Regional Economic Integration in Africa

Abstract

Regional economic cooperation and integration can be an effective means for countries to overcome constraints of size and fragmentation, and to allow small landlocked countries to more efficiently connect to larger, deeper regional and global markets. The need for scale and market consolidation is particularly relevant for the 54 African countries, many of which are small, landlocked economies with small populations. Notwithstanding frequent and strong reaffirmation of political commitment to integration by African leaders, progress on the ground has been slow and challenging. While there is great diversity among sub-regions, three sets of constraints (“hard” infrastructure, “soft” infrastructure, and political cooperation and institutions) typically impede progress toward greater regional integration in Africa. The Asian experience of economic cooperation suggests another approach, focused on flexible, bottom-up platforms, improved hard and soft infrastructure, strong coalitions, deepened trade, and strengthened institutions, which could advance the regional integration agenda in parallel to the traditional political stream/process. A number of encouraging initiatives that incorporate some of these features are underway in Africa today, and hold the promise of becoming building blocks of an increasingly integrated African economic space.