Democracy in Great Lakes Region Print

Since the late 1990s, AWEPA has been organizing regional events in the Great Lakes Region. Whereas in the early years focus was mostly on reconciliation and peace, now that a more stable situation exists and democratically elected parliaments are in place in most of the countries, AWEPA's programme focuses on ‘fostering the values of democracy in the region'. Thanks to multi-annual funding by the Dutch ‘Thematic co-financing', the programme received a large impetus in 2005.

On an annual basis, multiple regional and national training seminars are organized to strengthen the role of parliament in four main areas:

  • ground rules of parliamentary democracy
  • poverty reduction strategies
  • private sector development
  • HIV/AIDS

The programme includes the following parliaments:

  • Burundi
  • Democratic Republic of Congo
  • Kenya
  • Republic of Congo
  • Rwanda
  • Tanzania
  • Uganda
  • EALA, the parliament of the East African Community.

The parliaments of Mozambique and South Africa are also involved so that they can share their experiences in democratization and reconciliation.

A second main focus of the programme is to strengthen the relations between parliament and civil society in the countries of the region. The AWEPA offices in the countries play a central role in realizing this.

In this programme AWEPA cooperates with various important actors in the field of peace and democracy. Among them are the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), the University for Peace, UNDP, UNICEF and UNEP.

 
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