| Programme
Brief, 1998 Programme Area
ACTIVITIES TO BE IMPLEMENTED
a) Servicing of intergovernmental /expert bodies
- Substantive
servicing of meetings: Eastern African
Subregional Development Centre is expected to organize the Meeting of the
Intergovernmental Committee of Experts
- Ad
hoc expert group meetings: The document will be prepared in 1998 and presented to the
meeting in 1999 on the theme: Physical integration in East Africa: Agenda for
the development of infrastructures for consideration by the Ad hoc expert group
meeting comprising the senior national policy makers, economists, social development
experts, representatives of civil society and the private sector, bilateral and
multilateral agencies;
- Parliamentary
documentation: Contribution to RCID parliamentary documentation on Assessment of
the viability of financial arrangements of African regional economic communities and key
specialized intergovernmental organizations:Proposals for financial strengthening of
Recs"
Expected Impact: The relevant recommendations and strategies formulated
in the different EA/SRDC outputs presented in the ICE meeting will serve as inputs for the
policy - makers of the Eastern African Subregion to their efforts to harmonize the
subregional and regional integration.
Specifically the expected impact of each activity will be as follows:
- Intergovernmental
experts of the subregion will be sensitized and motivated about the vital development
issues of the subregion and would support the formulation of pragmatic sectorial policies
based on their respective areas of interest;
- Decision-makers
and development partners would be much more well-informed on the physical instructural
problems in the subregion.More conducive environment for partnership would be established
for the integration of physical infrastructure in East Africa;
- Enhancement
of RCID-EASRDC collaboration in the strengthening of the implementation of the African
Economic Community (AEC).
b) Other Substantive activities (publications)
- A
Survey of Economic and Social conditions in the Eastern African SRDCs subregion Eastern
Africa Development Bulletin;
- Elaboration
of Economic appraisal of selected sub-standard section of transport infrastructure in
Africa Subregion.
Expected impact: The monitoring of the socio-economic conditions would
provide to the member states a regular and prospective view on the regional convergence
indicators for an acceleration of the integration process. The Development Bulletin would
provide and share information on current and emerging issues which are of interest to
stakeholders especially subregional economic actors: Member States, IGOs, NGOs, other
development partners. There will be analyses of the major subregional issues related to
world trade, economic and monetary concerns and or wide dissemination of the thematic
studies carried out by ECA or other UN system Agencies;
c) International cooperation and inter-agency
coordination and liaison
Collaboration and cooperation with other United Nations agencies
(especially UNDP, UNFPA, WHO, FAO, UNESCO and UNICEF, etc; would entail participation in
relevant inter-agency meetings and working groups/committees on subregional programmes to
enhance regional cooperation and integration. The activities and outputs in this field
will be determined in Consultation with COMESA, IGAD, EAC, KBO, CEPGL, ESAMRDC, ESAMI and
ILRI cooperation with regional(OAU) and subregional IGOs/RECs on issues related to
physical infrastructures, production infrastructures, agriculture, mineral resources,
management, Trade and investment promotion, and rural development would strengthen and
speed up the process of regional integration.
Specific activities are programmed
- CO-OPERATION
WITH EAST AFRICAN CO-OPERATION(EAC) -
Preparation of a working document and participation in the EAC Transport Sector meeting
and follow up action on the following:---Study on the Assessment of Lake Victoria ports
(requested by EAC), ---Economic study on Lake Victoria as an economic zone;
- CO-OPERATION
WITH IGAD Preparation of working documents and
participation in IGAD Transport Sector Committee meeting: IGAD strategy on transport
sector; IGAD strategy on trade sector; and IGAD strategy on industry sector.
- CO-OPERATION
WITH UNOPS/CEPGL/KBO : Documents to be
prepared:
- EASRDC
contribution in the formulation of the Great Lakes Rehabilitation and Development
programme including the Gender Issues Program (1998)
- CO-OPERATION
WITH UNDP/FAO/UNEP/ILRI/ESAMI : Eradication of
water-hyacinth in the EA Subregion: Organization of an EA Subregional Conference on
water-hyacinth issues. Preparation of working documents, organization and participation in
the Conference.
Expected impact of the activities:
- Enhancement
of IGAD-EASRDC partnership; improvement of IGAD Secretariat and its member States capacity
building in transport, trade and industry sectors;
- Improvement
and strengthening of EASRDC-UNOPS Great Lakes Member States and RECs/IGOs partnership in
the area.
- EASRDC
subregion's decision-makers will be sensitized on the critical challenges of the hyacinth
weed and the importance of collective action to eradicate it. The organization of
meetings, exchange and sharing of information and experience on the subregional economic
cooperation and integration as well as the issues related to gender, with United Nations
Agencies and other partners in the subregion will ensure a common understanding and
contribute to the harmonization and coordination of assistance rendered to member states,
RECs, IGOs in the Eastern African Subregion.
d)Technical cooperation
- Advisory
services will be provided to the countries,
COMESA, IGAD, EAC, CEPGL, KBO and NGOs of the subregion, on their requests, in order to
produce the priority outputs in the field of policy development and management of
specific subregional integration programmes and projects
- Workshops
and group training on:
- Capacity-building
for administrative decentralization;
- Public
management training of local councils; and
- urban
development planning and administration.
Expected impact: This workshops will be devoted to
the familiarization of the participants with the type of interlocutors required for
collaboration in order to promote the capacity building for administration
decentralization. As for the urban development planning and administration, the
participants will analyze the areas related to rural - urban imbalances, urbanization
problems, promotion of physical and social infrastructral development and management,
reconstruction and rehabilitation.
e) GENDER PROGRAMME ACTIVITIES
The over-arching goal will be assisting member states in
the implementation of the recommendations of the Regional and Global platforms of Action.
In line with the ACW's 1998-1999 gender programme, the EA-SRDC will focus on the following
critical areas: promoting economic empowerment of women; participation in decision making
and legal and human rights for women.
1998 programme delivery will concentrate on the implementation
of the Joint Action Plan drawn up in 1997 during the Consultative Symposium on
Strengthening Gender Initiatives and Subregional co-operation in Eastern Africa. These
were:
- to
establish a Gender Advisory Committee composed of gender experts from the subregion
involved in women's advancement initiatives, to give leadership and vision, contribute
towards conceptualization, articulation and main streaming of gender issues, advise on
priorities and targets and build consensus on the issues of advocacy for the subregion on
areas concerning women;
- develop
effective information sharing modalities through: establishing a subregional quarterly
bulletin; establishing the status of information sharing in the subregion with a view to
identify and promote an operational subregional information centre; and
- undertake
concrete steps to relocate action on gender from the Periphery to the Centre for
operationalization by governments, civil society and IGOs in political, economic and human
rights agenda through continued joint planning, implementation, co-ordination and
monitoring, operationalize the strategic alliances developed during the symposium.
Some Highlignts from the 1997 Programme
(i) Providing technical support to and cooperation with the regional economic
communities: A significant aspect of this area of focus is international co-operation
within and outside the subregion. Essentially, this calls for keeping abreast with major
development issues and respective major development actors with a view to enhancing ECA's
facilitating role in applying collective approaches in tackling common development issues
and performing a more effective out reach function for ECA.
(ii) Facilitate networking and information exchange between governments,
civil society and the private sector at EA/SRDC: This focuses on publication of
information on the economic and social development and gender issues in the Eastern
African Subregion. It also focuses on advocacy and capacity building through policy fora,
seminars, training workshops and advisory missions to Eastern African Subregional Regional
Economic Communities, intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental organizations.
(iii) Providing coordination services for operational programmes of the
United Nations and Specialized agencies, in collaboration with UNDP and the United Nations
Resident Coordinator system at the national level: The comments, joint meetings and
activities and exchange of information on the subregional cooperation and integration
projects with the representations of all other United Nations Organizations specialized
agencies, world Bank and multilateral cooperation offices located in the countries of the
Eastern African subregion are the expected outputs of the coordination, harmonization and
liaison of the projects related to subregional cooperation and integration.
(iv) Strengthening ECA's outreach in the Eastern African SRDC
Subregion: This relates to translating ECA policies and strategies into
actionable development programmes in the subregion through dissemination of the
commission's findings, resolutions and major publications in the subregion; participating
in the commission's data collection activities and advisory missions in the Eastern
African Subregion.
1997 Round Up
| Activities |
Achievements |
Meeting of
intergovernmental committee of experts |
The relevant
recommendations and strategies formulated in the different EA/SRDC inputs will serve as
inputs for the policy-makers of the Eastern African Subregion to their efforts to
harmonize the subregional and regional integration. |
Other
substantive activities: recurrent and non-recurrent publications, booklets |
Improvement
of the capacity of partners to deal with major development issues in the East Africa
subregion. |
International cooperation and inter-agency coordination and
liaison |
Exchange and sharing of information and experience on the
subregional economic cooperation and integration with UN agencies, OAU, RECs, IGOs, NGOs,
and other partners. |
Technical Cooperation: Advisory services/ Group training :
seminar/workshops |
Enable the participants to analyze the nexus issues and to
formulate strategies, programs and priorities for the implementation and strengthening of
national and subregional programs. |
Gender mainstreaming activities |
Facilitating and accelerating the gender equity the economic and
social empowerment of women in the Eastern African subregion. |
|