Analysis of the East African Community Integration Process as an Opportunity for Uganda’s Medium-to-Long-Term Development

Abstract

This paper reviews the key developments of the EAC integration in a manner that paves way for identifying salient gaps in programming to inform medium-term development planning in Uganda. Specifically, the paper identifies the main achievements and challenges registered by the EAC over the past 10 years; appraises Uganda’s optimism on integration, identifying the country’s efforts to mainstream EAC integration agenda and the benefits registered; and recommends measures for accelerating the benefits of integration to Uganda in the medium to long-term.

Uganda has benefitted immensely from the EAC integration by exploiting its comparative advantage in certain industries, and has registered growth in exports to the region at unprecedented rates. Trade has grown faster than investment in the region. The country has benefitted from joint coordination of programmes and projects facilitating resource mobilisation for priority projects. The key challenges remain the recurrence of non-trade barriers and the low pace of project execution which hinder accelerated registration of benefits. The East African Community development programming provides an opportunity for the government of Uganda to take advantage of the long-term perspective planning to identify areas for joint coordination and execution with the Partner States of the EAC integration.