The African Leadership Centre (ALC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the East African Community (EAC), at a brief ceremony held on 16th April 2014 at the Headquarters of the Community in Arusha. The Clerk of the Assembly Mr. Kenneth Namboga Madete signed on behalf of the Community, while Dr. Godwin R. Murunga signed on behalf of the ALC. The MoU will be managed by the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) on behalf of the EAC and will seek as its primary objectives the co-convening of forums, dialogues and debates on regional security in East Africa, the provision of better access to knowledge and expertise relevant to the regional and pan-African peace and security agenda and the injection of skills within the EALA and related institutions and organs, national and regional centres of excellence for purposes of strengthening policy research capacity on peace, security and development.
The signing of the MoU is the culmination of more than a year of collaboration between members of EALA’s Regional Affairs and Conflict Resolution Committee that is chaired by the Hon. Abubakar Zein Abubakar and the ALC’s the Working Group on Leadership and Peacebuilding in Africa; a joint initiative between the ALC and the African Peacebuilding Network of the Social Science Research Council of New York. Following this successful collaboration through the Working Group, both organizations (EALA and ALC) agreed to initiate a partnership to upscale the collaboration. An immediate task to be accomplished through this partnership is to organize an EALA Conference to be held on May 23-24th 2014 in Arusha, to discuss the theme East African Societies and Regional Security.
The African Leadership Centre is excited to continue building its relationship with the EAC in general and EALA in particular, and looks forward to productive collaboration on a range of activities, which will enhance the capacities of both institutions in delivering needed services and skills to citizens of East Africa.