Arusha — The East African Community (EAC) says it will go ahead with its annual secretary-general’s forum in Bujumbura, Burundi, which will kick off tomorrow despite a boycott by a regional umbrella body of civil society organisations.

Officials of the secretariat said yesterday that preparations for the two-day event were progressing well and were not bothered by threats from the East African Civil Society Organisations Forum (EACSOF).

“We are not bothered at all. Officials of the organisation or their partners can attend the meeting or not. It is up to those invited to turn up or not,” one of them told The Citizen on the condition of anonymity.

EACSOF, an umbrella body of civil society organisations with an observer status to the EAC, said last week that its members would boycott this year’s forum in Burundi for security concerns.

In a letter sent to the EAC secretary-general Liberat Mfumukeko said they would keep away from the Bujumbura event to protest against alleged human rights abuses against members of CSOs in Burundi, some of who had been forced into exile.

EACSOF president Marie Ingabire added that it was also concerned by the security situation in Burundi, where more than 400 people were killed during the 2015/16 political chaos. However, EAC officials insisted that the meeting would be attended by members of non-governmental organisations, professional bodies, universities, representatives from partner states, EAC organs and institutions.

One official cautioned that EAC would not like to be drawn into frosty relations between Burundi and Rwanda, which had seen some meetings hosted in one country boycotted by delegates from the other state.

For over two years now regional events taking place in either of the two countries, which joined the bloc in 2007 have been boycotted by delegates from the other state, a situation which has irritated EAC authorities.

These include the recent sitting of the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) and the East African Manufacturing Business Summit, both held in Kigali, Rwanda, in March and May 2017 respectively.

Delegates from Burundi were conspicuously absent during the manufacturing summit, while the Eala session in Rwanda attracted Burundi members from opposition parties. Other claimed they feared for their lives. Rwandan officials were not known to have attended to major regional events held in Bujumbura recently. These were the EA Health Conference, also in March, and the EAC Petroleum Conference and Exhibition, a fortnight ago.

The annual forum is organised by EAC to provide an opportunity for the private sector,civil society organisation and other groups to share experience in the regional integration process. It also serves as a platform for dialogue between the EAC boss, the private sector and the civil society which should work out a coordinated strategy towards a common future of a political integration and a boder-less community.

Through consultation and dialogue, non-state actors and EAC officials would agree upon concrete policy measures to be implemented by the secretariat and the partner states. This year the central topic will concern the progress, challenges and future of the implementation of the Common Market Protocol, particularly the free movement of labour and services. On the Bujumbura forum, an official of the Burundi consulate here said it would be unfortunate for the civil society group to boycott the meeting because by so doing, they would compromise its observer status at EAC.

With a theme “15 Years of The EAC: Towards a Border-less Community” will, among other things, discuss the implementation of the free movement of labour and services between the six Partner States of the EAC and sustainable development in relation to improving food security and agricultural value chains, localising the climate change agenda and increasing gender equality.

Other matters to be discussed will include the promotion of local production through public procurement, especially in relation to infrastructural projects within the EAC and the impacts of ICT in enhancing the free movement of goods and services. According to a statement from EAC secretariat, this year’s forum will see the launching of Incubator for Integration and Development in East Africa (IIDEA) as one of the key event.

IIDEA was developed as a joint initiative between the EAC Secretariat, Regional Dialogue Committee (RDC) and GIZ in order to demonstrate the tangible benefits of integration to citizens. Through IIDEA, regional integration projects are proposed and implemented by civil society, private sector and interest groups.

Source: All Africa

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