The first research monograph of the „Vision East Africa Forum“ is looking at the „democratic deficit“ in the integration process of the East African Community (EAC).

It concludes that regional integration has so far been mainly pursued as a technocratic process driven by the interests of government’s and big business. Although the East African Community was envisaged as a „people-centred“ project the political participation of citizens remains very limited.

So far the integration process has been a top down exercise without attention to the much needed „grassroots“ of such an ambitious political project. It will take a wider and more political approach to popularize the integration process and to overcome the current obstacles in implementing the requirements of the Customs Union or the Common Market Protocol. Only by improving the public knowledge about the process and by addressing the fears of citizens on all sides of the borders will this second historic attempt at creating an East African Community prevail.

As a newly established regional think tank with 5 national chapters and as an advocacy forum for a more democratic and participatory integration process the Vision East Africa Forum (VEAF) has researched the current state of people-centered EAC integration using focus groups for its assessment of citizen participation.