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BACKGROUND NOTE FOR THE NATIONAL

ADVOCACY AND TRAINING WORKSHOPS

IN KENYA, UGANDA, TANZANIA, BURUNDI AND

RWANDA ONACCELERATING THE

IMPLEMENTATION OF EAC COMPETITION POLICY

AND LAW (EACOMP PROJECT)

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CUTS with support from Trademark East Africa (TMEA) partnered in executing the EACOMP project whose overall objective is to assess the challenges in the implementation of the EAC Competition Policy and Law in each of the EAC Partner State; document evidence on Anticompetitive Practices (ACPs) and their negative impacts in the economies of the region and use such evidence to promote an enabling environment to support the eff ective implementation of the various competition legislations at national and regional level through multi-stakeholder engagement. The 24 months project, is being implemented in two phases in the five EAC Partner states namely: Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda

ABOUT THE EACOMP PROJECT

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The project’s specific objectives include:

a) Evaluate impediments to evolving national and regional competition regimes and identify the best way for addressing such impediments through a participatory process involving multiple stakeholders.

b) Develop the capacity of national stakeholders including policy makers, regulators, civil society organisations, particularly consumer groups, academics and media persons to understand and appreciate competition concerns from national and regional.

c) Disseminate information materials in order to mobilise public support for competition Policy reforms.

d) Help build constituencies for promoting competition and consumer awareness by identifying a representative group of national stakeholders and transforming them into a core cadre (nationally) on competition policy, regulatory issues and consumer protection.

e) Establish dynamic linkages between the national stakeholders (national reference groups) and global networks and coalitions on competition issues to sustain the interest and continue activities for promoting a healthy competition.

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This was necessitated by the fact that in 2006, the Community Heads of State assented to the regional Competition policy and law, EAC Competition Act 2006, which aims at ensuring a wider consumer choice in markets for goods and services, through technological innovation to promote gains in dynamic effi ciency. However, despite the existence of the Law, the progress in its implementation has been slow. The inadequate progress in the implementation of the EAC competition Act 2006, raised a concern across the region, especially, at this stage where the region is implementing a Common Market, which seeks to increase cross-border trade and investments and present consumers with an expanded market and choice. One of the key reasons attributed to the slow progress in the implementation of competition policy and law in the region is limited awareness among key players/stakeholders on the importance of such policy. Other reasons include political economy and capacity…. constraints.

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Given the CUTS approach of influencing policy and its implementation through research- based policy advocacy, and keeping in mind the overall and specific project objectives, the project has been implemented in two phases. The fi rst phase being the research phase and the second phase being the advocacy phase. After the successful completion of the fi rst phase which included the finalization of five country specific research reports on the state of play of the national competition reforms, drafting of a synthesis research report to summarize the findings for the EAC region, the formation of five national reference groups and successful holding two consultative meeting with them, the project transitioned to the second phase. The second phase is founded on the fi rst phase and includes the holding the third national reference group meeting, National Advocacy workshop and National Training Workshops.

NATIONAL TRAINING AND ADVOCACY WORKSHOPS

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It is in this regard that CUTS is organizing the National Advocacy and Training Workshop in each project country. The overall objective of the workshops is to help to build constituencies for promoting competition and consumer awareness and to develop the capacity of national stakeholders to understand and appreciate competition concerns from national and regional levels.

The half day National Advocacy workshop will be mainly the platform for presenting the national research findings on the state of play of competition policy and law reforms and an analysis of the alignment of national competition legislation to that of the EAC as well as cross-border competition concerns, which will be discussed by all the stakeholders.

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The one and a half day National Training workshop will include training on the fundamentals of competition and anti-competitive practices; the benefits of a fair competition regime; strategies to address cross-border competition concerns in the EAC region; and advocacy strategies: the role of stakeholders in competition. Individuals from the CUTS network of competition experts will conduct this training.