Nairobi – The East African Community (EAC) with the support of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), is holding a regional workshop today in Nairobi, Kenya to review the training curriculum on one stop border posts (OSBPs) to help improve human mobility and trade by mainstreaming a multi-country and multi-agency approach to operations at land points of entry.

OSBPs are used within the EAC to promote a coordinated approach to facilitating trade, the movement of people and improving security at border crossing points throughout the region, while reducing the number of stops made at border crossings. This modern and holistic approach to border management, helps facilitate cross-border mobility and improves border security while promoting regional integration, economic growth and development.

Several instruments have been developed to foster the establishment and operationalization of OSBPs within the EAC, including: the East African One Stop Border Posts Act (2016), the East African One Stop Border Posts Regulations (2017), as well as the OSBP Performance Measurement Tool.  As part of this regional approach to border management and in order to enhance capacities of staff working at the border, the EAC also supported the development of an OSBP training curriculum, which is today being updated through this workshop.  

In his opening remarks, Mr. Stephen Analo, Principal Customs Officer – Capacity Building, at the East African Community, observed that the implementation of the OSBPS in EAC has focused mainly on trade facilitation. He said the review of the OSBP training curriculum to incorporate immigration and movement of people component comes at an import point in the history of EAC particularly when the DRC has joined EAC as the newest member. 

Mobility of people and how to manage this function at our borders becomes even more important, not only because of responsibility of ensuring that people move easily to move trade but to be able to effectively address any undesirable happenings that may occur at the entry-points. He applauded the partnering between EAC, IOM and TMA and registered the appreciation of the EAC Secretary General to IOM for the support towards enhancing the capacity building efforts of the Community through the review of the OSBP curriculum to incorporate Immigration and movement of people aspect and subsequently, development of training materials and training stakeholders at the OSBPs.

According to David Mokaya Nyariki, Senior Immigration Officer with the Kenyan Directorate of Immigration, “The activity of revising together the training curriculum for OSBP extends our relations beyond the bureaucratic level and improves our relations and modus operandi at the diplomatic and social level.”
The workshop comes at a timely moment, following the admission of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to the EAC on 11 July 2022. The revision of the training curriculum presents the opportunity to enhance capacities and coordination in the seven EAC partner states, increasing trade and investment opportunities between EAC members and accelerate the integration process of the DRC into the EAC.

Lastly, through the review and revision of the OSBP training curriculum, EAC member states are enabling border officials to manage border operations in a way that fosters both large and small-scale cross-border trade, improves human mobility and supports regional stability.

“Capacity development is essential if we want to support effective OSBPs. This is one of the many reasons why IOM has always been an enthusiastic supporter of EAC’s initiative to develop a regional OSBP training curriculum and why, as soon as the occasion arose to deepen the synergy between the EAC and IOM to support the update of this curriculum, IOM decided this was an occasion that could not be missed” states IOM Deputy Regional Director for the East and Horn of Africa, Justin MacDermott.

The revision of the EAC OSBP training curriculum is being supported in the framework of the project “Secure Cross-border Social, Economic and Commercial Activities in the Great Lakes Region”, which is financed by the European Union (EU) and implemented by IOM in partnership with TradeMark Africa (TMA).
  
For more information, please contact: Erika De Bona (edebona@iom.int); Robert Kovacs (rkovacs@iom.int)