KIGALI - East African Community (EAC) member states will continue discussing the draft report on decentralisation within the region and the challenges affecting the process before formulating concrete strategies.

This was agreed at the closing of a regional meeting of local government ministers and local government officials from the EAC and beyond, which ended yesterday in Kigali.

For the last two days, they have been discussing the findings of the study carried out by Initiative Consultants under the auspices of Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF) aimed at assessing the state of decentralisation in the region.

The study focussed on local government financing and inclusive service delivery, local government capacity as well as challenges at hand.

In an interview with The New Times, the Minister of Local Government, James Musoni, said that regional countries would meet again to discuss the report before steps for concrete actions are taken.

"We are going to have another meeting in one year’s time to look at two things; mainly, first the study report which was presented to us, At the same time, we expect the study to give us concrete actions on how to improve decentralisation and good governance in our countries,” Musoni said.

He added that the regional ministers agreed to establish a forum to carry out peer-review in the respective countries and at the same time, exchange ideas and experiences as well as draw lessons from one another in a bid to improve decentralisation.

Rwanda was handed the task of chairing the process for the next one year.

According to Margaret Jobita from Initiative Consultants, the Kenyan-based firm which conducted the study said that the draft report contains findings from nine countries including Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Comoros and Eritrea.

Ends