East African Community (EAC) Heads of State are set to convene for their 18th Extra-Ordinary Summit set to take place virtually, on Wednesday, December 22, the six-member bloc’s Secretariat announced on Saturday morning. As noted, the Summit will be preceded by the 45th Extra-Ordinary Meeting of the EAC Council of Ministers, the policy making organ of the Community, scheduled for Monday, December 20. The Summit is expected to consider two items; the report of the Council of Ministers on the admission of the Democratic Republic of Congo into the EAC and the amendment of the Quorum Rule of the Summit of EAC Heads of State,” the Secretariat noted. The issue of amendment of the quorum rule of the Summit of EAC Heads of State is particularly important since, previously, whenever any one leader was unavailable, a Summit would be postponed and thus delaying progress on key decisions and projects of the region. The EAC Secretariat’s statement does not mention anything about a proposal recently made by regional Finance Ministers on a hybrid model for financing the bloc’s budget. Ministers in charge of EAC affairs later concluded that it needs some more consultations. Adan Mohamed, the Chairperson of the EAC Council of Ministers, told reporters on November 30, the day regional leaders were supposed to meet for their annual Summit which was postponed, that the recommendation by Finance Ministers was brought to the Council of Ministers “and that, ultimately, (it) is going to be approved by the Summit in terms of what needs to be adopted or not.” “We need some time for more consultations before the proposal by the Finance Ministers is taken to the Summit in the not too distant future.” The proposal of a hybrid model that requires each partner state to contribute, equally, 65 per cent towards financing the EAC budget came as Finance Ministers concluded a retreat in Mombasa, Kenya, on November 16. The new model requires EAC Partner States to contribute equally 65 per cent of the budget while the remaining 35 per cent of the total budget will be contributed based on the assessment of Partner States’ average nominal GDP per capita for the previous five years as assessed by the World Bank A study was in the recent past done on the required reforms to align the EAC structure, programmes and activities with the financial resources available from partner states in order to ensure sustainability of the bloc while addressing the dependency syndrome. The study identified key priority projects, programmes and activities that can be implemented with available resources now and in the future without slowing the integration momentum as well as identifying constraints with the existing funding structure by partner states and development partners that causes delays and, or non-compliance with disbursements obligations. After deliberation of the recommendations from the study, Finance Ministers agreed to adopt a simple model in terms of parameters to be used on the assessed contribution component and sensitive to principles of equity, solidarity, equality and the size of the Partner States’ economies. Once the Council of Ministers wraps up its consultations and implements, it will be a major breakthrough as regards to finding a solution to the longstanding problem of member states that default on their financial obligations. For long, internal resources have remained constrained as countries continuously failed to make their obligatory remittances to the Secretariat on time Currently, partner states contribute equally - $8 million – to the bloc’s budget as outlined in Article 132 of the EAC Treaty. The Treaty provides for additional funding from Development Partners and any other sources as may be determined by the Council of Ministers.
