The All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on the Great Lakes Region of Africa was founded in 1998 by Oona King MP after a visit to Rwanda by the House of Commons Select Committee on International Development. Since then, the APPG has increased its focus to cover the whole Great Lakes region: namely Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda. Its current Chair is Eric Joyce MP - for a list of all Officers of the Group, please see here.

Today, the APPG has more than 200 members, and is the leading forum in Parliament for discussion and critical analysis of policy issues affecting the people of the Great Lakes region. (Reports of the Group are issued in the name of individual authors and are not necessarily the view of each APPG member.)

The aims of the Group are:

• To ensure that the Great Lakes region is on the political agenda of the UK government, and is a policy priority;

• To promote conflict resolution and sustainable development in the Great Lakes region;

• To encourage discussion of regional issues;

• To coordinate parliamentary activity on the Great Lakes, including the lobbying of ministers, and ensure that Parliamentarians are fully briefed on Great Lakes issues;

• To provide an official channel for NGOs and academics to direct their recommendations and information;

• To support and develop genocide prevention policy initiatives, within both the UK government and the international community, and warn UK parliamentarians about potential future genocides.

 The Group has a full-time coordinator, and is funded by a number of NGOs. For more details, see here.