Kigali — Through its office of Eastern Africa, The UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the East African Community (EAC) are jointly developing an Energy Security Policy Framework for the EAC Region.

Development of the policy framework will be implemented with participation of EAC Partner States: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.

An inaugural meeting for the project was held from 31 August to 1 September 2015 at Kigali, Rwanda.

Speaking at the meeting, Antonio Pedro, Director of ECA in Eastern Africa highlighted that pertinent energy security issues still prevail in the biomass, electricity and oil and gas sub-sectors. He said that ECA as a think-tank advocating for economic transformation and industrialization in Africa recognizes the structural constraint energy poses on the continent.

"Deforestation, rising wood and charcoal prices, devoting large share of our national budget towards the importation of oil and gas, electricity affordability and reliability among others are all signals that we need to look at energy security and come up with a framework that enables us to address and prevent the security challenges to it well" said Pedro.

Mr. Christian Rwankunda, the Permanent Secretary in Rwanda's Ministry of Infrastructure, praised EAC-ECA partnership and noted that the Energy Sector in Eastern Africa is among the most dynamic sectors on which much expectation is placed due to its importance to sustaining economic development. He said that this regional policy framework is paying attention to country level and regional contexts to shape the future of energy security in the EAC region.

"This will be the first regional initiative in Africa that seeks to comprehensively respond to the need of energy security policy framework", he explained.

Mr. Yohannes Hailu, the Economic Affairs Officer at ECA explained that a regional energy security policy and coordination mechanism is timely because energy security is a crucial aspect of energy sector management, be it in the affordable and reliable supply of electricity, biomass and petroleum products.

"Better monitoring and management of energy security in the EAC region is expected to mitigate unplanned effects of energy sector disruptions on economies", he said.

Mr. Peter Kinuthia, the EAC Senior Energy Officer explained that this initiative is hinged on other sector regional initiatives namely: EAC Electricity Regional Master Plan and EAC Refinery Development Strategy among others.