EA ministers Want to Take Part in Next Planning of MDGs

{{East African Local Government ministers have said they want to be involved in the next planning and phasing out of Millennium Development Goals for country suitability and implementation.}}

The ministers from Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania, joined by others from Comoros, Ethiopia and South Sudan, under the East African Local Government Forum (EALGF), September 19, said the MDGs currently coordinated by the UN agencies, have dragged on because individual countries were never consulted thus implementation had been met with mixed feelings.

Speaking at the 2nd EALGF meeting in Kampala yesterday, the body’s chairperson, Ms Hawa Abdul Ghasia, said participation of individual East African states in the next round was in the best interest of development and an approach to see their success.

“We… are more concerned because we are at the centre of implementation. It is the central government which received these policies on paper, but the biggest task of execution is on us, with little resources at hand,” Ms Ghasia said.

EAGLF was established last year by the local government ministers to steer a bottom-up approach to integration and facilitate effective, efficient and sustainable projects in the region.

Ms Ghasia, also Tanzania’ State Minister for Regional Administration and Local Government, said this year’s convention also aimed at funneling cordial relations with the East-notably China, whose developmental approach and intentions in Africa has no underlying strings.

“China has been where we are now and when we run to them, they rarely raise conditionalities as the case for our predominant development partners,” she said.

Uganda’s Vice President Edward Ssekandi, in his delegated speech at the opening the summit, hailed EALGF for championing for democracy, political participation and their stance in deepening the spirit of regional integration.

He, however, urged them to embrace a development mind-like approach of emerging economies like India, China, and Brazil with emphasis on competitive markets.

NMG