The East African Citizen Summit 2025, held from 28 September to 01 October 2025, brought together over 200 participants from all eight EAC Partner States, including representatives from civil society, government, development partners, academia, and the private sector. Under the theme, “Innovating for Regional Integration: Advancing Governance, Economic Growth, and Social Inclusion in the Digital Age,” the Summit focused on strengthening citizen participation and multi-stakeholder collaboration to advance regional economic integration. Discussions highlighted how technology and innovation can drive good governance, inclusivity, and sustainable development across key areas such as trade and investment, climate change and agriculture, digital transformation, peace and security, gender equality, youth participation and health advocacy.
For over 25 years, Germany has partnered with the East African Community (EAC) to advance the regional integration agenda across key sectors such as trade, health, and peace and security. On behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the European Union (EU), GIZ collaborates with the East African Civil Society Organisation Forum (EACSOF) to promote citizen engagement in regional policy processes. This partnership focuses on fostering inclusive platforms for dialogue, amplifying the voices of women and youth, and strengthening the capacity of CSOs to contribute effectively to the implementation of the EAC Common Market.
 “The cooperation between Germany and the East African Community is driven by complementarities that translate into shared prosperity and mutual economic growth.”
 Mr Alexander Fierley, Deputy Head of Mission and Head of Economic Affairs, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Kenya.
At this year’s Summit, GIZ projects across various sectors of cooperation hosted panel discussions that underscored the value of multi-stakeholder dialogue in driving practical solutions and regional collaboration:
Health: Inclusive Access to Essential Medicines and SRHR Commodities
Despite progress, persistent gaps remain in the availability, affordability, and quality of essential medicines and Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) commodities, gaps that disproportionately affect women, girls, and persons with disabilities. To address this, the “RAISE SRHR - Regional Access and Accountability for Increased SRHR Equity” project, co-funded by BMZ and the EU, hosted a session titled “Dose of Inclusion: Ensuring Equitable Access and Availability to SRH and Essential Health Commodities for Women, Girls and People Living with Disabilities”.
The session convened CSOs, youth networks, donors, organisations of persons with disabilities, procurement officials, and regional actors to:
Examine barriers to equal access, such as affordability, policy gaps, and supply chain bottlenecks.
Co-create practical recommendations to ensure inclusive procurement and distribution processes.
Develop an action plan to inform regional pooled procurement under the EAC and strengthen accountability mechanisms.
The resulting action plan identifies solutions to guide inclusive procurement and distribution, with a strong focus on meeting the needs of vulnerable groups and ensuring equitable health access for all.
“Our goal is simple but powerful: to increase the availability of essential, underused, and hard-to-access quality-assured SRH commodities.” Matthew Brooke, Team Lead for Macroeconomics, Governance and Digital at the EU Delegation to Kenya.
Re-emphasising the importance of this new project for the EAC, Dr Julius Otim, Senior Health Officer for Medicines and Food Safety, EAC Secretariat, stressed that: "improving availability of SRH commodities is a key contributor to improving health outcomes, ensuring socioeconomic development and saving the lives of women and girls in our region."
Peace & Security: Supporting Stability, Resilience and Cross-Border Cooperation
On the second day of the EACSOF Summit, the GIZ-African Union Border Programme (AUBP) hosted a multi-stakeholder dialogue on “The Role of Civil Society in Cross-Border Cooperation in the EAC.” The session emphasised the central role of civil society in fostering inclusive peace and security through stakeholder bridge-building, community empowerment and advocacy for participatory, locally driven solutions. It also highlighted the challenges encountered while showcasing the positive impact of collaboration.
Since 2008, GIZ, on behalf of the German Foreign Ministry, has supported inclusive peace and stability, border governance, and cross-border cooperation across the continent and the EAC. CSOs are essential partners in building trust among communities, preventing border conflicts, and enhancing peaceful coexistence. They act as intermediaries between citizens and authorities, ensuring that community voices inform policy.
The AU Convention on Cross-border Cooperation defines this cooperation as actions that strengthen good neighbourly relations among border actors. It promotes shared resource management and social cohesion, creating opportunities for joint development in East Africa, as seen in initiatives such as one-stop border posts and peace committees.
Regional Economic Integration: Strengthening the Voice of Civil Society
Under the theme “Harnessing Citizens’ Potential for Regional Integration,” GIZ, through the “Leveraging Integration Frameworks for Trade in Services and CSOs in the EAC” (LIFTED) project, co-funded by BMZ and the EU, convened a dialogue between civil society, the EAC Secretariat, and Partner State governments on strengthening CSO participation in regional decision-making. Delegates highlighted key challenges undermining integration, notably non-tariff barriers (NTBs) that increase trade costs and limit small business participation, as well as the persistent digital divide caused by weak infrastructure and unequal access, particularly in rural areas.
A major outcome of the session was the validation of three regional accountability tools supported by LIFTED: the EAC Gender and Youth Compliance Barometer, the CSO Engagement Toolkit, and the Guiding Principles for CSO Engagement, which marks an important step toward embedding civil society in EAC policy and governance processes.
The call from civil society is clear: 
“Integration in East Africa will only succeed when it is owned and driven by its people. The pain of one citizen is the pain of all, and the progress of one Partner State is the progress of the entire Community.” said Lilian Alex, the Executive Director of EACSOF.
Regional Economic Integration: Advancing the Mobility of Professionals in the EAC
The free movement of skilled professionals is crucial for unlocking East Africa’s economic growth and deepening regional integration. Through the Digitalisation for East African Trade and Integration (DIGEAT) project, GIZ supports the EAC and its Partner States in digitising and harmonising national professional registries, particularly for engineers, to foster regional collaboration and deliver inclusive infrastructure solutions that meet the diverse needs of the community.
At the Summit, GIZ hosted a “gender gap in engineering” session, empowering a new generation of female engineers. The session highlighted that infrastructure development is not gender-neutral: from transportation networks to water and sanitation systems, the design and implementation of projects affect women’s and men’s daily lives differently. Including more women in engineering ensures that infrastructure is designed to serve all communities effectively and inclusively. Showcasing female engineers who are pioneering innovations – from recycling plastic waste into building materials to creating solar-powered traffic robots – the session highlighted their crucial role in shaping sustainable, context-specific solutions and inspiring young women across the region to pursue careers in engineering.
The EAC–EACSOF–GIZ partnership demonstrates a strategic collaboration bridging people and policy, ensuring that regional integration and development efforts are inclusive and people-centred. As part of Team Europe, Germany and the EAC remain closely connected across multiple sectors of cooperation, working together to co-create sustainable impacts across both regions. 
Find more information on the EAC-German Cooperation here.
Photo ©: EACSOF