East African Community Secretariat Arusha, Tanzania, 4 April 2012: The Secretary General of the East African Community Amb. Dr. Richard Sezibera today launched The State of East Africa Report 2012 themed“ Deepening Integration, Intensifying Challenges” at the Hilton Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya. 

The Report examines the trends that have taken place in the region since 2006 across six main themes namely the people of East Africa in terms of population growth; natural resource base; human development; infrastructure; economy; and politics and government, and is published by the Society for International Development (SID), an international non-governmental network of individuals and organizations founded in 1957 to promote social justice and foster democratic participation.

Addressing a wide spectrum of stakeholders that included, among others, government officials; the business community; members of the diplomatic corps; civil society organizations; and members of the Media, Amb. Sezibera noted that over the years SID had become an important voice in providing economic, political and social analysis on the challenges and opportunities that regional integration presents to the people of East Africa and acknowledged that the 2012 Status Report was just one of many informative and critical publications provided by SID that interrogates many of the questions that regular East Africans ask themselves each day regarding the benefits of regional integration.[...]