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: we are all passionate about the development of a region so vital to the future of Africa. The point of politics isn’t to get elected for its own sake – it’s to drive and influence change for the better. Most people agree that the government is doing a pretty 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 all of us can do to keep pressing for more resources and more development assistance - something that starts with raising awareness of the region as widely as possible in the UK. We try to do that by producing our own reports on the region, by convening working groups, by flagging up latest developments and reports, by lobbying ministers to help effect change.
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 4 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 12 years of remarkable reconstruction in Rwanda, after elections in Burundi and Uganda and most lately in the DRC, hope across the region for a brighter future still needs all the support it can get.
On this site you will find information and debates about the big issues facing the region, contributions from great writers, and links to NGOs and others involved in Burundi, the DRC, Rwanda, and Uganda.
Vava Tampa of Save the Congo, a not for profit campaigning organisation for the Congo has written an article about Save the Congo's Interfaith Initiative calling on world leaders to make peace in Congo a priority.
The article may be found here
NAIROBI 16 April 2013 (IRIN) - Improvements in nutrition and stronger government policies have led to a decline in childhood stunting, according to a new report on child nutrition. However, the condition continues to affect some 165 million children under the age of five globally.
KAMPALA 23 April 2013 (IRIN) - Uganda's government and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) have launched a pilot mobile court system to improve access to justice for victims of crimes in Nakivale, the country's oldest and largest refugee settlement.
KAMPALA 20 May 2013 (IRIN) - Gaps in the healthcare system in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are hampering the fight against malaria, a leading killer of children, say experts.
KAMPALA 20 May 2013 (IRIN) - Gaps in the healthcare system in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are hampering the fight against malaria, a leading killer of children, say experts.
KAMPALA 14 May 2013 (IRIN) - Ugandan children are going unimmunized as the country grapples with persistent and widespread vaccine shortages, the result of insufficient funds and inefficient procurement and supply systems, officials say.
ZIGUINCHOR, 24 May 2013 (IRIN) - Demining has been halted in southern Senegal's Casamance Region after 12 deminers were taken hostage by fighters with the separatist Movement of Democratic Forces in Casamance (MFDC) on 3 May.