City Diplomacy of the International Urban Cooperation by the European Union and its Applicability for the East African Community

The most common actor in the practice of diplomacy is practiced by states, but the rate at which new players are getting involved in the process grows on a daily basis. An actor being widely considered in academic circles is the city due to the nature of globalization and the sheer fact that cities carry a lot of economic and political might. This study has explored the concept of city diplomacy in a formal arrangement as offered by the International Urban Cooperation. This is a framework sponsored by the European Union to promote sustainable urban development as well as to meet other Sustainable Development Goals as laid out by the United Nations. It has also explored what options exist for the East African Community and seek to understand any similar platforms available. The possibility of upgrading any of the existing systems within the region to become an arrangement as formal and well sponsored as the International Urban Cooperation (NC) programme has also been engaged. The study used a qualitative approach of an exploratory nature to explore mostly secondary data available about the NC and any other existing programs in East Africa. The analysis of the programmes within East Africa showed that they do not have as measurable goals as the NC does and neither do they have strict timelines set to the achievement of their goals. In addition to that, the lack of fixed sponsors for the entire programmes means that there is a visible lack of consistency in cooperation efforts across all cities. Areas of cooperation are also selected for the cities to match the larger goals rather than the cities choosing their own areas of interest based on their own local challenges. This thesis concluded the International Urban Cooperation is applicable to the East African community because of its adaptability to different regions across the globe and the ability of the cities to focus their cooperation efforts on cities to partnering with cities that have similar challenges and can work on them together. This study was however unable to access primary data and a recommendation is made by the thesis for further research to be conducted using primary data from both the programmes themselves as well as from the cities participating in the programmes.