Sezibera assumes leadership of inter-regional grouping

The Secretary General of the East African Community (EAC), Dr Richard Sezibera, has taken over the rotational chairpersonship of the coordination team of the Inter-Regional Coordinating Committee (IRCC).The leadership of the bloc was taken over by the EAC from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa).The IRCC is a grouping of four regional blocs, namely, Comesa, the EAC, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC).Rwanda is a member of both EAC and Comesa.The four groupings form the Eastern and Southern Africa–Indian Ocean, ESA-IO region.Sezibera, a former Rwandan minister and diplomat, was announced the new chair at a meeting of ESA-IO and the European Union in Nairobi, Kenya.“I am greatly encouraged by our own dynamics at the EAC to take the IRCC’s agenda further, building on what my brothers have already achieved in their respective chairmanships and I, myself designated now to respond to the new challenges ahead,” he is quoted in a statement as saying.The EAC chief said that the IRCC will focus on continuous project appraisal, privileging ownership of each regional organisation development or strategic plans and joint regional-national appraisals.“I am indeed committed, within the IRCC framework, to explore ways and means among the regional organisations for an optimal leverage of the IRCC, tripartite, and Horn of Africa initiative structures to achieve the best goals,” Sezibera said.He reiterated the need for IRCC to facilitate and support adequate capacity building of the regional organisations.Sezibera underscored the importance of IRCC to actively promote the visibility and demonstration of value for money for every Euro invested in the development of the region and support to regional integration. Various countries have membership to different regional blocs, a phenomenon critics have claimed end up dividing loyalty for individual nations, with the likelihood of duplication of roles by various groupings.

National

Sezibera assumes leadership of inter-regional grouping