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| Hon Phyllis Kandie; Minister for EAC Affairs, Commerce and Tourism officially launches the EAC Information and Resource Centre as the EAC Secretary General; Amb. Dr. Richard Sezibera (left) and the Principal Librarian; Sarah Batuwa look on. |
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| Sarah Batuwa takes the delegation round the newly launched IRC led by the Chaiperson of the Council and the EAC Secretary General |
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| A group photo of the delegation of the Council of Ministers together with the EAC Secretary General and his Deputy Secretaries General as well as EAC Staff after the launch. |
East African Community Secretariat; 28
April, 2014:
The Chairperson of the EAC Council of Ministers and Cabinet Secretary
for East African Affairs, Commerce and Tourism in Kenya; Hon. Phyllis
Kandie today officially
launched the EAC Information Resource Centre.
Hon.
Phyllis Kandie congratulated the EAC Secretariat for achieving this
great milestone and emphasized the critical role the Resource Centre in
sensitizing the EAC citizenry, noting that; “utilization of information
and research data should be used not only to fuel growth and
development within the region, but also to spark interest in the EAC
integration agenda especially among the youth.
She
urged the Centre to organize and package information on EAC integration
in a way that is both understandable and user-friendly enough to the
people of East Africa to have the intended impact.
The
Chairperson of the Council applauded the development partners,
specifically the European Union for their technical and financial
support to
the Resource Centre and assured that the Council of Ministers’ support
to further develop the Centre.
In
his welcoming remarks, the Secretary General of the East African
Community Amb. Dr. Richard Sezibera affirmed that digitization of all
EAC information
resources would improve accessibility of EAC information, preserve it
in a digital format and also improve information sharing with EAC Organs
and Institutions, Partner States, consultants, researchers, development
partners and the general public.
The
Secretary General reiterated that Article 71 of the Treaty for the
Establishment of EAC mandates the EAC Secretariat to promote and
disseminate
information on the Community to the stakeholders, general public and
the international community. “This Resource Centre therefore is part of
that initiative”, said Amb. Sezibera.
While
guiding the guests on the Resource Centre tour, the EAC Principal
Librarian and in charge of the Resource Centre; Mrs. Sarah Kagoda Batuwa
said that the need for a robust library at the EAC Secretariat was
identified way back in 1997 when a Communication needs study was
conducted.
”Consequently, a library was established and housed on 5th
Floor Kilimanjaro wing, AICC building in 1999”, said Batuwa, adding in
November
2012, the EAC library was moved to the new EAC headquarters and under
the funding from the European Union Regional Integration support Program
(RISP) last December, the Library was equipped, furnished and
transformed into a one-stop Resource Centre.
The
Principal Librarian said the transformation of the Resource Centre was
being done in phases. Databases (Automated Library Catalogue) will be
developed to capture details of the information resources within the
Secretariat, EALA and EACJ as well as a Reports Database which is an
online, full-text database of Summit, Council, Sectoral and Taskforce
reports. The second phase entails digitization of
all EAC Information Resources as generated in all integration processes
and availing them online.
Various
resources available at the Resource Centre include EAC documentation
and publications, Partner States official publications, former EAC
publications, general textbooks, publications on regional and
international organizations, periodicals including professional
journals, newspapers/articles, audio-visual collection and internet
resources and databases.
Present at the occasion were also EAC Ministers, Permanent Secretaries and senior officials from the EAC Secretariat.
ENDS
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