Gendering Environment and Climate Change in the Economic Community of West African States & the East African Community: Why Representation Matters

2021 ◽  
pp. 003464462110367
Author(s):  
Naaborle Sackeyfio ◽  
Amadu Jacky Kaba
Keyword(s):  
Political Representation ◽  
West African ◽  
Female Leadership ◽  
Economic Community ◽  
Female Representation ◽  
East African ◽  
African Countries ◽  
East African Community ◽  
Representation Of Women ◽  
African Community

The heightened prospect of a “rising Africa” stems from multiple developments across the continent. Technological innovation, economic empowerment, increasing female leadership, and more continue to raise the fortunes of African countries. As regional economic communities engage with Agenda 2063, an ambitious endeavor to support and sustain economic development, a gendering environment is pivotal to any ensuing progress. Using the case studies of two regional organizations, our research examines the pace of political representation of women in relevant environmental committees in the Economic Community of West African States and the East African Community. In an epoch where women constitute half of the continent, the case for female representation to combat ecological challenges propelled by the securitization of environmental issues is paramount.

ASSESSING AFRICAN REGIONAL INVESTMENT INSTRUMENTS AND INVESTOR–STATE DISPUTE SETTLEMENT

2020 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 197-232
Author(s):  
Mmiselo Freedom Qumba
Keyword(s):  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
East African ◽  
African Countries ◽  
East African Community ◽  
Domestic Courts ◽  
African Community ◽  
The Common ◽  
Local Courts ◽  
Eastern And Southern Africa ◽  
Investment Agreements

AbstractThis article examines the rejection of the International Investor–State dispute (ISDS) system across the African continent and its replacement with a range of domestic and regional alternatives. It assesses the advantages of the two principal options for African countries: retaining the current ISDS system, or using local courts and regional tribunals. To this end, the dispute resolution mechanisms proposed in the Pan-African Investment Code, the 2016 Southern African Development Community Finance and Investment Protocol, the SADC model BIT, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, Economic Community of West African States and East African Community investment agreements and domestic approaches are critically examined. The argument is then advanced that African countries should not abandon ISDS because replacing it with isolated domestic or regional mechanisms does not reduce any of the risks. In particular, for foreign investors, the risk associated with the adjudication of investment disputes in potentially biased, politically influenced domestic courts may prove too high. African host nations, in turn, risk sending out the wrong message concerning their commitment to the protection of foreign investments. Instead of veering off course, perhaps the time has come for African States to display the political will to remain within the ISDS system and contribute to its reform from within.

scholarly journals Food and Nutrition Security in East Africa (Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania): Status, Challenges and Prospects

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael N.I. Lokuruka
Keyword(s):  
Food Production ◽  
Educational Achievement ◽  
East African ◽  
African Countries ◽  
East African Community ◽  
Food And Nutrition Security ◽  
Nutrition Security ◽  
Farmer Organizations ◽  
Food And Nutrition ◽  
African Community

Achieving food and nutrition security remains a tall order for developing countries. The FAO, IFPRI, WFP, UNICEF and other international bodies continue to provide active support in order to achieve global food and nutrition security. However, low technological capability, inefficient production, insignificant economic growth, increasing populations and lately climate variability, affect food production, leading to either stagnation or modest gains in food and nutrition security in different regions of the World. For African countries, food and nutrition security continues to improve, albeit at a slow pace, although the recent breakout of COVID-19 is bound to lead to a decline in food production, in the short and mid-term. In the East African Community, political stability, ambitious economic planning, the quest for higher agricultural productivity, improving educational achievement, improving sanitation and health, are contributing to the improving food and nutrition security. To hasten the process, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania embraced Vision 2030, Vision 2040 and Vision 2025, respectively. These grand, socio-economic plans bore Vision 2050 in the East African Community and Vision 2063 for the African Union. This chapter examines food and nutrition security in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, and provides country-specific recommendations for achieving it. These include investing in agriculture, decelerating population growth, using adaptive research to solve farmer-problems, strengthening farmer-organizations and the formation of cooperatives.

scholarly journals Regionalism and Regional Politics of African States (on the Example of the Countries of the East African Community)

2021 ◽  
pp. 78-82
Author(s):  
V.R. Filippov
Keyword(s):  
East Africa ◽  
Federal State ◽  
Regional Politics ◽  
East African ◽  
African Countries ◽  
East African Community ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Economic Association ◽  
African Community ◽  
High Level

The subject of the study was the East African Commonwealth, an economic association that currently unites Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda and Southern Sudan. Particular attention is paid to the integration processes in Africa in the post-colonial period, the doctrine of federalism in the political discourse of African countries, the causes of the crisis and the dissolution of the EAC in the seventies of the last century, as well as the economic and political reasons for reintegration of YOU. Special attention is paid to the evolution of the EAC from an economic alliance to a political one and the prospect of forming a federative state on the basis of the SAC. The author identifies the factors that led to the economic consolidation of the EAC, as well as those determinants of development of the commonwealth, which make it extremely difficult to form a unified federal state in East Africa. It is concluded that the further regionalization of the African continent and the realization of the federal project in East Africa will be hindered by such factors as the high level of conflict in the EAC member countries, tribalism, cultural, confessional and linguistic heterogeneity, and the ambition of leaders and political elites.

scholarly journals The dynamics of agri-food trade between the EU28 and East African Community (EAC)

2020 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-50
Author(s):  
Ivo Zdráhal ◽  
Nahanga Verter ◽  
Věra Bečvářová
Keyword(s):  
Bilateral Trade ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
The European Union ◽  
East African ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Trade Patterns ◽  
East African Community ◽  
Trading Partners ◽  
African Community ◽  
Partnership Agreement

AbstractThe increasing number of regional blocs and interdependence of nations have become important aspects of global economic integration. The European Union (EU28) as one of the most advanced regional bodies has had preferential trade agreements with other regional bodies, such as the East African Community (EAC). Historically, the EU28 has been the EAC’s leading trading partner. Against this background, this paper analyses the dynamics of bilateral trade in agri-food between the two regional blocs for the period 2000–2018, using the battery of empirical tools.The findings indicate that even though the EU has finalised trade agreements with the EAC, it holds on the region regarding trade has diminished. The EAC bloc has diversified its trading partners (to other African countries, India and China) beyond the EU28 markets. The results further reveal that the EU28 has comparative advantages in 32 out of 46 agri-food products in trading with EAC. The export concentration ratios show the EU28 slightly concentrated more in exporting products to the EAC than EAC to the Union. The BCG findings reveal (un)competitive and/or promising (dropping) products in export structures of both regions. By and large, the results indicate certain shifts in the comparative advantage, specialisation/diversification of exports and competitiveness of specific products on the bilateral level between EU28 and EAC. Policymakers, especially from EAC should continue to create enabling environments to stimulate food processing, trade and monitor changes in trade patterns or shocks within the framework of the Partnership Agreement.

scholarly journals The East African Community (EAC) mobile laboratory networks in Kenya, Burundi, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, and South Sudan—from project implementation to outbreak response against Dengue, Ebola, COVID-19, and epidemic-prone diseases

BMC Medicine ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Muna Affara ◽  
Hakim Idris Lagu ◽  
Emmanuel Achol ◽  
Richard Karamagi ◽  
Neema Omari ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Sudan ◽  
Mobile Laboratory ◽  
Outbreak Response ◽  
East African ◽  
African Countries ◽  
German Development ◽  
East African Community ◽  
Outbreak Area ◽  
Laboratory Setup ◽  
African Community

Abstract Background East Africa is home to 170 million people and prone to frequent outbreaks of viral haemorrhagic fevers and various bacterial diseases. A major challenge is that epidemics mostly happen in remote areas, where infrastructure for Biosecurity Level (BSL) 3/4 laboratory capacity is not available. As samples have to be transported from the outbreak area to the National Public Health Laboratories (NPHL) in the capitals or even flown to international reference centres, diagnosis is significantly delayed and epidemics emerge. Main text The East African Community (EAC), an intergovernmental body of Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, and South Sudan, received 10 million € funding from the German Development Bank (KfW) to establish BSL3/4 capacity in the region. Between 2017 and 2020, the EAC in collaboration with the Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine (Germany) and the Partner Countries’ Ministries of Health and their respective NPHLs, established a regional network of nine mobile BSL3/4 laboratories. These rapidly deployable laboratories allowed the region to reduce sample turn-around-time (from days to an average of 8h) at the centre of the outbreak and rapidly respond to epidemics. In the present article, the approach for implementing such a regional project is outlined and five major aspects (including recommendations) are described: (i) the overall project coordination activities through the EAC Secretariat and the Partner States, (ii) procurement of equipment, (iii) the established laboratory setup and diagnostic panels, (iv) regional training activities and capacity building of various stakeholders and (v) completed and ongoing field missions. The latter includes an EAC/WHO field simulation exercise that was conducted on the border between Tanzania and Kenya in June 2019, the support in molecular diagnosis during the Tanzanian Dengue outbreak in 2019, the participation in the Ugandan National Ebola response activities in Kisoro district along the Uganda/DRC border in Oct/Nov 2019 and the deployments of the laboratories to assist in SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics throughout the region since early 2020. Conclusions The established EAC mobile laboratory network allows accurate and timely diagnosis of BSL3/4 pathogens in all East African countries, important for individual patient management and to effectively contain the spread of epidemic-prone diseases.

Regional Arrangements

2019 ◽  
pp. 121-156
Author(s):  
Eleanor M. Fox ◽  
Mor Bakhoum
Keyword(s):  
West African ◽  
Common Market ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
East African ◽  
East African Community ◽  
Regional Coordination ◽  
African Community ◽  
The Common ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Eastern And Southern Africa

This chapter studies regional coordination in sub-Saharan Africa. Regional arrangements occupy a significant part of African competition policy. The most integrative form of arrangement is a common market, wherein member states tear down trade barriers between and among them, create supranational authorities to oversee trade and competition, and even create monetary unions. The chapter then discusses selected regional groups; namely, the Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the East African Community (EAC), the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

REVIEWING EXISTING POLICIES FOR UNLEASHING AND FOSTERING ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN SELECTED AFRICAN COUNTRIES

2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (03) ◽  
pp. 1450016 ◽  
Author(s):  
MICHAEL SHERIFF ◽  
MORENO MUFFATTO
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
National Level ◽  
Policy Framework ◽  
Entrepreneurship Policy ◽  
East African ◽  
African Countries ◽  
East African Community ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
African Community ◽  
Entrepreneurial Activities

Public Policies are vital for unleashing and fostering entrepreneurship in every society. This paper reviewed the national policies for the promotion and support of productive entrepreneurial activities aimed at enhancing the achievement of entrepreneurial economic growth in three countries in Africa. This is an explorative multiple case study that has used national and international documents and reports to examine the state and nature of the entrepreneurship policies in Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania. The selected countries are all members of the East African Community. The findings revealed what has been accomplished and what challenges policymakers face in improving entrepreneurial performance. The comparison showed the major similarities and dissimilarities between countries and which countries are performing fairly well in specific policy areas. From the findings, an entrepreneurship policy framework was developed that takes into account the type and level of entrepreneurship being practiced. This could be useful to policymakers taking into consideration that entrepreneurship exists in the formal and informal sectors at the national level. At the regional level, the similarities of policies could be a starting point for a regional entrepreneurship policy because entrepreneurial economic growth of countries and regions is a strong indicator of successful entrepreneurship policies.

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