East African Business Week

Arusha, Tanzania - The African Union and the East African Community last week signed an agreement worth 3,415,489 Euros for the implementation of the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) in the East African region. The first phase of the APSA support covers a period of one year.
 The European Union is supporting the APSA programme for Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and Regional Mechanisms (RMs) through AU with a financial envelope of 40 million Euros over a period of 44 months beginning 1 May 2011.
 The objective of the programme is to increase the RECs capacity to prevent and resolve conflicts, according to Mr Abdul Janha, the Project Monitoring Unit Co-ordinator of the African Union Commission, who witnessed the signing  at the EAC Secretariat in Arusha, Tanzania.
 "APSA aims to give the AU, the RECs and Regional Mechanisms (RMs) for conflict prevention, management and resolution (CPMR) necessary instruments to fulfil the tasks of CPMR in Africa as set out in the AU Constitutive Act and the Protocol establishing the Peace and Security Council (PSC)," said Mr Janha.
 The EAC Deputy Secretary General, Ms Beatrice Kiraso, who signed on behalf of the EAC, lauded the initiative, saying that it was geared at making the continent more peaceful, stable and progressive.