and its Partner States to diagnose potentially epidemic diseases, monitor anti-microbial resistance quickly and reliably on the ground and to launch effective responses immediately. Furthermore, the German government committed €3 million for the ongoing technical cooperation programme “Support to Pandemic Preparedness in the EAC-Region” which supports the EAC Secretariat in its coordinating and advisory role in pandemic preparedness for the Partner States.
With these new commitments, support of the EAC by the German government now amounts up to approximately €350 million.
Germany has been a strong supporter of the regional organization for two decades. On the occasion of this 20thanniversary, the German delegation and the EAC Secretariat joined in celebrations on the evening of 5th October at the EAC Headquarters.
Accompanying Mr Breyer in the German delegation at the bilateral negotiations were Mr Georg Rademacher, Senior Policy Officer for East Africa at the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, and Dr Detlef Waechter, the German Ambassador to Tanzania and the EAC.
With Amb. Mfumukeko for the EAC were Deputy Secretaries General Hon. Christophe Bazivamo (Productive and Social Sectors) and Eng. Steven Mlote (Planning and Infrastructure). Others were the Executive Secretary of the Lake Victoria Basin Commission, Dr Said Matano, and Deputy Executive Secretaries Prof. Mike Kuria (Inter-University Council for East Africa) and Prof. Saidi Kibeya (East African Science and Technology Commission).
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For more information please contact: Owora Richard Othieno, Head of Department, Corporate Communications and Public Affairs; Tel: +255 784 835021; Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
OR
John Merikion Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany Dar es Salaam Tel.: +255-22-2212-300
About the East African Community Secretariat:
The East African Community (EAC) is a regional intergovernmental organisation of five Partner States, comprising Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, with its headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania.
