The Impact of Regional Integration on Economic Development in the East African Community: A Case Study of Rwanda

The purpose of this study is to contextualize the impact of regional integration and economic development in the East African Community using Rwanda as a case study. The most important masons for joining regional groupings has been the hope of addressing common challenges improving economic policy, reducing poverty, and managing the process of liberalization in a collective and co-ordinated manner. Past efforts to form sustainable regional integration schemes in East Africa have failed because of political and economic ill-will that did not favor regional partnership and co-operation. Most literature on EAC articulate industrialization and economic reforms, and hardly any documents mention the impact of economic development on individual member states in the East African Region. It is against this background that, the study aims to analyze the distinct contribution of economic development through its active policy of partnership ad co-operation on member states, case in point here being Rwanda. The study is guided by the following objectives; firstly to examine the extent of economic development on East African Community; secondly, to analyze and find out the effects of integrating on the economy of Rwanda and lastly to show the relevant linkages of integration in the sustainability of economic development in the member states of EAC. The study is important because it highlights the impact of economic integration on the economy of in East African Region using the case study of Rwanda. The data for this thesis is based on secondary data sourced from books, journals, government, electronic journals, periodicals amongst others. The study established that there are economic advantages accruing to Rwanda from regional integration in the EAC. Amongst other factors, it has enabled President Kagame and his government to catapult the country from the ravages of war.