Opening the meeting, the Director for Productive Sectors for EAC Secretariat held on 26th July 2018, Jean Baptiste Havugimana, commended the consultative and multi-sectoral processes that informed the conceptualization of the regional project touching on key environmental issues affecting EAC region including Lake Victoria Basin.
He reasoned, such generation of inputs from multi-disciplinary technical teams, institutions and organs of EAC and beyond was in line with EAC priority: accelerating a people-centered and market-driven integration as espoused in the EAC 5th Development Strategy 2017-2021. Similarly, the pipeline project is aligned to the overall goal of the USAID’s Development Cooperation Strategy 2017-2021.
LVBC Deputy Executive Secretary for Programmes and Project, Mr. Telly Eugene Muramira, underscored the importance of joint planning and designing of the project as it does not only promise effective implementation, but actualizes the intention of delivering impactful interventions as one entity with one voice.
Responding coherently and effectively by EAC organs, institutions and development partners feature strongly in the EAC Vision 2050, specifically on issues of environment and natural resource issues. Such coordinated and coherent project implementation framework, according to EAC Vision 2050, will contribute towards bridging gaps in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The LVBC Deputy Executive Secretary added, such collaborative process fits in LVBC priority of harmonizing policies, legal frameworks and socio-economic interventions in Lake Victoria Basin as espoused in the LVBC Strategic Plan 2016-2021.
The 3 year pipeline collaborative conservation and management of trans-boundary natural resources in East Africa project seeks to strengthen evidence-based decision-making, increase public awareness of the value of shared natural resources and reduce trans-boundary wildlife poaching and tracking of wildlife products from EAC.
The pipeline project document was informed by lessons learned from the coordination and implementation of trans-boundary natural resources project such as Lake Victoria Environment Project phase two, Lake Victoria Water Supply and Sanitation Project Phase two (LVWATSAN II), Biodiversity and Protected Areas Management Programme (BIOPAMA), among others.
All team members designing the pipeline project acknowledged that EAC Region is endowed with rich biodiversity, and natural resources transcending national boundaries and thus require a regional coordination and management through collaborative mechanisms. Key proposed activities and deliverables are geared towards filling such gaps and henceforth improving economies of EAC Partner States
