This book provides a systematic analysis of the establishment and decision-making processes concerning the institutional design of the East African Community (EAC) throughout the 1990s and discusses to what extent these were impacted and inspired by other regional organizations from Africa and Europe. Analysing the decision-making processes that led to the set-up of the EAC, the book explores the extent to which they were impacted by several other regional organizations, namely the Organization of African Unity (OAU), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the European Union (EU), and the first EAC. The findings indicate that the relevant east African state and non-state actors adopted substantial aspects from the first EAC, the EU, and the COMESA and adapted them to set up the current EAC. This book demonstrates that the perception of other regional organizations and their institutional design considerably effected the construction of the EAC; here, its own past provided crucial learning objectives, which challenges the notion of mimicry or replica regional organizations of the EU in the Global South. This work will be of particular interest to scholars and students of regional and international organizations, international relations, multilevel governance approaches as well as diffusion literature.

The East African Community (EAC) has been among the fastest growing regions in sub-Saharan Africa in the past decade or so. Nonetheless, the recent growth path will not be enough to achieve middle-income status and substantial poverty reduction by the end of the decade—the ambition of most countries in the region. This paper builds on methodologies established in the growth literature to identify a group of countries that achieved growth accelerations and sustained growth to use as benchmarks to evaluate the prospects, and potential constraints, for EAC countries to translate their recent growth upturn into sustained high growth. We find that EAC countries compare favorably to the group of sustained growth countries—macroeconomic and government stability, favorable business climate, and strong institutions—but important differences remain. EAC countries have a smaller share of exports, lower degree of financial deepening, lower levels of domestic savings, higher reliance on donor aid, and limited physical infrastructure and human capital. Policy choices to address some of these shortcomings could make a difference in whether the EAC follows the path of sustained growth or follows other countries where growth upturns later fizzled out.

A report, requested by the East African Community (EAC) Secretariat, that provides an assessment and recommendations as to policy, legal, institutional and financial product actions the EAC could take to promote increased private investment in the Community s regional infrastructure.

The countries in the East African Community (EAC) are among the fastest growing economies in sub-Saharan Africa. The EAC countries are making significant progress toward financial integration, including harmonization of supervisory arrangements and practices and the modernization of monetary policy frameworks. This book focuses on regional integration in the EAC and argues that the establishment of a time table for the eliminating the sensitive-products list and establishing a supranational legal framework for resolving trade disputes are important reforms that should foster regional integration.