Gisenyi, 13 August 2015 - A team from the Office of the UN Special Envoy for the Great Lakes region (OSESG-GL) and a delegation of the Economic Community of the Great Lakes Countries (in French CEPGL - Communauté économique des Pays des Grand Lacs) met on 3-4 August 2015 in Gisenyi at the Rwandan border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Aniefiok Johnson, Chief of Staff, led the delegation from the OSESG-GL, while the one from the CEPGL was headed by its Executive Secretary. The two sides discussed bilateral coordination and collaboration on key regional projects to deliver quick impact peace dividends and livelihood opportunities to women and youth through cross-border activities. The meeting also agreed on continuous collaboration to convene a CEPGL Summit, and to join efforts in the preparation for a Private Sector Investment Conference planned for 24-25 February 2016 in Kinshasa.

The Executive Secretary briefed the delegation on CEPGL’s regional Economic Programme for 2014-2020 with a focus on projects in Energy, Agriculture and Trade. He informed that feasibility studies have been finalized to launch the joint hydro power project, Rusizi III, capable of generating 147 MW of electricity to address the critical energy needs in the three member countries, namely the DRC, Rwanda and Burundi. On trade, he explained that CEPGL was working to ensure the free flow of people and goods across the regional economic bloc, noting the inherent significant potential of open borders and increased trade for confidence building and shared prosperity between these countries.

Through its ongoing and proposed projects and programmes, CEPGL has considerable potential to significantly contribute to confidence building between the member states, which form the core of the Great Lakes countries affected by the cycles of instability and conflict in eastern DRC.

CEPGL is a sub-regional organization with multiple vocations created to ensure the safety of member states by favoring the creation and the development of activities of public interest, promoting trade and traffic between communities of the member-states, and establishing cooperation in all the domains of the political, economic and social life. Its purpose is to promote regional economic cooperation and integration.