Nairobi, 16 October 2019 – In the warm-up to the Great Lakes Investment and Trade Conference (GLITC) scheduled to take place in Kigali, Rwanda, on 18-20 March 2020, a partnership-building meeting was organized in Nairobi, Kenya, on 16 October 2019. The aim of the meeting was to galvanize national support for the GLITC through the establishment of a strong partnership made of committed partners for the upcoming March 2020 conference.

The event was jointly organized by the Office of the United Nations Special Envoy for the Great Lakes region, the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) Private Sector Forum, and the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The keynote speakers to this event were Richard Ngatia, Chair of the ICGLR Private Sector Forum and newly-elected president of the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry; Aniefiok Johnson, Chief of Staff in the Office of the United Nations Special Envoy for the Great Lakes region, representing Special Envoy Huang Xia; Charles Kahuthu, CEO, East African Chamber of Commerce; Richard Masozera, Rwanda High Commissioner in Kenya; and Serigne Bassirou Diene, Senior Economic Advisor in the Office of the UN Special Envoy for the Great Lakes. In addition to representatives from these offices and entities, other participants included members of the diplomatic corps in Kenya and high officials from the private sector.