United Nations African Union
Economic and Social Council
African Union
Distr.: General 18 March 2015 Original: English
Economic Commission for Africa
Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development Forty-eighth session
African Union
Specialized Technical Committee on Finance, Monetary Affairs, Economic Planning and Integration*
First session
Eighth Joint Annual Meetings of the African Union Specialized Technical Committee on Finance, Monetary Affairs, Economic Planning and Integration and the Economic Commission for Africa Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development Addis Ababa, 25–31 March 2015
* The Specialized Technical Committee replaces the Conference of African Ministers of Economy and Finance (CAMEF) and the Conference of African Ministers of Integration (COMAI). The Specialized Technical Committee brings together ministers of finance, monetary affairs, economic planning and integration.
Side event
Africa Regional Integration Index: an update on the approach and methodological issues
A. Background
1. At the regional and continental levels, Africa’s future and aspirations regarding regional integration are embodied in the Charter of the Organization of African Unity, the Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community (Abuja Treaty), the Constitutive Act of the African Union, and the treaties and protocols establishing the African economic communities. These agreements are anchored on the following key priorities, among others:
(a) Liberalization of trade;
(b) Free movement of persons, goods, services and capital;
(c) Development of regional infrastructure;
(d) Development of production capacities;
(e) Harmonization of macroeconomic and sectoral policies.
2. The key milestones of the Abuja Treaty are reflected in the table below.
2 Key milestones of the Abuja Treaty
Phases Duration Key milestones
First stage 1994–1999 Strengthening of existing regional economic communities (RECs); establishing new RECs in regions where they did not exist previously
Second stage 1999–2007 Stabilization of tariff and non-tariff barriers, customs duties and internal taxes in each REC
Schedules for the removal of such barriers
Harmonization of customs duties
Strengthening of sector integration
Coordination and harmonization of the activities of RECs
Third stage 2007–2017 Establishment of a free trade area and customs union in each REC
Fourth stage 2017–2019 Coordination and harmonization of tariffs and non- tariff systems among RECs, leading to a continental customs union
Fifth stage 2019–2023 Common sector policies
Harmonization of monetary, financial and fiscal policies
Free movement of persons and rights of residence and establishment
Sixth and final stage
2023–2028 African Common Market
Pan-African Economic and Monetary Union
African Central Bank and a single currency
Pan-African Parliament
Development of African multinational enterprises
3. Africa’s current integration landscape contains an array of regional economic communities, including the eight considered as the main building blocks of the African Economic Community.
These are the:
(a) Arab Maghreb Union (AMU);
(b) Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD);
(c) Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA);
(d) East African Community (EAC);
(e) Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS);
(f) Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS);
(g) Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD);
(h) Southern African Development Community (SADC).
4. In more recent times, the African Union’s political leadership has adopted a number of initiatives to accelerate the African integration agenda. The Minimum Integration Programme was adopted by the African Union to accelerate the African integration process in key areas including trade and market integration, free movement of persons and infrastructural development. Given that many African countries are members of multiple regional economic communities, which can have overlapping objectives and mandates, complicating the coordination of the integration process, the Minimum Integration Programme serves to focus on the actions of the regional economic
3 communities with a view to accelerating African integration in key and critical priority areas in a coherent and harmonious manner. In addition, in January 2012, the African Union made a landmark decision to fast-track the establishment of a continental free trade area by an indicative date of 2017, and to implement a comprehensive action plan for boosting intra-African trade. Moreover, institutions including the African Union Commission, the African Development Bank, the Economic Commission for Africa and the regional economic communities are currently promoting the continent-wide Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa. These integration goals are also reflected in the African Union’s Agenda 2063.
5. Despite these agreements, regional integration in Africa still has a significant way to go in order to fulfil its potential for contributing to the continent’s overall development objectives. One area in which this is obvious is trade. The share of intra-African exports in Africa’s total exports (14 per cent in 2013) compares unfavourably with other regions of the world. Only Western Asia has a lower share of intraregional exports as a percentage of total exports (9 per cent in the same year).
By comparison, in the same year the shares of intraregional trade in South and Central America, North America, the European Union and Asia stood at 17 per cent, 49 per cent, 61 per cent and 67 per cent respectively. Africa’s regional economic communities also have a low share of intragroup trade relative to other regional groupings: the 14 regional groupings with the highest shares worldwide of intragroup exports in their total exports had an average share of 32 per cent of intragroup exports in their total exports in 2013, while Africa’s eight regional economic communities that are recognized by the African Union averaged 10 per cent in the same year.1 Africa continues to have some of the highest trading costs of any region in the world, surpassed only by Eastern Europe and Central Asia (where the percentage of landlocked countries is higher).
Furthermore, trade barriers between African countries are often higher than those between African countries and the rest of the world.2
6. In this context, the sixth Joint Annual Meetings of the Economic Commission for Africa Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development and African Union Conference of Ministers of Economy and Finance, held in Abidjan in April 2013, and the sixth Conference of African Ministers in charge of Integration, held in Port Louis in May 2013, both called for enhanced monitoring and evaluation of African integration. Around the same time in 2013, the Board of the African Development Bank requested the bank to develop a system of indicators on regional integration in Africa. In response to those requests, the African Development Bank, African Union Commission and the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) began developing a regional integration index. The three institutions then presented a proposed methodology for the index to the seventh Conference of African Ministers of Economy and Finance and seventh Conference of African Ministers in charge of Integration and both conferences endorsed the proposals, with suggestions and feedback. Such an index also supports the Strategy for the Harmonization of Statistics in Africa, by providing new, harmonized statistics in the statistical areas identified by the strategy.
B. Objectives of the Africa Regional Integration Index
7. An index of African regional integration can become an indispensable reference for African governments, enabling them to see how much progress they are making towards realizing the agreed vision of an integrated Africa, and in which areas of the integration agenda they might be lagging behind. By producing a single index, ECA, the African Development Bank and the African
1 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (2015). UNCTADStat database. Available from http://unctadstat.unctad.org. Accessed on 3 March 2015.
2 United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (2014). Trade Facilitation from an African Perspective.
4 Union Commission will be able to summarize information from the many areas that regional integration covers into a single number. This will make it easier for governments and the general public to gain an overview of the performance of their regional economic communities; it will also help governments to assess their overall progress compared with other countries in Africa. In addition, the index will be constructed in such a way that governments will be able to identify specific areas of integration in which they are performing less strongly; this will encourage and help them to take corrective action in areas where their progress is slow in comparison to other African countries. Finally, the index will allow better policy analysis for regional integration policy by extending and improving the data that is available on regional integration issues in Africa.
C. Methodology
8. As outlined above, African leaders have reached a clear agreement on their vision and priorities for regional integration in Africa. The Africa Regional Integration Index is therefore based on the aspects of regional integration identified in the treaties, protocols and other agreements entered into by African leaders, namely the Charter of the Organization of African Unity, the Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community (Abuja Treaty), the Constitutive Act of the African Union, the African Union Minimum Integration Programme and the African Union’s Agenda 2063.
Consequently, the methodology developed for the index focuses on measuring progress in the following key areas: liberalization of trade; free movement of persons, goods, services and capital;
development of regional infrastructure; development of production capacities (with a focus on industries that are key for intra-African trade); and policy harmonization.
9. The indicators are categorized slightly differently than the key thematic areas in the above list because of the need to group them rationally on the basis of availability of data; thus the indicators are grouped into:
(a) Free movement of persons and labour markets;
(b) Trade integration;
(c) Political economy;
(d) Productive integration;
(e) Financial integration and macroeconomic policy convergence;
(f) Regional infrastructure and interconnections;
(g) Social and cultural integration.
10. In constructing the list of indicators, in addition to extensive work carried out by their own staff, the African Development Bank, African Union Commission and ECA consulted member States, regional economic communities and external experts. This included consultations with external experts on 25 and 26 November 2013 in Addis Ababa and subsequently; consultations with regional economic communities, including official missions regarding the index to COMESA, EAC and SADC; and presentation of the proposed methodology at the seventh Conference of African Ministers of Economy and Finance and the seventh Conference of African Ministers in charge of Integration, in 2014, and at the first Joint Conference of African Directors General of Statistics and the Statistical Commission for Africa. It also included direct consultations with officials from 12 member States, mostly through official missions to those countries or through contact with their representatives, namely with Botswana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Lesotho, Mauritius, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia, the United Republic of Tanzania and Zambia. In addition, consultations were held with officials from a further six member States during trainings for national focal points (Burundi, Cabo Verde, Comoros, Djibouti, Madagascar, and Sao Tome and Principe).
5 11. This process produced a list of indicators selected according to the following criteria:
simplicity, relevance to the integration priorities of Africa (as defined above), measurability, comparability, availability of data and cost. The annex to the present document includes the proposed list of indicators for the index. They fall within the following dimensions of the Strategy for the Harmonization of Statistics in Africa: economic integration, political integration and sociocultural integration.
12. The process is illustrated in the figure below:
Process of developing the Africa Regional Integration Index
13. The figure shows the process that was used to select the dimensions, subdimensions and indicators of the Africa Regional Integration Index. The design of the index also takes into account the fact that regional integration can be measured at various stages of the logical chain: inputs, outputs, outcomes and impact. To avoid measuring regional integration from only one perspective, indicators have been included for each stage. However, some aspects are easier to measure than others and, as a result, output and outcome indicators are dominant in the index. However, it is still possible to disaggregate the index in order to measure separately the progress in terms of inputs, outputs, outcomes and impact, which allows a richer analysis and results in better policy advice.
D. Computing the scores for countries, regional economic communities and the continent 14. The Africa Regional Integration Index will compute an overall score and ranking for each country in Africa, as well as aggregate scores for each of the regional economic communities and for the continent as a whole. The reason for the inclusion of scores for individual countries is to enable governments and citizens to judge their performance relative to other countries and to use this to assess whether or not they are adequately fulfilling their commitments in respect of the integration process. Scoring individual countries will also allow judgements to be made about
Next steps: data collection and calculation of the indicators
Definition of key topics
AfDB contributions
AUC contributions
ECA contributions
Identification of dimensions (7) and subdimensions (20)
Identification of indicators (76)
Selection of the indicators for the system
Classification into input indicators (4), output indicators (38),
Design of the tools:
Methodological guidelines (metadata) Data collection tool (questionnaire)
Selection criteria:
Relevance Accuracy Simplicity Comparability Costs Availability
outcome indicators (21) and impact indicators (13)
6 relative performance in the different areas of integration included in the index; this means that governments will know whether they could be doing better in a particular aspect of integration, and it is hoped that this will spur further progress and a redoubling of efforts or a rethinking of the approach in that area. Scores for the regional economic communities will be computed by taking the mean average of the scores for the countries in the communities. For some of the indicators, it will only be possible to give a score for the community as a whole, rather than for the individual countries (for example, regarding whether a regional economic community has adopted a protocol in a given area); this could be the case for both the continental and the economic community-level indices. Where this is the case, each country in the regional economic community will be allocated the same score as that given to the regional economic community as a whole. Similarly, in the continent-level index, if there are indicators that apply to the whole of Africa rather than to individual countries, all countries will be given the same score (the score for the continent as a whole) for those indicators.
E. Scaling, weighting and aggregating the indicators
15. As discussed above, the indicators to be included in the Africa Regional Integration Index will be based on continent-wide treaties and protocols on regional integration. These include a wide range of different policies that African countries are expected to implement. The preferred methodology is to use a weighted average of the scores for individual indicators. Under this method, the indicators will be scaled to make each indicator lie between zero and one, then a simple average will be taken to compute scores for individual dimensions, and then a weighted average of dimension scores will be calculated.
16. Scaling of indicators between zero and one will be carried out by taking the raw value for the indicator, subtracting the lowest raw value for that indicator for any country in Africa across all years in the data set and then dividing this by the difference between the highest raw and lowest raw values for any country in Africa for that indicator in the index data set. Where the indicator is a binary indicator (e.g. whether or not the country in question has ratified a particular treaty), the score for that indicator will simply be either zero or one, depending on what actions the country has taken. Where the indicator has an otherwise obvious maximum or minimum, these will be used in the scaling calculation instead of the maximum and minimum values in the data set.
F. Dealing with incomplete data
17. If data is available for some African countries, but not all, for a given indicator, this should not pose problems for the index. The indicator in question can still be included and this will not distort the overall scores for countries for which there is missing data. For each country where data is unavailable for some indicators, that country’s score will be determined based on the average of its scores for the other indicators. Using this method will mean that individual countries will not necessarily be advantaged or disadvantaged if there is no data for their country for a particular indicator; it is therefore considered justified to use indicators for which the data is incomplete.
G. Computing the scores for the various dimensions of integration
18. To enable citizens and policymakers to see how their countries are performing in the various dimensions of integration (free movement of persons and labour markets, trade integration, and so on), the African Development Bank, African Union Commission and ECA will aggregate all the indicators within a dimension to produce an overall score for each dimension. They will use the same method of scaling as the indicators as for the overall index. As mentioned above, the score for each dimension will be calculated by taking the mean average of the indicators that fall within that
7 dimension, once they have been scaled.
H. Data collection
19. The production of the index requires an annual data collection exercise. At the seventh Conference of African Ministers of Economy and Finance and the seventh Conference of African Ministers in charge of Integration, the project team for the index proposed that data be acquired in three stages:
(a) For as many indicators as possible, data already submitted directly by governments to the African Development Bank, African Union Commission or ECA will be used;
(b) Where the three institutions do not have data on a particular indicator, checks will be made to see whether the eight recognized regional economic communities already publish the data;
(c) Where neither (a) nor (b) can provide all of the data needed for a given indicator, the regional economic communities will be consulted to see whether they have the data for the indicator. If this is not possible, the African Development Bank, the African Union Commission and ECA will consult with governments, through their national statistical focal points, to obtain the data.
20. Since the seventh Conference of African Ministers of Economy and Finance, it has become clear that steps (a) and (b) will not be able to provide up-to-date data. The African Development Bank, African Union Commission and ECA have instead used this approach:
(a) For as many indicators as possible, data will be collected directly from governments.
This has so far involved missions to selected countries, and training national focal points.
(b) Where appropriate, data will be collected from regional economic communities and corridor management agencies.
(c) To fill in the gaps in the data set, data will be taken from statistical databases of international organizations. Where appropriate, data from other reputable organizations may be used. Where data has been provided by a government on its own score for a particular indicator, data from the government will always be preferred over conflicting data from any other source.
21. During the seventh Conference of African Ministers of Economy and Finance, the project team for the index also suggested that it might be necessary for its staff to travel to regional economic communities to verify data provided, for instance by inspecting source documents for the data in question. This approach has not been used so far, pending comments from member States on its merits.
22. Emerging findings from the data collected so far using this approach are contained in the document entitled “Africa Regional Integration Index: emerging findings”, presented at the current conference.
I. Final report and interactive online platform
23. The African Development Bank, the African Union Commission and ECA will publish a report annually on the data contained in the index, and an analysis of it. The three institutions will also launch an online platform to allow interactive analysis of the data by users.
8 J. Next steps
24. The next steps are as follows:
(a) The index team will continue to collect data from national statistical focal points nominated by national statistical offices.
(b) The index team will provide a brochure with the full results of the index at the African Union summit in mid-2015.
(c) The final report of the first edition of the index will be included in Assessing Regional Integration in Africa VII, to be produced jointly by the African Development Bank, African Union Commission and ECA.
9 Annex I: List of Africa Regional Integration Index indicators
Indicators Definition
Migrations and labour market (5)
Data included in the preliminary findings
(yes/no/partially)
EX1
Ratification of the regional protocol on the free movement of persons, right of residence and establishment
Number of member countries of the regional economic community (REC) having ratified the protocol (percentage of the total number of REC member countries)
Yes
EX2 Index of compliance with the free movement of persons
Score on a scale of 0 to 1.
1 = better level of compliance with REC provisions. A score of 1 for each provision
implemented, up to a maximum equal to the total number of provisions
No
REi1 Level of flows of persons (entering and leaving) from/within REC
Number of persons entering the country and numbers of nationals of the country concerned going to other member countries over the last five years, for whom data are available
No
EX3
Number of African countries whose nationals obtain a visa on arrival in the country
Number of African countries (whether or not members of an REC) whose nationals obtain a visa on arrival in the country concerned
Yes
REf1 Proportion of expatriate workers compared with local labour
Number of expatriate workers (as a percentage) compared with the local labour force in the private sector
No
Trade integration (16)
EX4 Proportion of zero rate tariff lines (as a percentage)
Number of tariff lines eligible for 0% tariff on intraregional imports as a percentage of the total number of tariff lines
No
REi2 Level of customs duties levied on intraregional imports
Customs duties collected (as a percentage) on total imports (intra and
extraregional) for products identified by a six-digit code of the SH6 harmonized system
Yes
10 REi3 Rate of implementation of the tariff
preference system
Value of intraregional imports subject to tariff preference as a percentage of total value of eligible intraregional imports
No
EX5 Quantity of harmonized customs documents used
Country’s score measured on a scale from 0 to N.
Number of harmonized customs documents within REC varies between 0 and N (0 = bad and N = excellent)
No
REi4 Trade complementarity index
The indicator calculated by UNCTAD measures the sum of the absolute values of the difference between the share of imports and the share of exports of the products of the REC member countries
Yes
EX6
Existence of an operational regional timetable for the removal of non-tariff barriers within REC concerned
Existence =1 or not = 0 of a timetable with deadlines adopted by all REC member countries
No
REi5 Ease of cross-border trade
Country’s score
concerning ease of cross- border trade (see report entitled Doing Business)
Yes
REi6 Situation of transit and transport along regional corridors
Combination of six harmonized variables:
numbers of customs documents required, number of inspection posts per 100 km along the corridors, duration of each joint check by vehicle, existence of One Stop Border Posts, existence of union control and whether or not union dues are levied. Score evaluated on a scale of 0 (bad result) to 1 (better result)
Partially (numbers of customs documents required).
REi7 Cost of obtaining certificate of origin
Amount of fees levied for preparation and submission of applications, including issuance of certificate
No
REf2 Share of intraregional exports of goods (as a percentage)
Value of intraregional exports (Exintra) as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP)
Yes
11 REf3 Share of intraregional imports of goods
(as a percentage)
Value of intraregional imports of goods (Imintra) as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP)
Yes
REf4 Share of total intraregional trade of goods (as a percentage)
Value of intraregional trade (Imintra =
intraregional imports and Exintra = intraregional exports), of goods as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP)
Yes
REf5 Share of intra-African or intra-REC trade in services
Monetary value of
imports/exports of services from or to other African countries or members of the same REC (as a percentage of GDP)
No
EX10 Proportion of harmonized border posts in the country (as a percentage)
Number of border posts with harmonized opening and closing times (as a percentage of the total number of border posts in the country concerned)
No
EX11 Proportion of border posts connected to a national customs IT system
Proportion of the country’s border posts which have a computer or some other equipment for customs data capture in a national electronic system so that the data can be transferred to a centralized data base
No
EX12 Proportion of One Stop Border Posts
This indicator measures the number of single- window border posts shared with neighbouring countries (as a percentage of the total number of the country’s border posts)
No
Political economy (9)
EX7 Rate of recovery of regional economic community contributions and deductions
Amount of contributions actually paid (percentage of the statutory amount expected)
No
EX8
Level of implementation of institutional frameworks of regional trade agreements within RECs
Score on a scale from 0 to 1, where 0 is the worst score and 1 is the best score. The score is the standardized sum of the scores in five sectors: (free trade areas, customs union, common market, monetary union and infrastructure
No
12 EX9 Level of adoption of community
regulations by member countries
Score on a scale from 0 to 1 concerning
implementation of community regulations in 3 sectors: economy, trade and infrastructure. 1 represents a high level of compliance
No
IN2 REC human resources
Total numbers of staff at REC headquarters in relation to the number of member countries
No
IN3 Financial capacity of RECs
Amount of the budget (operation + investment = B) as a percentage of regional gross domestic product (RGDP)
No
EX13
Harmonization of national accounts’
statistics with international or regional standards
Score of 0 if the country does not use the United Nations System of National Accounts (SNA) or the regional system, 1 if it uses SNA 1963, 2 if it uses SNA 1993 and 3 if it uses SNA 2008
No
EX14 Harmonization of balance of payments statistics with international standards
Score which corresponds to the number of the version of the IMF Balance of Payments Manual used by the country in question
No
EX15 Harmonization of international trade statistics with international standards
Score of 0 if the country does not comply with the provisions of the United Nations Manual on Statistics of International Trade in Services to compile its international trade statistics, 1 if it uses the 1998 version of the manual, 2 if it uses the 2004 version of the manual, 3 if it uses the 2008 version of the manual and 4 if it uses the 2010 version of the manual
No
13 EX16 Harmonization of price statistics with
international or regional standards
Score of 0 if the country does not use the IMF Consumer Price Index Manual or a manual of this type adopted by REC to compile data on prices and 1 if the country produces its consumer prices indices in accordance with the IMF manual or if the manual is adopted by REC
No
Productive integration (5)
REi8 Perception by businesses of access to the regional market
Perception index on a scale
of 1 to 7 No
Ref6 Share of intraregional exports of intermediate goods (as a percentage)
Value of intraregional exports of intermediate goods (EXMintra) as a percentage of the total value of intraregional goods (Exintra)
Yes
REf7 Share of intraregional imports of intermediate goods (as a percentage)
Value of intraregional imports of intermediate goods (IMMintra) as a percentage of the total value of intraregional goods (Imintra)
Yes
EX17 Existence of a common agricultural policy
Qualitative indicator which uses the following vaIues:
(2) if REC has a common agricultural policy, (1) if the policy has been drafted but not yet adopted and (0) if no common agricultural policy exists
No
Financial integration and convergence of macroeconomic policies (12)
EX18 Regional legal framework for the free movement of capital
Existence or not of a legal framework for the free movement of capital ratified by all member countries of REC in question
No
REf8 Coefficient of variation of interest rates of loans to businesses
Dispersion (standard deviation normalized by the average) of national interest rates of bank loans to businesses
No
EX19
Number of countries of the region with which the country concerned shares a common currency or a convertible currency
Number of countries of the region with which the country shares a common currency and/or a freely convertible currency
No
14 REf9 Total rate of intra-REC direct
investment, by country
Total amount of cross- border direct investments as a percentage of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP)
No
EX20 Existence of a regional strategy to promote cross-border investment
Qualitative indicator which measures the existence of a regional framework conducive to cross-border investment adopted for REC (value = 2), the framework is drafted but not adopted (value = 1) and absence of framework (value = 0)
No
REf10 Regional foreign direct investment index
Evolution of the total of net FDIs of REC taken as a whole. The base year is 1995
Yes
REf11
Proportion of cross-border banking transactions with other African countries or members of REC concerned
The indicator measures the total of cross-border interbank loans as a percentage of the total amount of interbank loans
No
REi9 Score in the World Bank Doing Business index
National focal points are not responsible for providing such data
Yes
REi10 Inverse of the standard deviation of the ratio of debt to GDP
Inverse of the standard deviation of the ratio of debt between REC member countries. The higher (or lower) the indicator score, the greater the convergence (or divergence) of national debt policies
Yes
REi11 Inverse of the standard deviation of the budget deficit as a percentage of GDP
Inverse of the standard deviation of the relationship of the monetary value of the annual national budget deficit to the GDP of the REC member countries
Yes
REi12 Inverse of the variance of the inflation rate over the last five years
Inverse of the variance of the inflation rate is based on the consumer price index over the last five years. It identifies convergence of inflation rates (high score) or divergence (low score) of inflation rates in REC
Yes
15 EX21
Existence of a regional multilateral surveillance mechanism of
macroeconomic policies
Qualitative indicator which has a value of 2 if there is a mechanism with defined criteria adopted by the member countries, 1 if the mechanism exists but has not been adopted; and 0 in the absence of such a mechanism
No
Regional infrastructure and connectivity (26)
EX22
Length of the paved road network (as a percentage of the classified road network)
Percentage of the length (number of km) of paved roads compared with the total length of the national classified road network of the country
Yes
EX23 Density of regional land transport corridors (km/km²)
Length (in km) of the land corridors divided by the total surface of the country in km²
No
EX24 Proportion of the length of road corridors in good condition
Length of regional road corridor in good or very good condition as a percentage of the total length in km of the corridor
No
EX25 Level of regional interconnection of the national rail network
Number of interconnected lines established or
rehabilitated (Ferinter) as a percentage of the total of the rail network (kmFer)
No
REi13 Quality of transport infrastructure
Simple average of the scores awarded to the quality of infrastructure (roads, railways, airports, ports) in the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Index
Yes
EX26 Regional projects in the transport sector
Number of regional projects completed or under way for different types of transport (road, rail and others)
No
REi14 Cost per km of land transport of goods along the regional corridors
Total cost of land transport of a standard 20 foot container divided by the length in km of the regional corridor (Corkm)
No
16 REi15 Productivity of port activities (tonnes
per hour)
Average volume of the containers (AVC) loaded or unloaded from the dock divided by the time (in number of hours) of loading or unloading (T) Volume of turnover
No
EX27 Level of harmonization of rail gauges
Proportion of REC member countries using the same type of track gauge
No
EX28
Length of national sections of trans- African highways which do not comply with international standards
Length (number of km) of national sections of trans- African highways, as defined in the Programme on Infrastructure
Development in Africa (PIDA), which do not comply with building standards (provided by AUC)
No
EX29 Distance (in km) of tarred inter-State roads
Length (in km) of tarred inter-State roads between one border and another
No
EX30
Level of harmonization of standards for vehicle axle loads, transit transporter permits, and regional authorizations to import goods
The indicator measures the use by a country of axle load limits and of transit transporter permits, harmonized with another African country and the use of regional
authorizations to import goods between one REC member country and another. The value of the indicator varies between a minimum of 0 (none of the instruments is used) and a maximum of 3 (all three instruments are used)
Yes
REi16
Proportion of intra-African cargo/air freight carried to or from the country concerned
Value of cargo transported (from or to other African countries) by air from or to the country in question, divided by the total value of cargo transported by air from or to the same country
No
REf12 Regional share of goods air freight
Value of the intra-
community freight carried by the community airlines as a percentage of the total value of the intra-
community freight carried by all airlines
No
17 REi17
Proportion of intra-African flights departing from and arriving in the country concerned
Number of intra-African flights departing from and arriving in the country concerned (as a percentage of the total number of flights per annum)
Yes
EX31 Electricity production capacity (MW per million inhabitants)
Electricity production (EP) in MW divided by the number of inhabitants
Yes
REi18 Actual average price of electricity (in US dollars/KWh)
Total cost of electricity consumption divided by the volume of electricity sold, taking into account rate of exchange between the local currency and the US dollar
No
REf13 Net intraregional electricity trade (GW per annum)
Volume of electricity imports (VEI) less the volume of electricity exports (VEX) per annum
Yes
EX32 Regional legal and regulatory framework of electricity trade
Existence or not of a regional legal and regulatory framework ratified by all the member countries of REC
concerned
No
IN4 Annual value of investments in the energy sector, by country
Amount of annual investments (in United States dollars) in the energy sector
No
EX33 Internet bandwidth volume per inhabitant
Total international bandwidth capacity divided by the number of inhabitants
Yes
REi19
Average price of communication from one REC member country to another (in US dollars per minute)
Average price per minute for telephone calls from one REC member country to another (in US dollars)
No
EX34
Existence of a regional information and communication technologies framework (ICT)
Existence or not of a regional legal and regulatory framework ratified by all member countries
No
REi20 Average cost of roaming
Average cost per minute of roaming between countries in Africa. The price is fixed by each of the mobile network operators of the country concerned
Yes
EX35
Missing elements in the sections on types of infrastructure (within RECs):
portion of the road for road
infrastructure, power cables and portion of fibre optics for ICT, for example
List and quantities of missing elements in priority regional
infrastructure (transport = 1; energy = 2 and ICT = 3)
No
18 IN1 Financing of regional infrastructure (as a
percentage of GDP)
Total amount of financing of regional infrastructure (in US dollars) in relation to the regional gross domestic product (RGDP in US dollars)
No
Social and cultural integration (5)
EX36 Level of harmonization of national education systems
The indicator measures the harmonization of the education systems
(primary and secondary) in REC countries
No
REi21
Proportion of students who are nationals of other REC member countries in the education system of the country concerned
Number of students who are nationals of other REC member countries as a percentage of the total number of students enrolled in the universities and training centres of the country concerned
Yes
EX37 Existence of gender-specific programmes and strategy
Qualitative indicator which measures the existence or not of gender-specific programmes and/or a strategy adopted by the country or by REC
No
EX38
Existence of regional early warning mechanisms against pandemics and endemic diseases
Existence of regional early warning mechanisms adopted by REC member countries (score = 1) absence (score = 0)
No
Global regional impact indicators (7)
IM1 Regional share of global gross domestic product at the current price (in $US)
Regional GDP at the current price (in US dollars) as a percentage of global GDP at current prices (in US)
No
IM2 Convergence of national income levels
Evolution of the standard deviation in national income per inhabitant compared with the regional average per capita income
No
IM3 Regional average of the Human Development Index
Simple average of the human development indices (HDI) of REC member countries
No
19 IM4
Proportion of REC member countries that have achieved the first Millennium Development Goal
Number of REC member countries (as a percentage) which have achieved the goal in relation to the number of member countries
No
IM5 Regional economic growth rate
Weighted average (based on the relative shares of national GDPs) of the growth rates of real GDP of REC member countries
No
IM6 Gross regional rate of activity
Simple average of gross rates of activity (working population as a percentage of the total population) of REC member countries
No
IM7 Index of regional global competitiveness
Simple average of the scores of the member countries divided by the average score of all the developing countries.
Global Competitiveness Index
No
