East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 20th November, 2019: The 21st Ordinary Meeting of the EAC Heads of State Summit initially scheduled for Saturday, 30th November, 2019 has been postponed to a later date in either January or February next year.
EAC Secretary General Amb. Liberat Mfumukeko said Wednesday that the 21st Summit was postponed after a request by one of the Members of the Summit, adding that the postponement had nothing to do with a dispute or disagreement among any of the EAC Partner States.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 19th November, 2019: Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni on Monday, 18th November, 2019 launched the National Stakeholders Consultations to Draft the Constitution for the East African Community Political Confederation at State House, Entebbe, Uganda.
President Museveni underscored the importance of the EAC attaining a Political Federation, adding that the Political Confederation was a transitional model to the Political Federation as enshrined in the Treaty for the Establishment of the EAC.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 14th November, 2019: The Global Manufacturing and Industrialization Summit (GMIS) Connect Roadshow jointly organized by the East African Community together UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) opened today at the EAC headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania.
The main objective of the GMIS Connect roadshow themed: Advanced Industrialization in East Africa: Challenges Opportunities for Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is to explore in detail the implications of the Fourth Industrial Revolution for the region’s manufacturing, industrialization and investment prospects.
East African Community Secretariat, Arusha, Tanzania, 14th November, 2019: The Director of Productive Sectors at the EAC Secretariat, Mr. Jean Baptiste Havugimana, has underscored the need to put in place a transformational policy instrument to trigger immediate interventions responding to the needs of smallholder farmers in the region.
Mr. Havugimana noted that over the past one decade, the EAC Partner States have successfully adopted several policy documents in the fertilizer sub-sector, yet the impact on the ground remained unchanged.
Highlighting 40 projects from across the East African Community focusing on the benefits of regional integration
Showcasing real-life applications and initiatives from civil society and the private sector that target women and youth and encourage innovation and collaboration
Projects focusing on health, performing arts, youth unemployment, tourism, ICT, cross border trade and much more
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 14th November, 2019: The Civil society and private sector organisations from across the EAC region came together in Arusha, Tanzania to celebrate Incubator for Integration and Development in East Africa (IIDEA) Week, an initiative of the EAC Secretariat in partnership with the Regional Dialogue Committee and with the support of German Development Cooperation through the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).
The 11th -14th September, 2019 IIDEA brought together representatives from the IIDEA Committee, EAC Secretariat, development partners, and other stakeholders, to present their projects and discuss the benefits and challenges and participate in training and evaluation sessions for capacity enhancement.
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, Kigali , Rwanda 13th November, 2019: The East African Community (EAC) and Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Secretariats have come up with position papers to guide negotiations of the Africa Group of Negotiators (AGN) for United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) also known as Conference of Parties (COP25) set for 2-13 December 2019 in Madrid, Spain.
The Position papers were agreed upon during a two-day regional technical consultative workshop in Kigali on 8 – 9 November 2019. The Secretariats, both beneficiaries of the European Union’s ACP’s Global Climate Change Alliance Plus (GCCA+) grant, jointly organized the Pre-COP25 technical meeting to come up with regional position papers consolidated from national positions of their respective member countries for submission to the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) to guide Africa in the negotiations during COP25 sessions.
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, 6th November, 2019: The People’s Republic of China has made a commitment to give the East African Community 12 cars worth US$400,000 to be used in various capacity building programmes at the Community.
Making the announcement, Mr. Liang Lin, the Political Counselor at the Chinese Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, said that China was keen on working with the EAC in, among other fields, education, infrastructure development, trade, prevention of Ebola, peace and security, and capacity building initiatives.
COMMUNIQUE OF THE 2ND EAC JOINT MINISTERIAL, DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS’ AND INVESTORS’ ROUNDTABLE ON INVESTMENT IN HEALTH
THEME: ENHANCING HEALTH SECTOR INVESTMENTS, WELLBEING AND WEALTH CREATION IN THE EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY
HILTON HOTEL, NAIROBI, REPUBLIC OF KENYA
1st NOVEMBER 2019
We, the Ministers responsible for Health in the EAC Partner States in collaboration with Investors, Development Partners, Private Sector and Civil Society Organizations’ Leaders, assembled here in Nairobi City, Republic of Kenya, today the 1st of November, 2019, for the 2nd EAC Joint Ministerial, Development Partners and Investors’ Roundtable on Investment in Health;
Noting that the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community provides for the promotion of the management of health delivery systems and better planning mechanisms to enhance efficiency within the Partner States;
Further noting that significant strides have been made in the development of policies to enhance cooperation in health and observing that Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 3, target 3.8 on achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC), especially access to quality essential health care services, equity and financial risk protection;
Acknowledging that Universal Health Coverage is only achievable if there is political commitment from the Partners States and accountable governance in the policy making and service delivery process;
Concerned that external funding in health especially vertical programs such as HIV, TB, Malaria and immunization, is expected to decline over the coming years and could affect the gains made in health for the EAC Partner states;
Appreciating the continued support and commitment from the health development partners, Investors, Civil Society Organizations and the Private Sector;
Concerned about the high level of out of pocket expenditure for health services in the EAC region, for Partner States, compared to the recommended WHO threshold of 20%, and leading to catastrophic expenditures and later on to impoverishment of families,
Recognising that health is wealth and that investing in health is the cornerstone for socioeconomic transformation;
We, the Ministers responsible for Health in the EAC Partner States, in collaboration with Investors, Development Partners, Private Sector and Civil Society Organizations’ Leaders, on this First day of November 2019 hereby resolve to:
Continue to provide leadership and support in the implementation of the Health Sector investment priorities especially the operationalisation of the EAC Regional Centers of Excellence in Partner States;
Explore and implement innovative financing mechanisms to increase domestic resources for health in Partner States
Continue to support the strengthening of EAC regional capacities for infrastructure and human resources development for the prevention, preparedness, response and recovery from epidemic prone infectious diseases
Support mechanisms geared towards strengthening health professional regulatory bodies to ensure availability and performance of qualified and skilled workforce for the delivery of quality health care services;
Strengthen the capacities of National Medicines Regulatory Authorities (NMRAs) to improve access to quality, efficacious and affordable medicines in Partner States in line with the EAC decision;
Oversee the conduct of regular performance review, the generation of evidence for knowledge management and evaluation of programs in the health sector to inform policies for better delivery of quality health care;
Support the implementation of the digital health initiatives in Partner States for efficient health care service delivery;
Enhance Investors, Private Sector, Civil Society Organisations and other stakeholders engagement through Public Private Partnership to support governments towards better health care service delivery and attainment of Universal Health Coverage;
Sustain efforts in advocating for increased domestic financing for the Health Sector;
Promote and coordinate the establishment of an accountability framework for all health sector stakeholders.
EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY