APPG on the Great Lakes Region of Africa

Welcome to the APPG

Welcome to the website of The UK All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Great Lakes Region of Africa. This is a political website, but not party political: all members are passionate about the development of a region so vital to the future of Africa. Most people agree that the UK government is doing a good job on development, but people across the spectrum feel equally strongly about the desperate need for progress in the Great Lakes region. There’s a lot parliamentarians can do to keep pressing for more resources and more development assistance, but also for increased political goodwill towards implementation of key reforms. We try to do that by producing our own reports on the region, by convening working groups, by flagging up latest developments, by lobbying ministers.

The Great Lakes Region is the heart of Africa and potentially its driving force. But it has been wracked by years of conflict. In 1994, the Rwandan genocide shocked the international community, which did little effective to stop it. Since then, the region has seen wars ranging from the long-running conflict in Burundi to the devastating rebellion of the Lord's Resistance Army in northern Uganda. More than 5 million people have died as a result of the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the most devastating war since the Second World War, and one that few people in the rest of the world know of. Now, after almost 20 years of remarkable economic reconstruction in Rwanda, after diversely credible elections across the four countries, hope across the region for a brighter future still needs all the support it can get.

On this site you will find information and update on discussions and debates about the big issues facing the region.

APPG co-hosts meeting on EU legislation on transparency in extractive industries

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Created on 31 January 2012

APPG Great Lakes Member Paul Uppal MP chaired on 24 January a meeting on the EU proposals on disclosure of payments by extractive and logging companies.

The meeting was co-hosted by the APPG Great Lakes and the APPG on International Corporate Responsibility, in association with the Publish What You Pay Coalition.  The panel included Gavin Hayman, Director of Campaigns at Global Witness, Vanessa Herringshaw, Director of the London Office and Director of Advocacy and Capacity Development for the Revenue Watch Institute  and Elodie Grant Goodey, Head of Societal Issues and Relationship at BP and Member of the EITI (Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative) Board. The meeting discussed the need for such legislation within the EU framework, the proposals’ effectiveness in their current form, the challenges that could arise from their implementation, as well as potential complementary measures.

Burundi

Rwanda

DRC

  • Analysis: AU prepares its shock troops

    JOHANNESBURG 31 May 2013 (IRIN) - A newly sanctioned African Union (AU) force for quick deployment in conflicts such as in Mali is being promoted as a stop-gap measure ahead of the planned formation of the “rapid deployment capability” (RDC) African Standby Force (ASF).

IRIN Great Lakes

  • Thousands still missing HIV treatment following CAR coup

    KAMPALA 11 June 2013 (IRIN) - More than 15,000 people living with HIV in the Central African Republic (CAR) had their life-prolonging antiretroviral (ARV) treatment interrupted as a result of the instability before, during and after the 24 March coup by the Séléka rebel group. NGOs are now struggling to ensure these people resume their regimens to reduce the risk of illness, drug resistance and death.

Uganda

  • Ugandan mHealth initiative increases 'promiscuity'

    KAMPALA 17 June 2013 (IRIN) - A mobile phone-based health programme designed to improve access to sexual health information and boost safe sex in rural central Uganda had the opposite effect, according to the findings of a Yale University study published in May.

IRIN Africa

  • Bandit attacks displace northern Nigeria herders

    KANO, 19 June 2013 (IRIN) - Incessant deadly attacks on Fulani settlements and villages in northern Nigeria by armed bandits - made up partly of disgruntled Fulani who themselves have lost cattle - are threatening herds and upping tensions in northern Nigeria.

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