The Rwanda civil society members seek the need to advocate  for East African countries  on issues concerning  Non-tariff barriers, which still exist in some countries, while protocol is supposed to have intervened in removing them.

The Rwanda Civil Society Platform is composed of 15 umbrellas of organizations engaged in different activities such as human rights, women emancipation, justice promotion, agricultural development among others in order to maximize synergy and have a stronger voice in their effort to influence policy-making and sustainable development processes in the country.

Thaddée Karekezi, the Executive Secretary of Rwanda Civil Society Platform (RCSP) says that there is need to find best approaches that can be used to advocate and foster the implementation of different signed protocols like customs union, common market and the remaining ones such as monetary union and political federation.

Karekezi states that there is an already established a three-year strategic plan intended for the purpose of attaining this goal. The plan tends to accelerate the regional integration based on research findings so that they can raise awareness about EAC to make the beneficiaries able to maximize advantages offered by the larger market.

The three-year strategic plan is supported by Trade Mark East Africa with US$ 935,000 budget. The money will be invested in capacity building and carrying out researches that will be based their monitoring and evaluation assessments.

This job will be coordinated by the civil society platforms from the whole bloc, which have so far established have already established a permanent secretariat that is charged with intervention in technical support.

Apparently some officials have also called for a focus of the advocacy of the policies to be centered in the interests of the citizens rather than the states.