Download Free Nation States And The Challenges Of Regional Integration In West Africa Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online Nation States And The Challenges Of Regional Integration In West Africa and write the review.

" Assessing the potential benefits and risks of a currency union Leaders of the fifteen-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have set a goal of achieving a monetary and currency union by late 2020. Although some progress has been made toward achieving this ambitious goal, major challenges remain if the region is to realize the necessary macroeconomic convergence and establish the required institutional framework in a relatively short period of time. The proposed union offers many potential benefits, especially for countries with historically high inflation rates and weak central banks. But, as implementation of the euro over the past two decades has shown, folding multiple currencies, representing disparate economies, into a common union comes with significant costs, along with operational challenges and transitional risks. All these potential negatives must be considered carefully by ECOWAS leaders seeking tomeet a self-imposed deadline. This book, by two leading experts on economics and Africa, makes a significant analytical contribution to the debates now under way about how ECOWAS could achieve and manage its currency union, andthe ramifications for the African continent. "
​This book presents a number of key studies pertaining to the most pressing challenges of economic regional integration in West Africa. The issues of monetary coordination, foreign exchange volatility, taxation, savings and macroeconomic convergence are investigated from a regional perspective. The characteristics of West Africa’s trade policy are reviewed and assessed in comparison to that of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The extent to which regional integration can tackle the challenge of unemployment is the focus of studies on labour markets. Development of the private sector and coordination of regional cross-border transportation are examined through the lens of economic collaboration between Arab and African countries. The book provides fresh new answers to persistent development questions and sheds new light on long-held views that are either incomplete or no longer true. It also opens new perspectives on the search for sustainable avenues for Africa’s development. In this regard, it may contribute to the emergence of a new paradigm on Africa’s development process and its science-based, policy-oriented implementation.
This book examines how the existence of overlapping regional institutions has presented a daunting challenge to the workings of various Regional Economic Communities (RECs) on the African continent. The majority of the African countries are members of overlapping and, sometimes, contradictory RECs. For instance, in East Africa, while Kenya and Uganda are both members of EAC and COMESA, Tanzania, which is also a member of the EAC, left COMESA in 2001 to join SADC. In West Africa, while all former French colonies belong to ECOWAS, they simultaneously keep membership of UEMOA, an organization which is not recognized by the African Union (AU). Such multiple and confusing memberships create unnecessary duplication and dims the light on what ought to be priority. Various chapters in this book have therefore sought to identify and proffer solutions to related challenges confronting the workings of the RECs in different sub-regions of the African continent. The discourses range from security to the stock exchange, identity integration, development framework, labour movement and cross-border relations. The pattern adopted in the book involves devolution of related discussions from the general to the specific; that is, from the continental level to sub-regional case studies.
Since their independance, Africa states West in particular have felt a need for regional integration in order to solve their development problems. Various aspects of Nigeria's experience in regional integration are there examined. These include the advocacy of chambers of commerce for common currencies among members of the West African Monetary Zone, security implications of defense pacts between some francophone member countries and France, and grassroots participation to solve problems concerning borders and borderlands. Finally, facilitators and obstacles of regional integration are examined.
This edited volume discusses the role of innovation and regional integration in economic development in Africa. Over the past five decades, post-colonial African countries have struggled to break loose from the trap of poverty and underdevelopment through the adoption of various development strategies at regional, national, and continental levels. However, the results of both national and regional efforts at advancing development on the continent have been mixed. Although the importance of agglomeration and fusion of institutions have long been recognized as possible path to achieving economic development in Africa, the approach to regionalism has been unduly focused on market integration, while neglecting other dimensions such as social policy, mobility of labor, educational policy, biotechnology, regional legislation, manufacturing, innovation, and science and technology. This volume investigates the link between innovation, regional integration, and development in Africa, arguing that the immediate and long term development of Africa lies not just in the structural transformation of its economies but in the advancement of scientific and innovation capacities. The book is divided into four parts. Part I addresses the theoretical and conceptual underpinnings of innovation and regional integration in Africa. Part II presents case studies which examine how regional economic institutions are fostering innovation in Africa. Part III of the book deals with sectoral issues on innovation and integrated development in Africa. Part IV sets the future research on innovation, regional integration, and development in Africa. Combining theoretical analysis and a comparative, interdisciplinary approach, this volume is appropriate for researchers and students interested in economic development, political economy, African studies, international relations, agricultural science, and geography, as well as policymakers in regional economic communities and the African Union.
This comparative book debates migration and regional integration in the two regional economic blocs, namely the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The book takes a historical and nuanced citizenship approach to integration by analysing regional integration from the perspective of non-state actors and how they negotiate various structures and institutions in their pursuit for life and livelihood in a contemporary context marked by mobility and economic fragmentation.
This volume examines the failure of regional integration and cooperation to date in West Africa and explores some of the more holistic and economically liberal options for revitalization. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
Since the Treaty establishing the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was signed in 1975, several protocole have been adopted providing the legal and institutional framework for implementing the integration of the West African sub-region. Ail social and political stakeholders agree that regional integration is a major challenge for development in West Africa. Yet the regional integration process has been affected by many delays, even failures. Member states have pursued a seemingly contradictory dual objective: build a Nation-state within colonial Borders and achieve regional integration to fight against under-development. Can national planning priorities be reconciled with the demands and objectives of regional integration processes in West Africa ? Since 2005, under the auspices of the Management of Social Transformations (MOST) Programme initiative, the Social and Human Sciences Sector of UNESCO has organized a series of national seminars on West African regional integration in the ECOWAS region. Four seminars have so far been organized in Senegal, Mali, Benin and Ghana. This anthology publishes papers presented at Ghana's national seminar on "Nation-states and the Challenge of Regional Integration in West Africa: the Case of Ghana", held in Accra from 8 to 9 November 2005. The contributors suggest that Ghana's reluctance to relinquish its sovereignty stemmed from a lack of commitment in the first 20 years of ECOWAS' existence and preoccupation with its own security and survival against internai and externat threats. The state has currently demonstrated renewed commit-ment by establishing a Ministry of Regional Cooperation and the New Agenda for Africa's Development (NEPAD) to coordinate and manage the sub-regional integration programme. In spite of positive developments, results have been disappointing. The new ministry remains isolated and is constrained by limited resources in finance and manpower. Its approach to integration issues has been elitist and technocratic, concentrating on format trade and ignoring the importance of the informai trade that has been the traditional means of popular participation in the integration of West African economies. Borderland communities with economic and social ties continue to engage in exchanges across political boundaries in defiance of national and state security concerns. Empowerment of Ghanaians involved in small-scale, informa] cross-border trade (in majority, women) "would not only increase the levels of social and economic integration, but would make the benefits of integration available to large sections of the population".