DAR ES SALAAM, March 14 (Xinhua) -- Ministers and regional heads of public service of the East African Community (EAC) have committed to taking decisive action to ensure the embedding of regional integration into national policies.
The EAC said in a statement on Friday that the EAC leaders made their commitment during a meeting held on Thursday and Friday in Tanzania's northern city of Arusha.
According to the statement, the meeting, themed "Strategic Dialogue for Heads of Public Service and Ministers," aims to help overcome regional challenges and unlock the region's full economic potential.
The EAC leaders noted that several barriers hindering integration, including fragmented national policies that often operate in silos, have slowed the implementation of EAC commitments and undermined the region's capacity for coordinated action, emphasizing the need for stronger policy alignment, sustained collaboration, and reinforced accountability measures, according to the statement.
The statement added that the leaders expressed concern over inadequate human and financial resources within public institutions as significant constraints to advancing integration initiatives. They also stressed the importance of implementing a performance monitoring framework to guarantee consistent progress in harmonizing regional integration and governance.
The EAC is a regional intergovernmental organization of eight member states that aims to promote economic, political, and social integration in East Africa. The EAC member states are Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. ■