The East African Community (EAC) has made some progress towards regional integration. Its customs union and common market have been particularly successful.
Nevertheless, the EAC has also faced persistent weaknesses. There is a considerable gap between commitments made by member states and their implementation at national level.
There is often an implementation gap between regional agreements and national policy. The Common Market Protocol, for example, provides for the free movement of goods, services and labor but implementation has been uneven.
National governments must often amend domestic legislation and administrative practices to comply with EAC agreements.
The EAC can have sophisticated regional agreements without necessarily producing equivalent changes on the ground.
The EAC has relatively limited ability to compel sovereign governments to implement every regional commitment promptly.
Poor infrastructure has also limited the practical benefits of integration. East Africa contains large landlocked areas – particularly Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan.
Therefore efficient railways, roads and ports are extremely important. Transport costs, border congestion and delays can substantially increase the cost of moving goods.
The region’s geography therefore creates a particular challenge. Removing a tariff does little to promote trade if transporting the product hundreds or thousands of kilometres remains expensive and unpredictable.
The EAC has also been affected by political disagreements between member states. Relations between governments have not always been harmonious and differences over security, trade and foreign policy can spill over into the Community.
The admission of countries experiencing serious internal conflicts has also created complications. South Sudan, for example, joined in 2016 despite its continuing political and security problems.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo joined in 2022. We now have the strange situation where the East African Community now has access to the West African coast! This highlights an important point. By allowing this expanded membership, has the EAC lost its original character? Or is it now just a jumble of states with no congruent character? Has the Community been diluted to the point of becoming ineffective?
Over the years the DRC and Rwanda have had strained relations. The government of the DRC has often accused the government in Rwanda of supporting rebel groups in DRC territory.
Part of the attraction of allowing the DRC into the Community is greater access to the large market there and greater access to the DRC’s mineral wealth.
For the DRC, joining with the community gives it greater access to ports on the east coast, from where its resources can be shipped.
But there are potential downsides to the DRC joining the Community.
The DRC has a long history of fragile sovereignty over much of its own territory.
Conflict is common in the DRC – particularly in the east. It is naive to think that there is only economic upside from the DRC’s membership. It is also likely that issues resulting from conflict in eastern DRC will spill over into political disagreements in the Community – particularly with Rwanda.
Some have suggested that DRC wanted to join the Community in order to counter Rwandan voice in the forum.
And once a member state is in, they are there for good. The Treaty has no provision for kicking a member state out against its will.
Somalia became a member in 2024. Somalia has many challenges, and that is putting it mildly. Some call Somalia a failed state, others a fragile state. Most of the country is not under the control of the federal government.
How can a state that struggles to effectively control its own territory embark on regional projects? Is it wise for the Community to admit a state which has so many problems already on its plate?
Another weakness is the slow progress towards the EAC’s ultimate objectives. The Treaty envisages four stages – a customs union, common market, monetary union and political federation.
The first two have made substantial progress, but the monetary union and political federation remain incomplete.
The proposed East African single currency has repeatedly been delayed, while political federation has remained an aspirational objective.
Finally, the EAC faces institutional and financial constraints. Its ability to implement programs depends heavily on contributions from member states. The Community often sees delays in member-state contributions. Budget deficits are common. This often means that the EAC either has to remain understaffed or that existing workers have to be let go. This naturally has flow-on effects to the amount of work being progressed.
The EAC has made substantial progress, particularly in the fields of customs and a common market. Still, infrastructure problems and uneven implementation continue to prevent the Community from functioning as a fully integrated regional market.
Achieving a common currency is proving much harder. It requires that the existing currencies of member states achieve stability and a high degree of parity. This was hard enough when the Community consisted only of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. The inclusion of the other states make it even more difficult.
Political federation would be the most difficult objective to achieve. It would require independent sovereign states to give up much of their decision-making power. That is something that governments are usually loathe to do.
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