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Research Brown Bag Presentations ; The East African Community faces several challenges, including poor governance, an inadequate legal and institutional framework, and poor public participation. A major cause of this predicament are institutional imbalances, brought about by an institutional design that vests most powers in the Summit and the Council (the executive organs of the Community). This leaves the Legislative Assembly, a so-called representative of the public voice, with limited control over acts of the Community. The outcome has been a lack of understanding, support and ownership of the integration process by the subjects whose integration is sought. It is therefore important to examine the institutional interventions needed to create a balance of powers between the executive and legislative organs of the Community in order to ensure effective integration. ; Strathmore University Law School

The regulatory capacity review of the East African Community (EAC) focuses on the capacities of the EAC institutional framework to develop, implement, and sustain the efficient, transparent, and market-based regulatory system that is needed to achieve the economic benefits of the EAC common market. This report argues that the EAC institutions will be successful in implementing the common market only if they safeguard the quality of regulatory practices. This is a highly pragmatic and operational agenda. Quality principles can be applied only if they are defined and institutionalized into the machinery of policy making. The idea is that, just as fiscal management can increase social welfare by better allocating resources, so can regulatory governance.

Doing business in the East African Community 2011 is a regional report that draws on the global doing business project and its database as well as the findings of doing business 2011: making a difference for entrepreneurs, the eighth in a series of annual reports investigating regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it. Doing business presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 183 economies from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe over time. This report presents a summary of doing business indicators for the East African Community. It focuses on five economies: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. Data in doing business 2011 are current as of June 1, 2010. The indicators are used to analyze economic outcomes and identify what reforms have worked, where and why. The methodology for the employing workers indicators changed for doing business 2011.

Doing business sheds light on how easy or difficult it is for a local entrepreneur to open and run a small to medium-size business when complying with relevant regulations. It measures and tracks changes in regulations affecting 10 areas in the life cycle of a business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency. In a series of annual reports doing business presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 183 economies, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, over time. This economy profile presents the doing business indicators for East African Community. To allow useful comparison, it also provides data for other selected economies (comparator economies) for each indicator. The data in this report are current as of June 1, 2011 (except for the paying taxes indicators, which cover the period January-December 2010).

Includes bibliographical references. ; This thesis explores the achievements and challenges of the East African Community (EAC), since its revival. The study while focusing on functionalism as the theoretical concept, examines the progress that the EAC has made towards achieving its goals and objectives, and highlights EAC's integration challenges. Despite being in its formative stages and facing integration challenges, the five East African countries; namely Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi, are fully determined to integrate the region economically, socially and politically.

The paper identifies competitive advantages and disadvantages of East African Community (EAC) as FDI location, observing EAC as a region, in spite of visible differences among the member countries. Despite the EAC's progress towards the development of a common market still existing restrictions on free movement of capital, services, and goods inhibit or make FDI and entry into the market unduly expensive. The identified competitive advantages of EAC as a location for FDI are the following: fast economic growth, relatively low general government debt, low cost of labor, geographical proximity to regional and international markets, and high share of young people involved in primary education. The most prominent weaknesses inhibiting more FDI inflows in EAC are: small domestic market with low per capita income, low share of exports in GDP, high country risk, slow progress in structural and institutional reforms, underdeveloped infrastructure, high administrative barriers, inefficient government bureaucracy, low secondary and tertiary education enrolment, high level of corruption, and poor implementation of laws. The papaer concludes that the main policy message arising from theoretical findings and empirical evidence suggest that the best way for EAC to attract more FDI in the future is to: to speed up their EAC integration processes, to strengthen the structural and institutional reforms, to accelerate the legal and regulatory reforms, necesary for the improvement of the rule of law, reduction of corruption, and elimination of addministrative barriers. Any specific FDI policies are only of a secondary importance.

In the first part of the report of the GTZ expert group an overview on the basics of integration and tax harmonisation within a common market is given. Chapter II. concentrates on the problems of national and international tax law regarding double taxation before the harmonisation process within the EU is described in detail. This process is not a best practice example but at least the experiences made in the course of the last five decades are interesting enough and might contribute important information for regions, which more or less recently have started a similar endeavour. The harmonisation needs are discussed for value added taxation (VAT), excise taxation, and income taxation. The problems of tax administrations, procedures laws, taxpayers' rights and obligations as well as tax compliance are also taken into consideration. The second part of the study reviews the national tax systems within the EAC member countries. Before the single taxes are described in more detail, the macroeconomic situation is illuminated by some basic figures and the current stand of the inner-community integration analysed. Then the single tax bases and tax rates are confronted to shed some light on the necessities for the development of a common market within the near future. Again the value added tax laws, excise taxes and income taxes are discussed in detail, while regarding the latter the focus is on company taxation. For a better systematic analysis the national tax laws are confronted within an overview. The chapter is closed with a summary of the tax rates applied and a rough estimation of the tax burdens within the Partner States. The third part of this report contains the policy recommendations of the expert group following the same structures as the chapters before and presenting the results for the VAT, the excises and the corporate income tax (CIT). Additionally the requirements for tax procedures and administration as well as problems of transparency and information exchange are discussed in detail before the strategic recommendations are derived in close relation to the experiences made within the EU harmonisation process. The recommendations are based on the following normative arguments: (1) Tax harmonisation is a basic requirement for economic integration. (2) Equality of taxation is an imperative of tax justice and demands the avoidance of double taxation as well as the combat of tax evasion and corruption. (3) The avoidance of harmful tax competition between the Partner States. (4) The strengthening of taxpayers' rights in tax procedures. Hence, all kinds of income, goods and services should be taxed once and only once.

How will Brexit impact on Africa? This paper looks at the available empirical evidence and carries out a Computable General Equilibrium simulation, focusing particularly on the prospects for the East African Community (EAC). The paper makes three main points. First, while the direct impacts through investment, trade and remittances are likely to be relatively small, African countries may benefit from the creation of new export opportunities. However, these are mainly in resource-intensive sectors that are not considered a priority for the development agendas of most African countries. Second, indirect consequences, through Brexit's impact on the global economy, its influence on the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with the European Union, or a potential reduction in UK development cooperation, are likely to be equally important over the longer run. Finally, one overlooked consequence of Brexit for Africa is that it could undermine confidence in "deep" regional integration processes like the EAC. The paper concludes that the correct response at such a time is not to falter but to redouble efforts towards regional integration through the implementation of the recently-signed African Continental Free Trade Area, while learning the pertinent lessons from Europe.

This study aimed at determining the moderating effect of macro-economic volatility on the relationship between financial integration and economic growth in the EAC. The study adopted a positivistic research philosophy and casual research design. Generalized-two stage least squares instrumental variable regression model (G2SLSIV) was then conducted to test the hypothesis. The findings of the study showed that, macro-economic volatility does not have a significant moderating effect on the relationship between financial integration and economic growth. Therefore, the study recommends that, the governments of respective member states work on a monetary policy that aims to attain a single digit level of inflation rate (low inflation targeting), in the spirit of macro-economic convergence. The study culminates with acknowledging the limitations encountered and provides suggestions for further research.

This paper proposes a model that can be used to predict the likely impacts of tobacco tax increases and harmonisation in the East African Community. The model has five sections, one for each EAC country. These sections consider different cigarette market segments based on tax or price differentials. The model can therefore calculate the likely effects of excise tax increases and harmonisation on the retail selling price of cigarettes, cigarette consumption, government revenue and industry revenue for each individual country and for the EAC as a whole. Two Scenarios are presented in this paper. Scenario 1 explores an increase in the current excise tax rates and a harmonisation across the EAC of a uniform specific tax of UDS 0.60. A sensitivity analysis is conducted to assess the robustness of the assumptions in this scenario. Scenario 2 discusses the use of a mixed tax structure with a specific excise tax of USD 0.60 or an ad valorem excise tax of 40% of the retail selling price, whichever is higher. The advantages and disadvantages of a uniform specific excise tax and other tax structures such as tiered specific taxes, ad valorem taxes and mixed tax structures are explored. Factors such as administrative ease, predictability of revenue flows, inflation and income growth are discussed. A uniform specific tax is shown to be the most preferable excise tax structure, even over a mixed tax structure. The results show that, with an assumed price elasticity of demand of -0.6, as excise tax is increased in the region, consumption decreases and government revenue increases. Scenario 1 shows a decrease in consumption by around 2.3 billlion cigarettes, or 18%, compared to current consumption levels across the EAC of around 12.9 billion cigarettes. Scenario 2 shows a slightly higher decline in consumption of 2.7 billion cigarettes or 21%. In terms of government excise revenue, Scenario 1 shows an increase of around USD 140 million or 80% from the current government revenue of around USD 176 million across the EAC. The second scenario reveals an even greater increase of USD 173 million or 98%. These results show that excise tax increases and harmonisation will contribute to public health and financial objectives of governments in the region. ; We would like to acknowledge the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, through the American Cancer Society, for funding this research. Economics of Tobacco Control Project, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, School of Economics, University of Cape Town, South Africa

Purpose: The study's objective is to determine the effect of financial deepening on the economic growth of the East Africa Community bloc. Specifically, it aims to establish the effect of the rate of broad money, credit to the private sector, and the rate of value of the traded stock on economic growth. Methodology: The study used descriptive research design and employed the fixed effect model in regression analysis. Broad money was used to proxy the rate of money supply, credit to the private sector was used to represent credit financing while the volume of the traded stock was used as a measure for financial market investment. Results: The findings revealed that all three indicators of financial deepening namely, broad money, credit to the private sector, and volume of traded stock had a positive and significant effect on economic growth in East Africa Community. The coefficient for broad money was 0.4410, the coefficient for credit to the private sector was 0.4022, while the coefficient for the volume of the traded stock was 0.1367. The model had an F statistic of 103.50, confirming its suitability. Implications: The study recommends that the East Africa Community governments should place more emphasis on the efficiency and of money supply, investment, and distribution by commercial banks. The study also recommends that the governments of East Africa Community countries should continue pursuing policies that promote access to credit such as ensuring that interest rates are low. Additionally, the capital market authorities of the East Africa Community countries should conduct sensitization campaigns to promote high participation in the stock market and other capital market products.

The pursuit of sustainability of governance and development has become a major challenge in contemporary times because of increasing realization that: various ecological and social systems are interconnected; and the complexity of our natural and constructed environs requires holistic approaches to avoid catastrophic fissures in the systems on which humans depend. As regional governments such as the East African Community (EAC) become important in Africa (and other regions), they present opportunities to generate cross-national approaches to achieving sustainability albeit success in that direction is limited and sporadic. In order to mitigate the underlying causes of that situation, we need to reconceptualize and reconstruct sustainability thinking and policy. From an applied ethics perspective, the study set out to explicate the value of and constructively generate a more viable conceptualization of sustainability in relation to the EAC. The study used qualitative methodology; designed as an atypical regionalization case-study and an analytical-constructive research; compatible research tools were employed in interrogating and analyzing secondary sources relating to member states of the EAC and the research was executed between 2011 and 2014. The research found a divergence between the two main conceptual approaches to sustainability in Africa, namely, the 'Market inspired sustainability' (MIS) logic and the 'Traditional African sustainability' (TAS) logic. The study also uncovered colonial Social Darwinism as a major underlying governance philosophy that motivated the EAC's former colonial rulers; which became a key ingredient in the application of a colonial-functionalist approach to the region's earlier integration project (EAC-1).This was traced as a major premise on which the unsustainabilities within the contemporary regionalization project (EAC-2) were crafted. The research also found some acceptable levels of competence in regional governance within the individual EAC member countries in terms of: i) hierarchical, ii) network, and iii) market styles of metagovernance. However, closer analysis revealed: i) an inverse relationship between transfer of capabilities from colonizers to natives (TCCN) and the sustainability of postindependence states (SPIS); and ii)a directly proportional relationship between colonial governance style (CGS) and the economic performance of post-colonial (EPPC) East African countries. It also revealed an ambitious but inadequately grounded drive to expand the EAC project without due attention being given to existing faultlines of possible disintegration such as: perpetuation of colonially-initiated injustices, citizens' incapacity to partake of the benefits of the integration, and low levels of integrity, among others. The EAC faces a risk of turning into colonial victimization and villainization writ large; which is unsustainable due to the social laws of victim-disaffection (ViD) and villain-encumbrance (ViE). Further analysis showed that these faultlines of disintegration could be exasperated internally by the governance styles and stances taken by the ruling regimes of the core member states: Kenya's Jubilee Alliance Party (JAP) has to balance between the forces of ethnically inspired devolution and multicultural capitalism; Tanzania's Chama Cha Mapimduzi (CCM) still has to overcome a socialist single-party hangover and manage the political marriage between the mainland and the island; and Uganda's National Resistance Movement (NRM) has chosen a governance philosophy of hybrid Marxism. From a justice point of view, the study advocates for establishing a Regional Basic Structure (RBS) that uses a 'one-step original position' as a mitigation measure. The RBS should befounded on universal egalitarianism so as to minimize misrepresentation and diminish the political elitist culture of betrayal of the electorate at all levels of representative leadership. In a reconstructive fashion, the research amplified the classical philosophical position that ethical values within society (the ethical fabric) provide the foundation on which other dimensions of sustainability are built. On the basis of that premise, the study generated and proposes the Comprehensive Ethical Sustainability (CES) frameworkas a scheme of axiomized ethical principles designed to be used towards the realization of the sustainability of systems and processes. The CES scheme is a principlistic recasting of selected intuitively valuable dominant approaches to development; designed to be convertible into a comprehensive program of action (or sets of regional policies) towards the attainment of governance and development sustainability in an integrated EAC. The CES framework is fashioned as a reorganized, multi-dimensional cocktail of i) compound, ii) compatible and iii) complimentary principles of: i) Justice, ii) Capabilities, iii) Ubuntu and iv) Integrity, whose application would make the regional bloc sustainable. These principles are considered and proposed as pillars in the: i) theorization of sustainability; and ii) policy formulation, structural arrangements and individual action aimed at sustainability.

Màster en Diplomàcia i Funció Pública Internacional, Centre d'Estudis Internacionals, Universitat de Barcelona, Curs: 2018-2019, Tutor: Miguel Angel Elizalde Carranza ; The role of education has witnessed a growing recognition in the past century. Since then, governments have been investing increasing amounts of money in it. It seems they realised the close interconnection between education, economic development and competitiveness in the global marketplace. As States understood the importance of educating people, national educational policy packages were enacted. In fact, throughout the first half of the past century, education was perceived as a quintessential domestic affair. However, shortly thereafter, States' global trend on education switched towards a complementary approach. With globalisation (second half of the 20th century), States began to perceive the importance of complementing education through the support of regional organisations. Therefore, a multilateral approach towards education grew steadily complementing the traditional domestic perspective. UNESCO had a key role in this process: it worked for the conceptualisation of a new idea of education. Thanks to its actions, States changed their perspectives on education. They began to understand it as a life-long learning process, essential for their citizens and for a healthy society.

Abstract. In spite of financial liberalization that has been discussed and studied over the past decades, the debate for the East African Community (EAC) still remain open on the relationship between trade openness and economic growth that has a link with trade-economic policies. This paper analyzes the relationship by employing the modern methodology of Dumistrescu & Hurlin (2012) Panel Causality test, The Test involved a scope of 46 years from 1970-2016. The empirical finding shows that there is a bidirectional movement (causality) as trade openness increase or relaxed lead to the growth of the economy in the East African Community. The results are supported by the endogenous growth theory that openness increases economic growth. There is a feedback relationship. The main operational implication of these empirical results is that the governments of the East African economies should dismantle barriers to trade to make sure that their intended objective is not ephemeral.Keywords. East African Community, Economic growth, Panel causality test, Trade openness.JEL. C59, F43, O24.

This study assesses the Kenyan policy and institutional framework concerning South–South labour migration with particular focus on the East African Community (EAC) countries. It focuses mainly on one particular policy instrument, the East African Community Common Market framework. The research further looks at country-specific policies in relation to the common market framework. The study relied on desk research into the existing literature and public records; key informant interviews (KIIs) of policymakers in respective EAC Partner States' governments with the exception of Burundi; as well as with private labour recruitment agencies in each country. The study has found that the EAC framework is not sufficiently implemented at the national level and only inconsistently incorporates other country-specific policies dealing with labour migration in the region. The study underlines Kenya's dominance in the EAC, especially in terms of its best trained and skilled human resources working in all EAC Partner States. The main recommendation centres on the need for harmonizing national labour policy frameworks and legislation as well as the free movement of labour as enshrined in the Protocol on the East African Community Common Market (PEACCM).