Policy Recommendations on a Just Transition for the East African Community (EAC)

The East African Community (EAC) is one of Africa’s most dynamic and strategically
significant regional economic blocs, comprising Partner States with diverse economic
structures, ecological zones, and development trajectories. The region spans coastal, highland,
arid, and semi-arid ecosystems, and hosts a wide range of productive systems, from smallholder
and commercial agriculture to extractive industries, manufacturing, services, and rapidly
expanding urban economies. This diversity underpins the EAC’s economic potential, but also
creates differentiated vulnerabilities and uneven development outcomes across countries,
sectors, and communities.
The economies of the EAC remain heavily dependent on climate-sensitive sectors such as
agriculture, fisheries, tourism, forestry, and natural resource extraction, which together employ
a significant proportion of the region’s workforce, particularly in rural and informal settings.
Smallholder farmers, pastoralists, artisanal fishers, and workers in nature-based tourism and
extractive value chains are especially exposed to climate variability and environmental
degradation. At the same time, the region is pursuing ambitious industrialization, infrastructure
expansion, and urban development agendas aimed at enhancing regional connectivity, boosting
intra-regional trade and advancing structural transformation.