Foreign policy and development aid in Central Africa and East Africa

Central Africa and East Africa are closely interconnected regions. In fact, some countries can be counted in both categories. For example, the East African Community, a regional intergovernmental organisation, has Rwanda and Burundi – often described as Central African – as members, as well as Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

The list of countries which have been called one or the other runs to at least eight:

Central African Republic (CAR), Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Chad, Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

These are the countries we have focused on in this debate pack. This means that, apart from the statistics provided in section 2, other countries which are sometimes also included in these categories, such as Ethiopia or South Sudan, are not covered by this pack.

DFID currently has bilateral aid programmes in five of the eight countries covered by this debate pack: DRC, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

The bilateral aid programme in Burundi, which over the last year has slipped back into political crisis and violence, was closed during the last parliament – a decision which has been criticised, including by the International Development Committee. There are now calls for the programme to resume once the current crisis is over. 

The ongoing Bilateral Aid Review will reveal which countries have been selected for bilateral aid programmes over the current parliament. It is important to note that countries for which there is no bilateral aid programme nonetheless receive UK aid through multilateral organisations that the UK supports.