To move the regional integration process forward, African countries recently adopted the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), one of the most important developments of recent times. Its development programme places Africa at the apex of the global agenda by:
• Creating an instrument for advancing a people-centred sustainable development in Africa based on democratic values.
The WTO’s liberal rules for the world trade system have further heightened global competition and raised the stakes for Africa
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Box 2.2
African Union—main organs and recent decisions
African governments reaffirmed the importance of integration in the Constitutive Act of the African Union of July 2000. The July 2002 assembly of African heads of state in Durban, South Africa, unan-imously approved the creation of the African Union based on the Constitutive Act. The African Union maintains the thrust of the African Economic Community, forging an economically—and perhaps politically—unified continent. By strengthening political commitment, the African Union is meant to expedite African integration. A key priority is establishing institutions that can drive progress, such as the Pan-African Parliament, Court of Justice, and investment bank.
Key organs of the African Union are:
• Assembly of the Union—the assembly of African heads of state and the supreme organ of the union. It meets at least once a year. (This structure is identical to that in the Organization of African Unity.)
• Commission—the secretariat of the union. Headed by a president of the commission, a deputy, and commissioners, it will undertake the daily work of the union. For an interim period of one year from the July 2002 inaugural summit of the African Union, the secretariat of the Organization of African Unity served as the Commission.
• Executive Council—the twice yearly meeting of foreign ministers, with powers delegated to it by the Assembly. (This structure is also largely unchanged from that in the Organization of African Unity.)
• Permanent Representatives Committee—composed of African ambassadors to the African Union. It prepares meetings for the Executive Council and is responsible for supervising the Commission. (This substantially expands the responsibilities of the ambassadors to the Organization of African Unity.)
• Peace and Security Council—consists of 15 ambassadors to the African Union, selected by the Assembly, responsible for promoting regional peace and security and for overseeing con-flict prevention, resolution, and management. (This replaces the Central Organ of the Organization of African Unity and inherits the Conflict Management Centre.)
• Pan-African Parliament—will ultimately become the highest legislative and representative organ of the African Union. Initially it will consist of five parliamentarians (at least one of whom will be a woman) from each country. It is planned to move towards a directly elected parliament.
• Court of Justice—envisaged as the highest judicial authority of the union. Its precise author-ity has yet to be determined.
• Economic, Social, and Cultural Council—a forum representing trade unions, professional associations, and civil society organizations, to give them input into the activities of the union.
• Financial institutions—planned to include the African Central Bank, African Monetary Fund, and African Investment Bank.
• Specialized technical committees—envisaged for rural economy and agricultural matters, monetary and financial affairs, trade, customs, and immigration matters, industry, science, and technology, energy, natural resources and the environment, transport, communications, and tourism, and education, culture, and human resources.
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• Providing a common African platform to engage the rest of the international com-munity in a dynamic partnership holding real prospects for creating a better life for all.
The primary objective of NEPAD is to eradicate poverty in Africa and to place African countries both individually and collectively on a path of sustainable growth and devel-opment, halting the marginalization of Africa in the globalization process. One of the partnership’s main priorities is promoting regional integration on the continent, with bridging the infrastructure gap as an important element.
Conclusion
Africa’s integration faces enormous constraints and challenges at the crucial juncture of establishing the African Union. Some are due to overly ambitious goals relative to limited resources and capacities. But considering the many obstacles that Africa must Box 2.2 (continued)
African Union—main organs and recent decisions
During the Durban assembly many decisions were made to advance the development of the African Union, including:
• Setting a one-year interim period, effective July 2002, after which the Assembly (through the Executive Council) will appoint its chair, deputy chair, and commissioners. Until then the secretary-general of the defunct Organization of African Unity served as the interim chair and the assistant secretaries-general as commissioners. (The Assembly of Heads of State of the Union met in July 2003 in Maputo, Mozambique, and elected officials of the African Union Commission: the president and vice president of the commission, and the commissioners for peace and security, political affairs, infrastructure and energy, social affairs, trade and industry, and rural economy and agriculture. The commissioners of economic affairs, human resources, and science and technology remain to be elected.)
• Establishing the Peace and Security Council to serve as new paradigm for conflict preven-tion, resolution and management.
• Proclaiming 2002–11 as a capacity-building decade for Africa to ensure that local capacity building features prominently in countries’ development policies and to secure international support—financial and otherwise—for these efforts.
• Issuing a draft declaration of support for the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, re-affirming commitments to the principles of democracy and effective political, economic, and corporate governance.
• Assembling a group of experts to examine all aspects related to a proposal to establish a common defence and security force for Africa.
Source: Economic Commission for Africa, from official sources.
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overcome to maintain and achieve respectable growth, the lack of significant achieve-ments is unsurprising. The systemic problems that hamper the development of national economies also impede Africa’s integration.
Still, regional economic communities represent an important effort at breaking down colonial demarcations. They are largely home-grown, developed through complex negotiations among members. Implementation has not been perfect, and there have been periods of inaction and backsliding. But the communities have created solidarity among their members and contributed to an eventual economic union.
More important is whether regional economic communities can provide a basis for con-crete progress and future growth. The enlarged community markets were expected to expand trade within regions, overcome the constraints of small markets, and prompt investments in larger industrial projects—especially manufacturing. That has not hap-pened. Thus it remains to be seen whether regional communities and their member countries can create a supportive environment that leads to increased manufacturing and trade in manufactures within regions.
For the African Union to succeed, an array of institutional issues must be addressed.
At the core of these issues are the inadequacies of national and regional institutions for stimulating and managing effective integration. Regional institutions have to be streamlined, better coordinated, and equipped to deal with the complexities of this effort by building the skills, resources, and authority needed as driving forces for the African Union. Parallel measures are needed at the national level to strengthen inter-action with regional policies and ensure effective implementation of treaties and pro-tocols by member states.
Regional institutions have to be streamlined, better coordinated, and equipped to deal with the complexities of regionalism
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