OUR COMMITMENT « We, the Heads of State and Government of Member Countries of International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, meeting in Dar es Salaam, on 19th and 20th November 2004, under the auspices of the United Nations and the African Union, . . . Declare our collective determination to transform the Great Lakes Region into a space of sustainable peace and security for States and People's, political and social stability, shared growth and development, a space of

cooperation based on the strategies and policies of convergence within the framework of a common destiny which we are determined to build in line with the aspirations of our people's, in conformity also with the AU Vision and Mission, with the full participation of all our people's and in partnership with United Nations, the African Union and the International Community as whole».

OUR CONTENT.

Although the Dar es Salaam Declaration (2004) provides for the integration of cross cutting issues in the 33 ICGLR projects, there are still major gaps in most of the projects considering that key crosscutting issues were not mentioned or were rather mentioned superficially, and that in the analysis of projects and objectives, key cross cutting issues were more general than specific. Therefore, the strategy, expected results, indicators, project activities, resources and the budget often omitted cross cutting issues.

Consequently, the strategy, expected results, indicators, project activities, resources or budget progressively ignored cross cutting issues. Indeed, the projects as presented, if not modified, shall neither be effective to the people and governments for which they were conceived nor respond to the expectations and vision of the leaders as expressed in the Dar-es-Salaam Declaration.

The instruments of the African Union and the UN which inspired the Pact also recognize these issues. These issues are mainly related to:

•Human Rights,

•Gender,

•Environment
• Human Settlement
• HIV/AIDS
• Youth