Regional Integration Efforts in Africa

Regional Integration Efforts in Africa

Introduction
This research proposal seeks to explain or elaborate the experiences of African regional integration efforts especially sub-Saharan Africa. Regional integration efforts in Africa have always been politically motivated. They have been considered as vehicles for achieving economic successes and empowering small sized nations. Such nations’ sizes hamper their ability to interact efficiently with bigger countries in terms of industrialization especially within the context of exports and imports. Regional integration is an approach
that many countries adopted in the 1960s. It was conceived as means to fast-track structural transformation of emerging economies. This kind of thinking is best demonstrated in the treaty that governed ECOWAS whereby community interaction was noted as the motivating factor to accelerate, encourage and foster social and economic development of countries in order to raise living standards of their inhabitants (Lockhart, 2011). This was later enhanced to include the contexts of self-reliance and sustaining developments of various member states.
Purpose Statement
Efforts of achieving regional integration have been eminent in the post-independence era of African states. There have however been differences in the regional groupings and other concerned parties about the extent to which integration will stretch to achieve structural transformation. The spectrum that surrounds regional integration is broad. This results in different groups favoring high political integrations and others opposing them. Historically, various levels of regional and economic integration have been achieved in different settings. This was done through step by step succession of integration units. Such economies often begin with economic integration and cooperation. This refers to any activity that cuts across nation frontiers for the sole purpose of engaging in cooperation for the sake of boosting the economy of the respective states.
Regional integration closely follows the next process. It is majorly focused on increasing the territory of intra-regional trade partnerships (Cohen, 2014). Ways of achieving this include removing trade barriers in the exchange of goods and services between countries. Regional integration at its least could entail the creation of preferential trade agreements. The first step is the creation of areas where barriers between nations are removed, but member states still retain their respective trade practices, such as tariffs that hinder trade with non-member nations. Once the benefits of a free trade area have been exhausted, a customs union is put in place by member states in efforts to adopt a common integration with non-member states. Such arrangements can be adhered to with inclusion of capital, joint labor, and non-factor services among member states. An economic union can be created by countries that have the same monetary and fiscal policies.
Most regional integration schemes on the African continent have aimed at creating common market integration (Oduro, 2011). Unfortunately, not many schemes have successfully achieved the much-awaited progression towards that goal. During the early 90s, very little progress had been made towards the creation of free flowing economy for goods and services and creation of a common tariff that is a necessity for the implementation of a customs union. The sequence of African regional integration can be described as having a very dynamic beginning, in which numerous policies are launched, followed by series of implementation difficulties and issues in problem ratification. It is evident that most regional integration schemes have not made much progress due to the lack of efficient policies and protocols implementation.
Preliminary findings for this research proposal indicate that there has been a consensus that integration in Africa has achieved very limited results since its inception. This is giving way to skeptic pessimism as critics suggest that Africa regional efforts are unlikely to yield positive welfare gains (Mangeni, 2015). Reason being they do not have the required conditions to create trade effects that will outweigh other trade hindrance policies.
Regional integration in Africa has also been perceived as a tool to enhance industrialization by taking advantage of opportunities that positively impact the economies of scale which cooperation will make possible. Regional integration has also been seen as a means to increase a country’s bargaining strength to match other industrialized countries. Despite various difficulties faced by other integration schemes, African Heads of States continue to make official statements that express the desire for their success and implementation (Cohen, 2014).
An important issue that this proposal tends to unearth in detail is the extent to which regional integration efforts in the recent times indicate a genuine cause to implement integration measures that will be economically viable. Some governments still consider regional integration efforts irrelevant created by their lack of economic or political policies. The result of this is the lack of affirmation of solidarity towards the regional economic agreements.

Literature Review
It is evident that regional integration efforts have had very few successes in Africa despite the frequent multiplicity of diverse groupings. One of the reasons for this is that intra-regional trade efforts have been low in terms of foreign trade compared to other territories such as Europe, Asia, North America and Latin America (Cohen, 2014). Recorded trade comparisons indicate that the volumes of actual trade in inclusive of informal trade can boost Africa’s numbers. However, it has been noted that the significance of regional trade has been growing over the years. Most African countries have been negatively influenced by unstable economic policies, foreign debt burdens, poor currencies and trade finances and unfavorable tax conditions. Some countries have adopted import substitution mechanisms that have contributed to several regulations such as foreign exchange allocation, licensing, import deposits hence making the enhancement of regional commitments unfavorable (Mangeni, 2015).
The design of states’ integration schemes in terms of industrialization means that the economic burdens of member states in the regional blocks are more often than not concrete and immediate while the benefits from such partnerships are uncertain and long-term and unevenly allocates to the member states (Desmund, 2013). The dominance of a few member states in the regional blocs has also hindered the success of regional integration efforts. This has led to concerns regarding the fair allocation of losses and gains from integration. Mechanisms to make this a fair process have either been ineffective or absent. Regions are faced with challenges when it comes to equal distribution of benefits. Most African nations are dependent on their former colonial masters. This tends to work adversely in regional groupings due to differences in ideologies. Linkage to developed countries affects commitment in African groupings (Oduro, 2011).
Regionalism efforts have been imposed on people by public organizations, lacking the required support of the private sector and the citizens of the various nations in general. This is evident inexpensive and bloated bureaucracies who consequently hinder development and growth. The existence of similar regional trade organizations leads to institutional weakness (Lockhart, 2011). Such tendencies are as a result of over-involvement of politics in regional integration efforts, failure by governing bodies to meet required financial obligations and poor decision making by leaders. Integration has also been negatively affected by the presence of weak states and too much political opposition to sovereignty.
The success of regional integration efforts will create a larger market for the free flow of goods and services and consequently increase member countries’ GDP. Effective regional policies will spur economic growth for Africa, spread prosperity and enhance the livelihood of Africans. The presence of larger markets is a boost in infrastructure development that will spearhead the growth of industrialization (Cohen, 2014). This will create jobs for citizens of various countries; have added an advantage to member countries and their economies in general. The technology sector also stands to aid in the development of industrialization. Larger markets created by regional integration efforts will also create and stimulate trade in various services. The segment that will profit the most is the financial sector as larger industrialists will be seeking economies of scale. Financial services are a tool to increase member states’ interaction (Melo, 2014). Smaller nations within the African regional blocs will no longer be confined to their contemporary or traditional products and services. Better human resources and policies will widen their market base and manufacturing operations.
Conclusion
Harmonized trade and regional efforts are geared towards solving both social and economic issues faced by African nations. Such efforts can rationalize various trade organizations, support industrialization, stimulate inter-country infrastructure development and create new ways of doing businesses.  There has been revived interest in the regional integration efforts in Africa in the recent past. They handle resuscitating and revitalizing regional groupings in the deepening of regional ties. There exists a possibility that the current regional efforts will be more successful than those used in the past due to economic and structural changes Africans nations have gone through over the years.

References
Cohen, N. (2014). Turbulent fields and the theory of regional integration. Economic Updates, 16-17.
Desmund, R. (2013). Regional Intergration in Africa. Corporate Document Repository, 12-14.
Lockhart, J. (2011). Regional integration: reflections on a decade of theoretical efforts. International Relations, 13-15.
Mangeni, F. (2015). The Benefits of Africa's New Free Trade Area. Belfer Centre, 10-11.
Melo, J. (2014). The Tripartite Free Trade Africa: Is It the Way to Deepen Integration in Africa? New York: Southern Bay Publishers.
Oduro, A. (2011). Regional Integration Efforts in Afrrica. Jo'Burg: Oxford SA.