Regional Economic Communities

Regional Economic Communities PDF Author: Olutayo, Akinpelu O.
Publisher: CODESRIA
ISBN: 2869786328
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 148

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Book Description
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.

Regional Economic Communities

Regional Economic Communities PDF Author: Olutayo, Akinpelu O.
Publisher: CODESRIA
ISBN: 2869786328
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 148

Get Book Here

Book Description
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.

The Challenge of Stability and Security in West Africa

The Challenge of Stability and Security in West Africa PDF Author: Alexandre Marc
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 1464804656
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
Since independence, the West African sub-region has been an arena for a number of large-scale conflicts and civil wars, as well as simmering and low-intensity uprisings. Contrary to perceptions, West Africa in its post-independence history has experienced fewer conflict events and fatalities from conflict than the other sub-regions on the continent. The turn of the millennium has witnessed the recession of large-scale and conventional conflict, and it has ushered in new and emerging threats. The specters of religious extremism, maritime piracy, and narcotics trafficking threaten to undermine some of the progress achieved in recent years. The Challenge of Stability and Security in West Africa critically examines the key drivers of conflict and violence, and the way in which they impact the countries of the sub-region. In addition to emerging threats, these drivers include the challenges of youth inclusion, migration, sub-regional imbalances, and extractives, as well as challenges related to the fragility of political institutions and managing the competition for power, reform of the security sector, and weakness of institutions related to land management. The book explores how the sub-region, under the auspices of the regional organization ECOWAS, has become a pioneer on the continent in terms of addressing regional challenges. The Challenge of Stability and Security in West Africa also identifies key lessons in the dynamics of resilience in the face of political violence and civil war drawn from CÃ ́te d'Ivoire, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, that can be useful for countries around the world in similar situations. It incorporates knowledge and findings from leading experts and provides insights from academics and development practitioners. Finally, the book identifies possible policy and programmatic responses and directions for policy dialogue at the national and international levels.

Regenerating Africa

Regenerating Africa PDF Author: Mammo Muchie
Publisher: African Books Collective
ISBN: 0798305029
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
It has been long overdue to address the principal problems that Africa continues to have. How to bring real African solutions to these problems remains unresolved. Palaeontologists have discovered that Africa is the origin of humanity. Africa has also experienced the commodification of its humanity through slavery, colonialism and apartheid. The African continent has been influenced by a mélange of races, cultures, religions, ethnic nationalities making the project of how the differences can be managed to forestall conflict and promote the unity of the current 54 states to turn the cacophony of noises into a single voice that can protect Africa a difficult challenge. This book on Regenerating Africa: Bringing African Solutions to African Problems addresses why Africans must come together and try to address their own problems. They must look back to the spiritual, struggle and knowledge heritage to re-imagine and innovate a new Africa with leadership, governance, systems and institutions that can address the security and well-being, the employment, social inclusion, poverty eradication and the equality of the people. In fact the key problem to find a solution is how to Africanise those that originated from Africa and those that became settlers with different racial, cultural, religious, linguistic and ethnic variations. How to manage inter-African relations? How the settlers from the colonial legacy, the apartheid legacy, the Arabs in Africa and the varied tribes within Africans can all share being Africanised above all else is a real challenge to bring lasting solutions to Africa’s enduring problems. This book is one of the few books that addresses the real problems Africa continues to face by suggesting solutions which policy makers and all Africans must learn and never ignore but use to advance a free, united, renascent, proud and dignified independent Africa in this unpredictable time the world is going through. The contributors address in the book how African solutions to African problems in the current global context to create a sustainable African future can be thought, designed and engineered to advance the well-being of people and nature for all. The African Unity for Renaissance series of conferences that over 10 partners contributed to run is the true source for generating the quality papers that have been peer reviewed to constitute the contributions in the book to make African solutions to African problems in reality and not just in talk.

Unite or Perish

Unite or Perish PDF Author: Mammo Muchie
Publisher: African Books Collective
ISBN: 0798304847
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 390

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Book Description
This book is an outcome of the third conference in the successful 'Scramble for Africa' International Conference series, now renamed the 'African Unity for Renaissance' International Conference. The book provides an overview and contains profound analyses of the important issues pertaining to African Unity and African Renaissance. The book is accessible to a wide variety of readers, ranging from policy makers to researchers, from teachers to students, and for anyone concerned with the further development of the African continent and Africa's renewal. The book outlines the various issues that animate Africa's stand in the global political, socio-economic, cultural and technological arenas. The chapters gathered in the book critically examine and evaluate the burning questions and challenges with which Africa is grappling. This book is one of the vital texts for understanding how Africa will manage to navigate the tumultuous waters of globalisation as Africa has just recently emerged out of the horrors of slavery, colonialism, apartheid, neo-colonialism and genocide, and is still wrestling with unceasing conflicts, popular unrest, neo-imperialism, coloniality and mushrooming insurgency. The chapters provide a much-needed insight into the issue of whether Africa has achieved genuine and meaningful independence after 50 years of the founding of the OAU and whether the baby-steps Africa has taken towards unity are worth celebrating. The contributors highlight these and allied issues with a view to capture more public attention in order to stimulate debate and usher in a new phase in the quest for African Unity and Renaissance. The contributors are distinguished authors and established and emerging scholars in their own domains. While a majority of the contributors are from the continent, distinguished scholars from around the globe have joined their African fellows in dealing with the relevant issues regarding Africa's place in an ever changing world.

The East African Community

The East African Community PDF Author: Ms.Catherine McAuliffe
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1475586310
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 55

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Book Description
The East African Community (EAC) has been among the fastest growing regions in sub-Saharan Africa in the past decade or so. Nonetheless, the recent growth path will not be enough to achieve middle-income status and substantial poverty reduction by the end of the decade—the ambition of most countries in the region. This paper builds on methodologies established in the growth literature to identify a group of countries that achieved growth accelerations and sustained growth to use as benchmarks to evaluate the prospects, and potential constraints, for EAC countries to translate their recent growth upturn into sustained high growth. We find that EAC countries compare favorably to the group of sustained growth countries—macroeconomic and government stability, favorable business climate, and strong institutions—but important differences remain. EAC countries have a smaller share of exports, lower degree of financial deepening, lower levels of domestic savings, higher reliance on donor aid, and limited physical infrastructure and human capital. Policy choices to address some of these shortcomings could make a difference in whether the EAC follows the path of sustained growth or follows other countries where growth upturns later fizzled out.

Our Continent, Our Future

Our Continent, Our Future PDF Author: P. Thandika Mkandawire
Publisher: IDRC
ISBN: 155250204X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
Our Continent, Our Future presents the emerging African perspective on this complex issue. The authors use as background their own extensive experience and a collection of 30 individual studies, 25 of which were from African economists, to summarize this African perspective and articulate a path for the future. They underscore the need to be sensitive to each country's unique history and current condition. They argue for a broader policy agenda and for a much more active role for the state within what is largely a market economy. Finally, they stress that Africa must, and can, compete in an increasingly globalized world and, perhaps most importantly, that Africans must assume the leading role in defining the continent's development agenda.

Informal cross-border trade in Africa: How much? Why? And what impact?

Informal cross-border trade in Africa: How much? Why? And what impact? PDF Author: Bouet, Antoine
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 56

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Book Description
Informal cross-border trade (ICBT) represents a prominent phenomenon in Africa. Several studies suggest that for certain products and countries, the value of informal trade may meet or even exceed the value of formal trade. This paper provides a review of existing efforts to measure informal trade. We list 18 initiatives aimed at measuring ICBT in Africa. The paper also summarizes discussions conducted with many stakeholders in Africa between December 2016 and May 2018 regarding the measurement, the determinants, and the implications of ICBT. The methodologies used to measure ICBT in Africa differ widely, but they do confirm that informal trade in Africa is both sizeable and volatile. Both evidence on the determinants of ICBT and discussions with stakeholders suggest that policies should aim to reduce the existing costs associated with formal trade and provide positive incentives for traders and producers to move into the formal economy in order to avoid the loss of economic potential stemming from informal trade.

China’s New Role in African Politics

China’s New Role in African Politics PDF Author: Christof Hartmann
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429748833
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 333

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Book Description
China's rise to global power status in recent decades has been accompanied by deepening economic relationships with Africa, with the New Silk Road's extension to Sub-Saharan Africa as the latest step, leading to much academic debate about the influence of Chinese business in the continent. However, China's engagement with African states at the political and diplomatic level has received less attention in the literature. This book investigates the impact of Chinese policies on African politics, asking how China deals with political instability in Africa and in turn how Africans perceive China to be helping or hindering political stability. While China officially operates with a foreign policy strategy which conceives of Africa as one integrated monolithic area (with the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) the flagship of inter-continental cooperation), this book highlights the plurality of context-specific interaction patterns between China and African elites, demonstrating how China's role and relevance has differently evolved according to whether African countries are resource-rich and geostrategically important from the Chinese perspective or not. By looking comparatively at a range of different country cases, the book aims to promote a more thorough understanding of how China reacts to political stability and instability, and in which ways the country contributes to domestic political dynamics and stability within African states. China’s New Role in African Politics will be of interest to researchers from across Political Science, International Relations, International Law and Economy, Security Studies, and African and Chinese Studies.

Africa’s Development Dynamics 2021 Digital Transformation for Quality Jobs

Africa’s Development Dynamics 2021 Digital Transformation for Quality Jobs PDF Author: African Union Commission
Publisher: OECD Publishing
ISBN: 926460653X
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
Africa’s Development Dynamics uses lessons learned in the continent’s five regions – Central, East, North, Southern and West Africa – to develop policy recommendations and share good practices. Drawing on the most recent statistics, this analysis of development dynamics attempts to help African leaders reach the targets of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 at all levels: continental, regional, national and local.

Inclusive Development In AfrIca

Inclusive Development In AfrIca PDF Author: Vusi Gumede
Publisher: African Books Collective
ISBN: 0798305215
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
This book addresses a fundamental developmental challenge for Africa: given all that we know about pertinent issues, what should be done to ensure effective development in Africa? The changing imperatives of international development, the reform of international finance institutions and the growth-development nexus debates as well as varied implications for Africa emanating from global economic crises are critical if Africa’s development is to be better understood. Undoubtedly, revisiting the origins, contexts, complexities and contradictions of the lopsided global order and their effects on development and implications for Africa’s development is necessary. Contributions emphasise the need to radically transform global relations and to accelerate the pursuit of our quest for inclusive development in Africa; acknowledging that we must further problematise Africa’s development in the context of the obtaining global power dynamics and systematically examine the implications of the global economic crises for women as well as for land and agrarian reforms. The book is a timely contribution to our understanding of the global realities confronting Africa, with specific suggestions on how to improve development.