On 13 May 2020, the East African Community (EAC) Heads of State and Government convened a virtual meeting to address the challenges posed by COVID-19 in the region.
President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, the current EAC Chairperson, convened the meeting, which included Presidents Uhuru Kenyatta (Kenya), Yoweri Museveni (Uganda), and Salva Kiir Mayardit (South Sudan).
The leaders acknowledged the challenge posed by cross-border trade in the fight against COVID-19, particularly the emergence of truck drivers as a high-risk carrier population.
They tasked their respective state agencies responsible for health, transport, and EAC affairs to roll-out border screening and testing measures for truck drivers without compromising cross-border movement of goods.
President Uhuru Kenyatta emphasized the need for collective EAC interventions against the global COVID-19 pandemic.
“A unified stand is what we need to combat this pandemic in the region,” President Kenyatta told his regional peers, adding that contact tracing had helped Kenya to isolate and treat those infected by the virus.
They expressed satisfaction with measures taken so far by regional governments in managing COVID-19 and thanked the EAC Secretariat and the Council of Ministers for ensuring the region minimizes cross-border spread of the virus while ensuring uninterrupted movement of goods.
The leaders acknowledged the slowdown caused by the global pandemic on the region's key economic sectors and urged member states to prioritize local production of essential supplies needed to combat COVID-19.
They encouraged EAC countries to invest more in agricultural production, agro-processing, and value addition to empower the sector to act as an import substitute in this period when global trade is suppressed by the current public health crisis.
The leaders singled out Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) as the sector with the highest potential to cushion the region against adverse economic effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic and recommended the establishment of special purpose financing schemes to support the sector.
They thanked development partners, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Africa Centre for Disease Control (Africa CDC), for their continued support to EAC states in combating the virus.
