Intergovernmental Authority on Development
Regional · IGAD
Djibouti lies about 30 kilometres from Yemen at the narrowest point of the Bab-el-Mandeb. The founding agreement signed in Djibouti City in January 1986 created an authority on drought and development, after a decade in which the rains had failed across all six signatories. A summit in 1996 dropped the drought from the name and widened the remit to trade, infrastructure and security.
Common questions
Questions about IGAD
Which countries are members of IGAD?
Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda, on the list the secretariat publishes from Djibouti City. Six of them established the body in 1986 as the Intergovernmental Authority on Drought and Development. South Sudan joined in 2011, the same year its independence took effect on 9 July.
Is Eritrea a member of IGAD?
Eritrea acceded in 1993, after independence, and suspended its own participation in 2007. The list of member states published on the secretariat's site does not carry it, and other published accounts of the membership still do. This catalogue files the roster the secretariat publishes and records that the question is answered both ways.
What does IGAD stand for, and what did it stand for before?
The Intergovernmental Authority on Development. From 1986 until the summit of November 1996 it was the Intergovernmental Authority on Drought and Development, and the word taken out names the thing it was created for: recurring drought, the famine that followed it, and the loss of grazing across the region. That work continues at the IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre outside Nairobi.
What has IGAD mediated?
The Sudanese negotiations that ran through the Machakos Protocol of 20 July 2002 to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed at Nairobi on 9 January 2005, which provided for the referendum that made South Sudan a state; the Somali national reconciliation conference convened at Eldoret in October 2002 and continued at Mbagathi, which produced transitional federal institutions in 2004; and the South Sudanese talks behind the agreement of August 2015 and the revitalised version signed at Addis Ababa on 12 September 2018.
How does IGAD differ from the East African Community?
IGAD is an authority with a secretariat, an early warning mechanism and a mediation record, rather than a common market. The East African Community runs a customs union and a common market, and Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan and Uganda belong to both bodies. Tariff preferences among the other IGAD members run through COMESA instead.
Where is IGAD's headquarters?
Djibouti City, on Avenue Georges Clemenceau, where the secretariat has sat since the founding in 1986. The climate centre is a separate address: Ngong, outside Nairobi, where it moved in January 2020.
Sources
- Who We Are · IGAD Secretariat. The founding in 1986 by six states, Eritrea's accession in 1993, the relaunch at the fifth summit in Djibouti on 25 and 26 November 1996, the three priority areas and the four organs.
- IGAD · IGAD Secretariat. The member states as the secretariat lists them, and the headquarters address on Avenue Georges Clemenceau in Djibouti City.
- Peace and Security Division · IGAD Secretariat. CEWARN, the conflict early warning and response mechanism, and the mediation support unit.
- About ICPAC · IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre. The Drought Monitoring Centre at Nairobi, the renaming in 2003, the WMO accreditation in 2014, the move to Ngong in January 2020 and the eleven countries served.
- The Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the Government of the Republic of the Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Sudan People's Liberation Army · United Nations Mission in Sudan. The text signed at Nairobi on 9 January 2005, the Machakos Protocol of 20 July 2002 within it, and the provision for the southern referendum.
- Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan · ReliefWeb. The text signed at Addis Ababa on 12 September 2018 under IGAD auspices.