Posted in High-Level Retreat on the EAC Common Market

A High-Level Summit Retreat on the EAC Common Market is scheduled to take place on the 20^th and 21^st of July 2022, followed by the 22^nd Ordinary Summit of EAC Heads of State on the 22^nd of July, 2022.

The Retreat seeks to provide an opportunity for the stakeholders, policy makers and the EAC Heads of State to take stock of the progress made in the last 11 years of creating a common market and discuss challenges and the required interventions to unlock bottlenecks toward the full realisation of the common market.

Specifically, the Retreat will, among others, evaluate the following:

• General status of implementation of the EAC Common Market Protocol (CMP);
• the achievements and critical challenges to the implementation of the CMP;
• the lessons that Partner States may learn from each other and other existing functional common markets across the world; and
• the key areas where high-level intervention is necessary to provide impetus to fully attaining the Common Market.

The expected outcome of this High-Level Summit Retreat is to obtain general direction and impetus by the Summit to realise a functional Common Market.

The Retreat will have four breakout sessions to cover the following,

1. Reflections on the EAC’s free movement of goods and services: the Scorecard and Journey ahead. This presentation seeks to cover an analytical review of the movement of goods and services, challenges, emerging issues and proposed strategic interventions.
2. Reflections on social integration and labour mobility in the EAC: the Journey and the next steps. This presentation seeks to cover an analytical review of the movement of persons and workers, challenges, emerging issues and proposed strategic interventions
3. Reflection on the cross-cutting issues and the role of the private sector in implementing the Common Market Protocol
4. The role of the media in deepening EAC Integration.