Regional Integration in Africa: Focusing on External and Internal Constraints
Teke Nicolyn Nyinmaah· Kyu Young Lee
Abstract
The global trade environment is increasingly characterised by regional integration
agreement. Most of the regional arrangements are trade focused while others are based on
cooperation on a broader range of economic and political issues. Regional trade
agreements are more complex and comprehensive in their scope, design and depth.
Despite this increasing interest in regionalism, there are different viewpoints on the
desirability and design of agreements for development. These differences revolve around
two choices: trade focused regional integration and development-based integration whose
objectives are much broader than trade integration. Opponents of trade focused
integration argue that development objectives sought through trade integration can be
targeted more directly by focusing on a broader set of economic ‘fundamentals’ and that
static welfare gains from regional trade integration are typically modest. The performance
of trade focused regional integration in developing countries has been dismal and the
trade specific objectives of RTAs are best achieved through multilateral (WTO)
agreements, which are considered more welfare enhancing than RTAs.
Proponents
counter that broad-based regional integration agreements tend to lack commitment,
policy harmonization and the inability to catalyze trade liberalization needed to assure

Sang-eun Lee is a Master of International Relations from Sogang GSIS
Jaechun Kim is an associate professor of Sogang GSIS. Authors for correspondence, Graduate School of
International Studies, Sogang University, Shinsu-dong, Mapo-ku, Seoul, 121-742 Korea, Tel: 82-2-7058684, Fax: 82-2-705-8755.
E-mail: jaechun@sogang.ac.kr

1
private investors. It has been argued that this partly accounts for the continued existence
of overlapping memberships in numerous regional agreements especially in Africa and
their historically dismal performance. There are more regional organizations in Africa
today than in any other continent and most African countries are members of more than
one regional integration initiative. At the same time, it is widely recognized that many
initiatives have not live up to expectations. Why has these initiatives produced only
limited results so far? Were the challenges and constraints simply too difficult? The
underlying reasons for the disappointing record need to be thoroughly examined and
understood if African integration initiatives are to realize their potentials. There has been
limited, if any, significant change in the structure of African economies since
independence. In order to reap the benefit of trade, some basic economic fundamentals
must first be addressed.
Key words: integration, trade, development, regional policies, regional institutions.
2
1.Introduction
It has been widely acknowledged that African regional integration has bore little fruits
despite all the integration initiatives that have been put forward. Decades after
independence, African countries continue to grapple with seemingly intractable
developmental challenges. 1 According to Qobo Mzukisi earlier strategies, including
import substitution industrialization (ISI) and structural adjustment programmes (SAPs),
failed to reverse Africa’s declining economic fortunes. Against a background of
precarious dependence on the international market and general developmental malaise,
regional integration is widely accepted as the roadmap to Africa’s development. 2 In
recent decades, the urgency for regional integration has been underscored by a
conjuncture of external and internal factors. The end of the cold war and the acceleration
of the globalization process, along with Africa’s risk of further marginalization in a
multi-polar world dominated by trading blocs in North America, Europe and South-East
Asia, have presented regional integration as an imperative. These external pressures are
augmented at the regional level by Africa’s fragmentation, the ubiquity of poverty, the
prevalence of conflicts and the disconcerting asymmetry in the economic power relations
between Africa and its northern trading partners. On the global level, the multilateral
1
Africa is not a country, as such the different countries had different dates in the attainment of
independence as follows; 1847-Liberia; 1951-Eygpt; 1956-Sudan, Tunisia & Morocco; 1957-Ghana; 1958Guinea; 1960-Chad, Benin, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Central African Republic, Mali, Niger,
Senegal, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Togo, Zaire, Somalia, Congo, Gabon, Cameroon; 1961-Sierra Leone,
South Africa (recognized as the Republic of South Africa, the indigenous people (Black Africans), were
living under apartheid, and thus not truly independent); 1962-Algeria, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda; 1963Kenya, Tanzania; 1964- Malawi, Zambia; 1965-Gambia; 1966-Bostwana, Lesotho; 1968-Equatorial
Guinea, Mauritius, Swaziland; 1969-Guinea-Bissau, Libya; 1975-Angola, Cape Verde, Comoros,
Mozambique, Sao Tome; 1976-Seychelles; 1977-Djibouti; 1980-Zimbabwe; 1990-Namibia; 1994 - Indigenous Black Africans free from apartheid in South Africa. http://www.ipoaa.com/african_independence.htm
(Search date: 20.01.2010)
2
Qobo Mzukisi, The challenges of regional integration in Africa In the context of globalization and the
prospects for a United States of Africa, Institute for Security Studies, ISS Paper 145 (Johannesburg, June
2007), pp. 1-3. http://www.issafrica.org/dynamic/administration/file_manager/file_links/PAPER145H.pdf?
link_id=&slink_id=4674&link_type=&slink_type=13&tmpl_id=3. (Search date: 03.30.2009).
3
trading system has been extended to new issues such as competition, intellectual property
rights, non-tariff barriers, and investments which have been strengthened by the
establishment of the World Trade Organization. The international structure is becoming
more diverse with a mix of countries and groups at various stages of integration. In the
quest to regionalize, Africa is faced with dilemmas relating to how regionalism has to be
achieved. The first is the approach to integration: whether integration should follow an
introverted state-led or an extroverted market-based approach. The second is the
sequence of integration: whether economic integration should precede political union or
vice versa, or whether these two processes should be pursued simultaneously. A third
option should be considered, social and cultural integration. African development
requires a model of integration that will ensure maximum mobilization of regional
resources while minimizing external dependence. With the slow gains of integration in
Africa, it necessitates the following questions: Why deepening integration has been slow?
What are the constraints on economic integration- externally and internally? And what
needs to be done to push forward real economic integration and trade in Africa? The
answers to these questions are not only relevant but urgent as the progress of regional and
global integration is necessary to address the key challenges of poverty and development
in Africa. Policies and institutions constitute the back bone of any regional integration
initiative. As Oakerson and Scheider put it, regional institutions and policies are
important in defining the issues, mobilizing resources, providing differential access,
mediating interests and in implementing policies.3
Roger B. Parks and Ronald J. Oakerson, “Regionalism, localism and metropolitan governance; suggestion
from the research program on local public economics,” State and Local Government Review, Vol. 32, No. 5
(2000), pp. 169-79, quoted in Michael Keating and John Loughlin (eds.), The Political Economy of
Regionalism (London: Frank Cass, 1997), pp. 34-35.
3
4
Regional integration occurs naturally, albeit very unevenly, during the course of the
development of private markets. “Natural” market integration is a process characterized
by progressive convergence of economic and social parameters between locals and
regions and increasing degrees of interdependence. Regional integration can also be
driven by policy- induced regional cooperation, or regionalism.4 Regional Cooperation
between two or more countries can also take place without pretensions of regional
integration. 5 Functional regional cooperation involves an adjustment of policies and
activities between countries to achieve outcomes that the parties prefer to the status quo.
Mutually beneficial functional regional cooperation is possible in practically any field of
public policy, ranging from security matters to economic, environment, disaster
management, epidemiological issues, etc. While functional regional cooperation can and
does emerge independently of formal integration processes, it also can constitute a
parallel track to a formal regional integration process, or through time contribute to the
emergence of such a formal process. Regional integration in Africa is not a new
phenomenon. Regional integration talks in Africa date as far back as the 1910s with the
establishment of the South African Customs Union (SACU) in southern Africa. Some 50
years later, the regional integration scheme was undertaken on a continental level through
the adoption of the OAU Charter and its establishment. Following the establishment of
the OAU, different initiatives were made to further the efforts of integration, among
which the Lagos Plan of Action is taken as a landmark.6 The essence of the LPA was the
Robert Delvin and Lucio Castro, “Regional Banks and Regionalism: a new frontier for developing
financing,” Presented at the conference on Financing for Development: Regional Challenges and the
Regional Development Banks, Institute for International Economics (Washington, D.C: February 19, 2002),
p.1. www.iie.com (Search date: 04.05.2009).
5
B. Balassa, “Towards a theory of economic integration,” Kylos, Vol. 16, No. 35 (1961), pp. 1-7, quoted in
Robert Delvin and Lucio Castro, ibid, pp. 2-3.
6
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa; Lagos Plan of Action Document. www.uneca.org/adfiii
4
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establishment of a Common Market for Africa. In line with this, heads of state signed the
treaty establishing the African Economic Community (AEC) in June 1991. The most
recent African plan for economic integration and development is the New Partnership for
Africa’s Development (NEPAD). The market creation effect, which will also attract
investment around the world and improve competition, is among the advantages of
regional integration. African countries represent small markets, which make their
participation in the international trade less meaningful, this necessitates the formation of
regional blocks. Apart from the continent-wide movement, there are many overlapping
regional blocks within the continent. Despite the existence of many regional integration
schemes, Africa has not yet reaped the fruits of integration like its model, the EU.
In the 1990s, a different framework of regionalism emerged. Though not strictly with a
security function, it promises to go beyond the nation-state and to enable state to
overcome the security dilemma associated with it.7 This conception of regionalism found
its most sophisticated expression in regional integration theory, an intellectual high point
of post-liberal institutionalism. The sovereignty-eroding potential of this form of
regionalism was captured from a neo-functionalist standpoint by Ernst Haas, who defined
integration as ‘a process whereby political actors in several distinct national settings are
persuaded to shift their loyalties, expectations and political activities towards a new
center, whose institutions possess or demand jurisdiction over the pre-existing national
states’.8 The new regionalism of the 1990s was led by trade agreements with objectives
/riefforts/ref/other2.htm (Search Date: 04.20.2009)
Amitav Acharya, “Regionalism and the emerging world order: Sovereignty, Autonomy, Identity,” Schaun,
Breslin et al. (eds.), New Regionalism in the Global Political Economy (London: Routledge, 2002), pp. 2032.
8
Ernst Hass, “The challenges of Regionalism,” International Organization, Vol. 12, No. 14 (1968), pp
441-440.
7
6
of creating free trade areas or common markets. The policy framework encircling the
“old” post-war regionalism in developing countries involved an inward-looking and
protectionist/state-led import substitution strategy (often in the context of authoritarian
regimes). Meanwhile, the new regionalism is inserted into a framework of policy reform
that promotes open and competitive private market-based economies in a modern
democratic institutional setting. “New” regionalism in Africa can be seen in the evolution
of a security based OAU to a more open and trade focused African Union, which
promises more trade and development than its predecessor initiative. The ultimate goal of
regional integration is to merge some or all aspects of economies concerned. This usually
evolves from simple cooperation on and coordination of mutually accepted aspects
amongst a given number of countries to full integration or merger of the economies in
question. 9 The history of regional integration in Africa shows that the reasons or
objectives for integrating have been changing over time. They have shifted from the
initial focus on the political decolonization of Africa to the current emphasis on socioeconomic integration. Africa is also in the struggle to increase growth and development
and to foster a stronger bargaining power in post-independent era. Economic integration
is one of the main development paths chosen for development in Africa. Trade
liberalization is the clearest link to the structural reform process in the enhancement of
commitments to trade liberalization, which has been a central feature of many developing
countries’ development strategy. Institutional modernization is also an objective of new
regionalism. Regional trade agreements, especially those with deep objectives, or the socalled “second generation” free trade areas which go beyond traditional market access in
Mothae Maruping, “Challenges for Regional Integration in Sub-Saharan Africa: Macroeconomic
Convergence and Monetary Coordination,” Jan Joost Teunissen, and Age Akkerman (eds.), Diversity in
Development: reconsidering the Washington Consensus (Seoul: KIEP, 2006), pp.130-131.
9
7
goods, encourage modernization of institutions and through regional competition. 10
Export growth and diversification; reciprocal opening, guarantees of market access,
preferences, provide new opportunities for export and diversification. Regional markets
also serve as an outlet to an important array of products like textiles, dairy, meat, food
processing, which confront very high levels of international protection. Geopolitics also
describes an objective of new regionalism. A group of like-minded countries can use their
regional scheme to, among other things, establish a security network for fragile
democracies, promote disarmament and peace among neighbors, and enhance bargaining
power in international fora. Integration in Africa will overcome economic fragmentation
by reducing the smallness of borders and land-locked nations. According to the theory of
functionalism and neo functionalism, a spill-over effect from economic integration could
affect other areas of policy. It is in line with this that one can claim that a more integrated
Africa will promote peace and security which is essential for trade and development to
occur.
2. Constraints to African regional integration
There is no doubt that regional integration and development in Africa has been the most
disappointing amongst regional arrangements around the world in attaining its objectives.
The reasons for this run the gamut from political, economical and at times geographically.
The first Lomé convention signed on the 28th February 1975 between the nine member
states of the European Economic Community and 45 African, Caribbean and Pacific
states (ACPs) was hailed as a significant achievement and a new direction in the history
Yongzheng Yang and Sanjeev Gupta, “Regional Trade Arrangement in Africa: Past performance and the
way forward,” IMF working paper 05/36, IMF, Washington DC, 2005. www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/long
res.cfm?sk=17971.0 . (Search date: 05. 15.2009).
10
8
of international economic relations. At its inception, a number of African nationalist
leaders, such as Nkwame Nkrumah of Ghana, were already warning against the dangers
of Africa’s association with Europe under the prevailing circumstances. 11 They were of
the opinion that the association was deeply flawed because of the inequality of the
partnership between Europe and Africa and warned that it was detrimental to the African
strategy of economic independence and self-sustained development. After 25 years of
being the largest aid and trade agreement between developed and developing countries,
the Lomé Conventions expired in February 2000. Viewed by many as ‘a welcome
development’, ‘a natural step in the process of decolonization’, the Lomé failed to live up
to its expectations.12 In evaluating the EU’s contribution to North-South relations, it is
impossible not to notice that the EU’s share of world trade improved drastically from 7%
in 1970 to 25% by the late 1990s (excluding internal EU trade). This has expanded
primarily at the expense of less-developed countries.13 A case in point is the damage on
poorer countries by the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). 14 Besides, the Lomé
agreement did little by itself to alleviate grinding poverty in Africa. The Stabilization of
Export Earnings (STABEX) 15 regime supported the exploitation and trade of raw
materials rather than financing industrialization through the Lomé’s aid provisions. 16
Historical structuralist viewed the STABEX system as a mechanism for ensuring that
ACP countries continue to supply Europe with cocoa, coffee and other raw materials than
S. Siri, “ECC’s brand of Neo-colonialism,” Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 14, No. 2 (1979), p. 693.
William Zartman, The Politics of Trade Negotiation between Africa and the EE, (Princeton University
Press, 1971), pp. 43-50.
13
J. Peterson and E. Bomberg, External Trade Policy: Decision-making in the European Union (New
York: St. Martin’s Press. 1999), pp. 90-119.
14
Ibid
15
Martin Guy, “The political economy of African – European relations from Yaoundé 1 to Lomé II, 19631980: a case study in neo-colonialism and dependency,” Diss., Indiana University, 1982, pp.299-335.
16
William Brown, The European Union and Africa: the restructuring of North-South Relations (London:
I.B. Tauris Publishers, 2002), pp.8-9.
11
12
9
an intervention project to make trade in raw materials sustainable for ACP countries.17
The Lomé convention was seen as a detriment to African regional integration. Shaw and
Aluko argued that the maintenance of ‘vertical’ ties to Europe inhibited the forging of
‘horizontal’ cooperation in Africa. As such, it is claimed that attempts at African regional
integration in the likes of the Lagos Plan of Action were thwarted by the preponderance
of ‘extroverted’ links to Europe.18
Post World War II development has been different between the Asian, Latin American
and African regions. Although there have been some significant improvements in Latin
America, the standard of living of the majority of people just like in Africa has
significantly regressed. In 1990, John Williamson codified the praise for East Asian
economy management into what is known today as the Washington consensus. 19 The
Washington Consensus advocated fiscal discipline, redirection of public expenditure, tax
reform, interest rate liberalization, competitive exchange rate, and trade liberalization,
liberalization of inflows of direct foreign investment, privatization, deregulation, and
secure property right.20 These policies were very much supported by US government and
by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank as the solution to economic
problems faced by developing countries. Other critics sum up the Washington Consensus
as an economic programme focused myopically on short and medium-term stabilization
of output, prices and the balance of payments and not on long-term sustained growth,
John Ravenhill, Collective Clientelism: The Lomé Conventions and North – South Relation (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1983), pp, 36-50.
18
Timothy M. Shaw and O. Aluko (eds.), Africa Projected: From Dependence to Self-Reliance by the Year
2000? (London: Macmillan, 1985), pp. 112-130.
19
John Williamson ,“The Washington Consensus as policy prescription for development,” A lecture in the
series Practitioners of development delivered at the World Bank, January 13, 2004, Jan Joost Teunissen
and Age Akkerman (eds.), op. Cit., pp. 215-222.
20
Wing Thye Woo: Serious inadequacies of the Washington Consensus: Misunderstanding the poor by the
Brightest in Jan Joost Teunissen and Age Akkerman (eds.), op. cit., pp. 9-15.
17
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particularly in the poorest countries. The one “size-fits-all” type of economic policies
falls short to improve development in African countries. Chang saw this approach as
“kicking away the ladder”. He argues that the UK and the USA were the first countries to
build their economy on protectionism, like almost all the rest of the developed world
today used tariffs, subsidies and other means to promote their industries in the earlier
stages of their development. Cases like Germany, Japan, and Korea are well known in
this respect. As such, he proposes that the WTO rules should be re-written so that the
developing countries can more actively use tariffs and subsidies for industrial
development.21
Africa alone harbors more than 10 regional trade arrangements many of them are part of
the overall deeper regional integration initiative. The United Nations Economic
Commission for Africa notes that one of the problems that have impeded the integration
progress in Africa is the creation of numerous regional economic communities (REC)
that has overlapping memberships with other communities. It describes a form of
‘spaghetti bowl’ economic arrangement in Africa which lack adherence to the
implementation of its programmes but that also have insufficient technical capacity,
divergent and unstable macroeconomic policies and lack the link with the general African
economic community. The over supply of regional initiatives is counter intuitive to the
precepts of functionalism and neo-functionalism theory. One could expect that the
interrelatedness between the regional groupings will lead to an even deepen community.
This is not the case in Africa. The different regions and countries in Africa pursue the
Ha-Joon Chang, “Kicking away the ladder-Development Strategy in Historical Perspective,” Post-autistic
economic review. Sept. 4th 2002. Issue No.15, Art.3,www.btinternet.com/~pae_news/review/issue/15.hhtm
(Search date: 04.27.2009)
21
11
goals of integration from the point of view of narrow economic interests, rather than
being part of a broader and single vision towards continental unity.
The ARIA II (2006) report stipulates that true integration cannot take place unless the
economies of participating countries in an integration area deal with economic shocks
harmoniously.22 As a result, assessing the presence of shock evenness and synchronicity
of business cycles can provide useful evidence of the potential for deeper integration in a
given REC. Stable macroeconomic coordination helps increase growth, trade and
investments, macroeconomic stability and monetary integration is crucial for Africa’s
integration efforts. At the core of these efforts are prudent fiscal, monetary, exchange rate
and debt policies pursued at the national level and harmonized at the regional and
continental levels.23 Cooperating in the area of macro economic policy also is difficult,
but increasingly necessary where partners have attained a significant degree of economic
interdependence through trade, investment and risks of financial contagion.
There is an intense debate about the weight attached to the various factors that have
stalled development in Africa. Emphasis is given to the economic development paradigm
chosen by African elites, which pundits have claimed has been the most debilitating
factor to Africa’s development and integration. Several years after independence, African
countries are still struggling to improve its economies and ensure sustainable
development. Earlier strategies including imports substitution industrialization (ISI),
structural adjustment programmes (SAPs), Lomé conventions have failed to reverse
Africa’s declining economic fortunes. Rapid import liberalization imposed on
22
UNECA; ARIA II, op. cit., pp. 109-115.Assessing Regional Integration in Africa III: Towards Monetary
and Financial Integration in Africa. Economic Commission for Africa, July 2008 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Retrieved on June 12, 2009 from: http://www.uneca.org/aria/aria3/index.htm
23
Mothae Maruping, op. cit., pp. 136-137.
12
underdeveloped countries via structural adjustment programmes has more often than not
intensified poverty and inequality. The characteristics of Africa’s post-independence
development is summed up by Ayittey who calls it ‘one giant false start’, characterized
by a wrong political system (one-party states); a wrong economic system (statism); a
wrong ideology (socialism); and a wrong growth path (industrialization through import
substitution).24 With the present situation in Africa, there is a call for new approaches to
development.
A large body of literature on economic integration has its roots in some works at the
beginning of the European Community.25 Primarily concerned with the economic effects
of trade liberalization among a group of countries, the political aspects were not explored
in details, though it was recognized that the effects of tariff reductions and complete
liberalization on government revenue and the welfare effect on different sectors of an
economy has clear political implications. 26 Regional economic integration as stated
before involves a series of cooperative efforts from free trade area, customs union,
common market and economic community. Regional integration in Africa is hard to
define. Strands such as ‘developmental regionalism’ and ‘open regionalism’ outlined fail
to capture theoretically what obtains in the continent’s interstate relations.27 Succinctly
summarized by De Melo and Panagariya, regional integration among developing
countries in the 1960s “was a failure, both in terms of implementation and in terms of the
24
Qobo Mzukisi, op. cit., p. 5.
B. Balassa, and A. Stoutjesdijk, “Economic Integration among Developing Countries,” Journal of
Common Market Studies, Vol. 14, No. 4 (1976), pp. 37-55.
26
Mary Farrell, “From EU Model to Policy: the external promotion of regional integration,” 2004,
http://www.princeton.edu/~smeunier/Farrell%20Memo.pdf. (Search date: 06.30.2009).
27
Louise Fawcett, “Regionalism in Historical Perspective.” L. Fawcett and A. Hurrell (eds.), Regionalism in
World Politics: Regional Organization and International Order (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995),
pp. 9-36.
25
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stated objectives of accelerating the pace of industrialization by raising intraregional
trade”.28 The dismal outcome of Africa’s initial efforts to integrate can be attributed to
the low level of structural complementarity of the economies. This, in turn, has inhibited
expansion in production and opportunities for trade creation and led to unmet
expectations about gains from integration. African policy makers need to go back to the
basics, forming and implementing policies propped by the right institutions in order to
improve Africa’s lot. Africa has abundant arable land and labor which, with sound
policies; this could be translated into increased production, incomes and food security.
This has not materialized because of lack of consistent policies and/or effective
implementation strategies. Thus, despite agriculture accounting for 70 per cent of the
labour force, over 25 per cent of GDP and 20 per cent of agribusinesses in most countries,
it continues to be given low priority.29 Agriculture also has a high multiplier effect, which
means that agricultural investment can generate high economic and social returns and
enhance economic diversification as well as social development. Africa imports 50% of
its food at a cost of approximately $18bn every year. The existing infrastructure is
therefore handling some 18 million tonnes of food imports. When seen against the
backdrop that 80% of Africa’s exports leave through ports, a focus on improving port
facilities would create substantial incomes as well as employment. Similarly, food
Jaime De Melo and Arvind Panagariya (eds.), “New Dimensions in Regional Integration; and
introduction,” Jaime De Melo and Arvind Panagariya (eds.), New Dimensions in Regional Integration
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), p. 247
29
Economic Report on Africa (ERA), “African Union Developing African Agriculture through Regional
Value Chains, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.” Addis Ababa, April 2009, http://www.un.
un.org/regionalcommissions/crisis/ecaera09.pdf. (Search date: 07.08.2009).
28
14
security would save Africa billions of dollars annually which could be invested in other
sectors.30
The small size and primary production structure of the typical African economy provided
the rationale for pursuing mutually beneficial economic cooperation and regional
integration particularly among adjacent states. In order to fully transform Africa, a
regional social policy backed by resources has to be put in place. Regional social policies
will play an important role in creating parity between the poorest countries in Africa and
the few ‘rich’ ones. Social policy is defined as the provision of social services such as
education, health, employment, social security, housing and utilities like water. Social
policy is also about redistribution, social justice and the regulation of market institutions
and social structures to alter the unequal distributive outcomes of economic activity.31
The regional social policy will be able to address issues that benefit from
intergovernmental cross-border cooperation on the following areas; regional social
redistribution ranging from intra-regional transfers and development aid which can be
used to target depressed areas or redress inequalities. It can also foster regional
regulations on health and labour standards to combat intra-regional ‘race to the bottom’
as well as the regulation of private social services and utilities such as water and
electricity. There is a lesson to be learned from the EU. The emphasis on cohesion was
in part a policy to develop the EU internal market. As such the EU set a range of policy
instruments, known collectively as Structural Funds which directs transfers from wealthy
30
Report of the Workshop on Meeting the Challenges of Regional Integration, Intra-African Trade and
Economic Growth in Africa Hotel Intercontinental Nairobi, Kenya January 31 – February 1, 2007, pp15-25,
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTPARTNERSHIPS/Resources/PolicyWorkshopReport.pdf. (Search
date: 07.10.2009).
31
Bob Deacon et al., “Regional Social Policy,” UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs Working Paper N. 37ST/ESA/2007/DWP/37 (2007), pp. 17-20, www.un.org/esa.desa/papers/2007/wp37_/2007/pdf
(Search date: 06.30.2009).
15
to poor regions, designed to assist lagging areas to build infrastructure, human capital and
create jobs.32 Unlike the EU, the African Union which is the overarching organization
amongst the numerous regional economic communities in Africa lacks the capacity to
finance and implement regional social policies. The combination of sound policies,
resources, and strong institutions with high managerial skills is needed bolster regional
integration in Africa. Countries participating in an economic integration initiative can
reap significant benefits when the governments implement market-friendly domestic
policies to promote investment, growth and trade. In such an initiative, regional trade and
infrastructural policies form the underpinnings for success. On the other hand, conflicting
policies without a clear implementation process will lead to a break down of economic
integration, which has been the case in the integration process in Africa. Prestowitz posit
that regionalism serve as a second best route to establish trade linkages in Africa, both
internally and externally.33 Interdependency needs to be encouraged in Africa, without
this, plausible policy regimes will be hard to define.
The EU operates at various levels that link the sub-national, the national and the
supranational with an institutional framework which includes the European Commission,
the European Parliament, European Court of Justice, The European Council and a whole
array of policies that are implemented by the member states. The coordination of the
European Commission is vital and it plays a leadership role in initiating new policy
initiatives. 34 The European Union is a case in the historical institutionalist approach
which presents a complex dynamics at play presentation multi-levels of analysis. The EU
32
Ibid.
Clyde V. Jr. Prestowitz, et al., “The last Gasp of Gattism,” Harvard Business Review, Vol. 69, No.2
(1991), pp 130-138.
34
Mary Farrell, op. cit., p. 99.
33
16
has been a great influence on the integration process in Africa. Africa has followed an
institution-driven approach to regional integration, based on formal regional agreements
and institutions for guiding and monitoring regional integration efforts. 35 With the aim of
creating larger regional markets, increase the scope for exploiting economies of scale,
continental peace and security and stimulating domestic and foreign investment, the
Constitutive Act of the African Union proposes a whole array of institutions namely;
court, parliament, commission, council, economic and social committee.36 The difference
is that unlike the EU these institutions lack independent decision-making capacities as
such are at the whims and caprices of political leaders. Nevertheless, some institutions
are necessary to encourage the process of a deepening integration which may eventually
create the neo-functionalist ‘spillover’ effect. There is no argument that research is an
integral part of development. Policy research will be a potential area that will encourage
development and integration in Africa. For instance, not all countries can develop
expensive high quality universities and research centres. There is a major argument for
uniting forces across regions and agreeing to create regional research and training centres.
In the area of research, regional research institutions have emerged as centres of
excellence for fostering and supporting quality research through a network of national
research institutions in fields such as economics and agriculture.
Anupam Basu, “The Challenges of Regional Integration in Africa and Policy Options,” Africa emerging
market forum, 2008, p. 8. http://www.emergingmarketsforum.org/papers/pdf/2008%20EMF%20Morocco%
20Basu%20Regional%20Integration.pdf (Search date: 05.27.2009).
36
African Union, http://www.africa-union.org/root/au/AboutAu/au_in_a_nutshell_en.htm (Search date:
06.23.2009).
35
17
Ayittey observes that ‘the absence of independent central banks means that monetary
policies are subjected to the fiscal whims of central government’.37 The advantage of an
independent central bank is transparency, predictability and accountability in monetary
policy. This lends credibility to the economy and insulates monetary policy especially
interest rates, from being manipulated by politicians for short-term gains. Regional
development banks with an independent decision making capacity will be able to
implement programmes that will reduce the shifting nature of member states central
banks. This will pose a challenge arising from informational asymmetries and political,
institutional limitations on establishing certainty regarding commitments but it will be a
functional cooperative effort in a bid to develop regional public goods. With a regional
development bank, the RECs economic and trade policies will be accorded more
credibility and encourage both domestic and foreign investment. The African Union- the
umbrella organization of the African continent evolved from the Organization of African
Unity (OAU). The OAU was established in 1963 with the main objectives inter alia, to
rid the continent of the remaining vestiges of colonization and apartheid; to promote
unity and solidarity among African States; to coordinate and intensify cooperation for
development; to safeguard the sovereignty and territorial integrity of member states and
to promote international cooperation within the framework of the United Nations. Unlike
the OAU, the AU’s principal aim is the promotion of accelerated socio-economic
integration of the continent, which will lead to greater unity and solidarity between
African countries and peoples. The AU is based on the common vision of a united and
strong Africa and on the need to build a partnership between governments and all
George N. B. Ayittey, Africa Unchained: the blueprint for Africa’s Future, (Basingstoke: Palgrave,
2005), p. 142.
37
18
segments of civil society, in particular women, youth and the private sector, in order to
strengthen solidarity and cohesion amongst the peoples of Africa. As a continental
organization it focuses on the promotion of peace, security and stability on the continent
as a prerequisite for the implementation of the development and integration agenda of the
Union.
3. Conclusions
Regional institutions are important in defining the issues, in mobilizing resources, in
providing differential access, in mediating interests and in implementing policy. 38
Historical institutionalism argues that there are long-term and pervasive effects of
institutional choices. Granted that the EU provides a good example of integration, their
linear form of integration should not be adopted by Africa even though it is an attractive
option, it is not necessarily in accord with developmental challenges in Africa.
Institutions in Africa are generally weaken by the fact that they do not have independent
decision-making capacities and as such fail to make an impact in the development and
integration efforts. An investment in institutions such as research institutes which cannot
be easily influenced is a positive step towards supranationalism. Regional policies should
define integration in terms of the developmental challenges and encourage a collective
improvement of life in Africa. State-led integration has been a massive failure in Africa.
Attempts at inducing deeper integration by doubling the numbers of regional arrangement
has been counter intuitive and has not brought about the necessary closeness which
encourages trade and deeper integration. All is not lost. Societies over history have been
38
Michael Keating and John Loughlin (eds.), The Political Economy of Regionalism (London: Frank Cass,
1997), p. 35.
19
built and strengthen over time as attested by historical institutionism. In light with this,
the regionalization dialogue should be opened to other actors in Africa such as the private
sector and the civil society. This form of social integration may have a necessary spillover effect which can bring about positive steps towards the creation of an African
Economic Community.
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