Panos Eastern Africa emerged specifically out of the East Africa and the Horn Regional Program run by Panos London. This program, which started in 1986, had a main focus on capacity building of journalists and information organizations and developed further when Panos London made the decision to under the regionalisation policy to locate management of programs within the regions thus setting up regional offices under their own governance, known as the Regional Advisory Committee (RAC), constituting respected and knowledgeable figures from across the region who would become the formal authority for the organization.