by Vladimir Antwi-Danso (PhD) at The Joint Economic Commission for Africa-Third World Network-Africa Colloquium on Africa s Economic Integration: Internal Coherence and External Threats Theme: Africa s Economic Integration: A Contested Agenda Accra, Ghana, May 6-8, 2014,
An interesting and academically stimulating development in contemporary international relations is the trend toward regionalism and regional integration. There seems to be a common consensus today that a functioning international system requires a high degree of integration, i.e., an accepted norm that a high degree of integration would ensure an organically functioning international system
Since the demise of colonialism voluntary political and economic regional integration have been a high priority on the African development agenda However, this aspiration still remains largely unfulfilled as progress has never really moved beyond the level of minimalist intergovernmentalism.
Regional integration of the continent is being hamstrung by many deficiencies The pessimistic conclusion is that the prospect of real integration in Africa that would make her part of the organically functioning international system of integrated communities remains a remote aspiration The Paper takes a panoramic view of integration in Africa and follows up with an analysis of the imperatives of a globalizing world that make economic integration an inevitable but difficult path to follow in Africa.
The conclusion is that the traditional paradigm of African integration, based on minimalist intergovernmentalism and holistic top-down regional engineering, is no longer feasible. The paper also contends that the present largely African Union-led bureaucratically engineered top-down integration will remain an artificial exercise with little substance or longevity if not reinforced by a simultaneous interdisciplinary, bottom-up organic processes, involving civil society, the nation state, the regional economic communities (RECs), micro or subregional formations, and the market.
The diversity of regional arrangements makes broad generalizations and overarching theories or explanations of regionalism impossible Regional integration studies owe a debt of intellectual gratitude to David Mitrany, whose reflections on the European integration enterprise after the Second World War laid the foundation for theorizing in integration studies. The functionalist approach sees integration as a trade-induced phenomenon
Preferential Trade Area (PTA) Free Trade Area (FTA Customs Union Common Market Full Economic Union (Community
Since the 1960s, Africa has confronted a crisis of regionalism that is rooted in the tension between continentalism and sub-regionalism. This tension resulted inevitably from Africa s geographical vastness, but more importantly, from the distinction between the political logic that drove and continues to drive impulses for continentalism and the realism of the promise of economic integration that informs subregionalism. Beyond the novelty of independence, the contest between political and economic imperatives has shaped diverse debates about the modalities and institutions for regionalism.
Indeed, African states seemed to have resolved the divisive debates about continentalism and sub-regionalism by creating the grand compromise captured in the formation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU). The African Economic Community (AEC) project, affectionately dubbed the Abuja Treaty (1991), seemed to have resolved the debate in favour of economic sub-regionalism as building blocks for the erection of a continental union
Over the years beyond the signing of the Abuja Treaty, however, African regionalism experienced an uneasy but tolerable division of labour between continentalism and subregionalism, exemplified in the co-existence of the OAU and sub-regional economic schemes. Yet this tension was never adequately resolved, precisely because of attempts to foist an economically undefined agenda on the continental political architecture.
African economic integration suffers from a litany of problems Weak, stagnant, and decaying economies Failure to incorporate agreements reached at integration fora into national plans. Low intra-african trade Poor infrastructure Difficulties in factor movement The Spaghetti Bowl Syndrome
Instability, the result of bad governance in Africa Externally imposed economic programmes constitute a serious brake on the wheels of integration in Africa The most worrisome of the hurdles facing integration in Africa is the pervasive contestation between continentalism and subregionalism
From Sirte (1999) through Lome (2000) to Lusaka (2001) the debates at the respective OAU Summits centred around a search for a continental architecture that at once unites Africa totally and rapidly and at the same time strengthens regional economic communities. As with the OAU the African Union (AU) was incepted with a structure that left the contestation between continentalism and sub-regionalism unresolved. If anything, the AU structure, which incorporates inspirations from the Abuja 1991 Treaty, seem to lean more towards sub-regionalism pivoted on, and supported by, continental institutions.
From Sirte (1999) to Lusaka ((2001), and Durban (2002) the stsage was set for a definitive choice between continentalism and sub-regionalism. At the 8 th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the AU, held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, January 2007, a proposal for the inception of a Union Government for Africa was discussed. The growing recognition among African countries of the need to provide the AU with stronger continental machinery was made manifest at the this Summit, when the Assembly of the AU set up two ad hoc committees which came up with the following conclusions:
that there was a great necessity for eventual Union Government. The Union Government must be a Union of the African people and not merely a Union of states and governments, The proposed Union Government must have identifiable goals, based on a set of clearly identifiable shared values, commonality of interest --- and on the principle of strict adherence that the formation of the Union Government must be based on a multi-layered approach and gradual incrementalism, and that the RECS must be made more effective as the building blocks for the continental framework
It is clear from the above that the committees conclusions were confusing. They still sought to mix the inter-governmentalist, radically sentimentalist feeling with gradualist incrementalism, using the existing sub-regional groupings as building blocks. Ghana hosted the 9 th Ordinary Session in July 2007. The main item on the agenda was the Union of African States (Union Government) proposal. But before the Summit in Ghana, three positions had emerged:
United States of Africa ( Muammar Gaddafi) An African Union Government ( Olusegun Obasanjo ) Union of African States ( Thabo Mbeki )
This model emphasizes the urgency to establish an African Government now. Focuses on action now rather than later It is a radical approach The model is built on Kwame Nkrumah s ideas which formed the basis of the Organization of African States (OAS) - the erstwhile Ghana-Guinea-Mali Union. An African Government Now!!!!!
This model was propounded by the Former Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo It is also a radical approach Focuses on the use of existing institutions and advocates for taking 15 existing continental institutions and transforming them into Supranational Organs to which all of Africa will cede some sovereignty. For him this should happen by 2015 and with a president who will serve for a 3-year renewable term.
Mbeki, the Former President of South Africa advocates for a route that is gradual in turning Africa into a kind of Union of states subscribing to common goals and values It is a gradualist approach This model proposes a gradual strengthening of three sets of institutions: a. Executive b. Judicial c. Financial/ Technical Institutions It also called for strengthening and speeding up of existing RECs
No concrete decisions were taken in Accra The bogey of Continentalism vrs subregionalism was greatly felt The need to audit the AU in order to find out where Africa was on the ladder to continental integration became paramount A Commission was thus set up to audit the AU
What is most lacking in all these is the question of region and regionalism. To take Africa as a region and aspire to have a continental union based on only one criterion geography- is problematic and constitutes the main problem in deciding which way to go. Creating a regional space for Fifty-four diverse countries, lacking commonality in socio-economic development (different colonial experiences, diverse impacts of the Cold War patronage system, and different development trajectories); without any cohesion in interconnectivity (trade and infrastructure), at a time when the state-centric system is still in battle with the dictates of globalization is a task that may never be fulfilled.
More plausible would be a choice that understands Africa as a region in terms of being a continent but takes regionalism to mean a trade-induced phenomenon which would rely on geographical proximity and trade facilitation (removing barriers to trade, enhancement of infrastructure, free movement of factors, harmonization of policies, etc.), to build an integrated region. It must be noted that, where there are functional states, economic integration and markets have provided the modicum for flourishing cross-border and multilateral discourses on integration. In this sense the wisdom in the Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community (Abuja 1991), where five main regional groupings were noted must be applauded.
Unable to make a choice between continentalism and sub-regionalism, especially as the spaghetti bowl syndrome persists, the AU has adopted the idea of a continental Free Trade Area, with the Tripartite FTA (SADC, COMESA, EAC) as the building block. It is envisaged that a continental union is easier to build through inter-recs cooperation. The plausibility of this choice can be measured only against the backdrop of the hurdles earlier discussed above, including low intra-recs trade and overlapping membership.
Notice that the supposed Tripartite FTA still has the problem of overlapping membership unresolved. Inter-RECs cooperation is easier, neater and smoother when differing FTAs have known boundaries and common external tariffs. Harmonizing such FTAs (in this sense, the Tripartite) would be assuring and smooth. In effect trying to realize the continental dream through lumping undefined RECS together has its own attendant problems.
Africa's unique physical, economic and political geography poses many challenges to economic development and management of shared public goods. Given the fragmented and small sizes of its lowincome economies, Africa needs to competitively participate in multilateralism from a regionalized standpoint, to negotiate more effectively for international market access and ward off marginalization and unfair competition in the global arena. Regional integration and cooperation offers the means to overcome these obstacles and to be competitive in the global marketplace.
The governance of regionalism in Africa is mired in crisis because of the pervasive contestation between continentalist inclinations and sub-regionalism and its attendant unresolved questions of managing the relations between continental and sub-regional institutions. As long as the bulk of the continental agenda is framed largely in the context of subduing and submerging sub-regions, these tensions will not be resolved any time soon
One way to resolve these conflicts is to return to the essential building blocks of regionalism in Africa. Where there are functional states, economic integration and markets have provided the modicum for flourishing cross-border and multilateral discourses on integration. Else continental treaties will continue to often be in contrast with sub-regional logic.
Treaty effectiveness depends largely on the degree (level) of integration and the homogeneity of institutions. The degree of integration, on the other hand, depends, on the demand side, on economic and trade imperatives, and, on the supply side, on the political engineering (elite complementarity, political will, etc.) and propped by ability and willingness of individual states.
Sentimentalism has no place in a world, dictated by global imperatives The demand imperatives of integration are trade and economics The supply side is socio-political This is the time to rationalize the RECs and strengthen them as viable building blocs for a continental Union
All hands on deck and all tools applicable in the tools box employed