The Ministry of East African Community Affairs (MEACA) on Tuesday launched a nationwide caravan to continue sensitizing Ugandans about the opportunities the East African Community (EAC) integration presents to them.
The caravan is currently in Eastern Uganda promoting the integration agenda through activation programs that combine workshops, entertainment and one on one interactions with officials and promoters from the ministry.
The Ministry with funding from TradeMark Africa recently embarked on the EAC integration mass awareness campaign in northern Uganda as a way of encouraging ordinary Ugandans to take advantage of underutilized opportunities in the region.
Following the revival of the Community in the later 90s, the Heads of State and technocrats signed into action the Customs Union and Common Market protocols which were major steps towards an economic, social and political integration of the five member region.
The region is mulling over signing the protocols of Monetary Union, which will put in place a regional currency, and Political federation protocol which will be the pinnacle of the regional integration.
Speaking at the Karibu East Africa Community event, where the caravan was launched and stakeholders participated in a discussion led by a panel of experts, at meeting at Serena Hotel Kampala, the Minister for East African Community Affairs in Uganda Shem Bageine said the council of ministers will meet to discuss the drafting of the political federal constitution in November.
The Customs Union and Common Market opened up the region to free movement of goods, service and persons. The two protocols eliminated certain tariff and non tariff barriers going a long way in boosting inter-regional trade. 
The achievements so far achieved in the long struggle for the region to integrate are immense especially those that trade related and provision of services. It is these opportunities that the government of Uganda through MEACA is trying to sensitize its citizens so that they are outright beneficiaries.
The region is already developing a document, Vision 2050, which will be harmonized with respective visions for each member state. Vision 2050 will be discussed by the council of minutes further in subsequent meetings.
The ministry’s permanent secretary, Edith Nsajja Mwanje, revealed that in a survey that was done in 2010 showed that only 68% of Ugandans knew about the integration.
More statistics from a survey carried out by the Ministry in 2013 showed that 33% of the general public respondents were not aware of the EA integration process. She said the new target is for the figure of people who know about the integration to rise to 80%.
Mwanje explained that opportunities provided by the Community address the challenges of unemployment in the country before calling out for nations to promote each other but not work against each other. She said government and the people of Uganda have a job to do in order to benefit from the integration.
Allen Assimwe, the country manager of TradeMark Africa in Uganda said that people were being left behind in the integration process and that people didn’t know and don’t care about the benefits of integrating.
Bageine said the ministry will continue to spearhead the awareness program so that many Ugandans participate in the integration.  The minister said that it is important the people are given appropriate information.
The awareness campaign being driven by the Ministry of East African Community Affairs with the support of Trademark East Africa, was launched in July and aims to use music and arts to disseminate information about the East African community.
Source: UG News

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