African Integration Research Articles

Constructing African Union Law and Rethinking Supranationalism in African Integration: What Lessons from the European Union?

Abstract This Article examines the development and scope of African Union (AU) law and its role as a facilitator of and contributor to regional integration in Africa. The Article addresses several interlinked questions relating, but not limited, to the sources and foundations of AU law, the role of AU policy organs in the making of AU law, the extent to which EU law presents a comparative framework or useful precedent for analysing and understanding AU law, and the role of supranationalism in the economic and political integration of its member states and in the development of AU law. The Article argues that it is necessary to amend the AU Constitutive Act and other relevant AU legal instruments to enhance the supranational authority and legislative powers of the AU. It concludes that AU supranationalism needs to be rethought, but it need not uncritically mimic the EU’s approach to supranationalism in every respect.

Six Decades of African Integration: Successes and Failures

The African Union (AU), with antecedent Organisation of African Unity (OAU), is now six decades old, and its sub-regional affiliates, such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and the East African Community (EAC), up to four decades old. There is a need to inquire into why their problems have been so persistent. This exploration is based on desktop research into some of the scholarly literature, the media, and the findings and recommendations of AU commissions. It is informed by constructivism and Pan-Africanism. The AU and its affiliates are nonetheless arguably more successful than their comparative peers in the Global South. Yet it is usually criticized in the literature, and organs such as the Pan-African Parliament meet with media derision. The AU’s notable successes include establishing its agency in global governance. It has coordinated African states’ voting on the UN Security Council and established an embryonic diplomatic corps with representation on major regional and global organisations and at the two world powers, the USA and PRC. Scholars should also note the continental and multi-lateral activities strengthening African integration that occur outside the AU, through a variety of NGOs, QUANGOs, and business sectoral organisations. This article finds that only the European Union has been more successful, in part because it has a supranational dimension, plus two orders of magnitude more staff, and a budget two orders of magnitude larger. Further, many of the persistent problems of the AU and the RECs are problems of their member state governments, extraverted upwards into the continental and sub-regional structures.

Decolonizing Theories of Regional Integration

Interview with Dr. Ernest Toochi Aniche, Federal University Otuoke, Nigeria Ernest Toochi Aniche, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer and the Acting Head of the Department of Political Science, Federal University Otuoke, Bayelsa State, Nigeria. He holds BSc, MSc, and PhD degrees from the Department of Political Science, University of Nigeria with a specialization in International Relations. He is developing a new theory of African Integration (Post-Neofunctionalism), deconstructing the traditional Neo-functionalist approach. Dr. Aniche is a prolific scholar with over a hundred publications, including articles in dozens of the world’s most renowned African studies journals. He has also published co-edited books and authored and co-authored chapters in books published by reputable publishers such as Routledge (Taylor & Francis), Palgrave Macmillan (Springer Nature), Rowman & Littlefield International, Lexington Books, and Oxford University Press. The highlight of his career was co-editing books with the African scholar legend, Professor Toyin Falola. He is on the editorial boards of journals and publishers, particularly Springer Nature (SN) Social Sciences, Ubuntu: Journal of Conflict and Social Transformation, and Cambridge Scholars Publishing. In his interview, he explains what prompted him to develop his own theory of African integration, which would actually contribute to the development of the continent. He explains the reasons for the crisis tendencies of modern African regionalism, a manifestation of which is the creation of the Sahel State Alliance. He pays particular attention to the prospects for decolonizing social knowledge about Africa. He provides inspiring cases of those African intellectuals who were able to transform the study of politics from Political Science in Africa to African Political Science, as well as to decolonize African regionalism and African border and migration studies.

Who supports the African Union? Understanding the determinants of citizens' opinion for African integration

AbstractThe paper aims to investigate the legitimacy of the African Union by examining the socio‐demographic determinants of citizens' support of African integration. To do this, we use Rounds 4, 5, 6, and 8 of the Afrobarometer survey data corresponding to more than 110,000 respondents. Using logistics regressions, we find that individual characteristics such as living area, education, employment status, political membership, freedom, living conditions, and Living Poverty Index (LPI) are significantly related to the probability of supporting African integration. The findings are largely robust to dynamics of regional integration, the African Union, and Regional Economic Communities (RECs). Thus, since African citizens' trust in the unification could be considered a condition of legitimacy in the process, our results suggest that more efforts should be made to gain credibility, especially as it pertains to the benefits of African integration.

Prospects and challenges of achieving structural transformation in Africa through the African Continental Free Trade Area

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement seeks to integrate markets in Africa into one large market. With the growing concerns about continental integration, this study identifies prospects and challenges of achieving structural transformation in Africa through the AfCFTA. The study employs the Interactive Structural Modelling technique, which helps to develop a contextual relationship between the factors in terms of their driving power or dependence power. The results indicate that unequal trade and investment opportunities, poor infrastructure, poor access to development finance, and the degree of industrialisation have a high driving power, hence a greater potential to create a ripple effect on other factors associated with African integration. Based on the findings, this study recommends that a platform be created within the agreement where these challenges can be tackled. In this view, the establishment of various development finance institutions monitored and facilitated by the AfCFTA affiliates, could be explored.

Analyzing the Efficiency of Trade in Africa: A Stochastic Frontier Gravity Approach to Assess Intra-African Exports Performance and Potential

ABSTRACT The African integration projects established regional economic communities (RECs) to remove trade barriers and stimulate trade among the member countries. Our analysis aims to assess REC trading efficiency and explore trade potential. Assuming that any discrepancy between the observed trade level and the maximum predicted trade level is related to trade inefficiencies, the stochastic frontier gravity is estimated for a sample of 45 African exporting countries and their 43 African partners from 1996 to 2020. The results show low export efficiency among African countries, corresponding to sizable unexploited export capacities.

Partnership Diplomacy: China–Algeria’s Comprehensive Strategic Partnership

ABSTRACT: This study investigates China’s partnership diplomacy with Algeria as an instrument for realizing its BRI. There are several factors (policy coordination, energy cooperation, trade and investments, connectivity, military ties, and people-to-people bonds) behind the establishment of the China–Algeria comprehensive strategic partnership. The main argument is that Beijing’s comprehensive strategic partnership framework with Algeria is based on shared or mutual complementary interests, given the latter’s geographical location, economic potential, and diplomatic weight. The steady growth of China’s engagement and presence in the Maghreb region through the BRI framework aligns with Algeria’s vision and efforts in the Arab Maghreb Union and African integration.

Imperialism and labour: why global migration governance is unnecessary and why it works

In West Africa, the Maghreb and elsewhere, regular livelihoods and patterns of circulation have been uprooted, while migrants are terrorised by state policies in Africa and Europe. Global migration governance is apparently failing to encourage ‘safe, orderly and regular migration’ despite its rhetoric of human rights, African integration, free circulation and policy harmonisation. This article compares migration governance with structural adjustment in order to evaluate and expose the impact of its hegemonic policy frameworks. A political economy analysis of the historical formation of global migration governance and its current policies in Africa shows how European states and the USA contribute to the imperialist redivision of territories, the continued polarisation of wealth and destruction of the productive forces in African societies, both directly and via organisations like the International Organization for Migration. As they organise and regulate labour within and beyond their borders, these states reproduce social hierarchies and structures of exploitation in the service of capital. This contradiction of capitalist imperialism with the policy goals of global governance demands a radical approach to migrant solidarity which centres on an internationalist class response and continued pressure for justice in the international system.

Supporting African union: Do macroeconomic fluctuations matter?

In this paper, we contribute empirically to the debate on the legitimacy of the African Union by exploring the question on whether individual opinions in support of African integration are sensitive to macroeconomic fluctuations? For this purpose, we use the 4th, 5th, 6th and 8th Afrobarometer survey data waves and a contextual logistic model. We find that an increase in GDP per capita is associated with a decline in the probability to support the African Union. Accordingly, economic growth discourages citizens’ positive appraisal for the union. Our results also show an asymmetry in the relationship between public opinion on supporting the African Union and economic growth. Policy implications are discussed.

Exploring Prospective Members of Horn of African Integration and Importance of Natural Resources

Exploring Prospective Members of Horn of African Integration and Importance of Natural Resources

Overview on the African Regional Processes

Regional integration in Africa is deemed as fundamental by many of the continent’s policymakers and as a result, there is growing support for regional integration in Africa amongst the conti-nent's international development partners and African elites. The success of regional integration, development & cooperation and social policy are dependent on multilateral regional associations of nations. However, little progress has been made, and one of the challenges and criticisms of the institutions’ efforts towards achieving the African Integration Agenda, is overlapping mem-bership. The paper examines the AU and RECs structures and role as regional integration bod-ies. Then, the research discusses and evaluates the challenges, and these regional bodies encoun-ter six decades later. The research asserts that genuine progress towards deeper and swifter inte-gration can only be attained through the active support and participation of Member States.

African organizations… Objectives and challenges towards African integration

African organizations… Objectives and challenges towards African integration

The AU Free Movement Protocol: Challenges in Its Implementation

AbstractOne of the major pillars of the African Union is the integration of peoples and the ability for them to move freely from one member country to another, with the right to reside and practise their trade or profession. This aspect of integration found full expression in the Protocol to the Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community Relating to the Free Movement of Persons, Right of Residence and Right of Establishment, adopted in 2018. Upon operationalization, it will remove obstacles to the movement of people, capital and resources in the region and give expression to aspiration 2 of the African Union Agenda 2063. However, significant challenges lie on the path of its implementation. This article doctrinally reviews the protocol, looking at its prospects for promoting African integration and development, and anticipates some of the problems that the protocol will face. It concludes with recommendations for achieving its lofty but desirable ends.

A fish cartel for Africa

AbstractMany countries sell fishing rights to foreign nations and fishers. Although African coastal waters are among the world’s most biologically rich, African countries earn much less than their peers from selling access to foreign fishers. African countries sell fishing access individually (in contrast to some Pacific countries who sell access as a bloc). We develop a bilateral oligopoly model to simulate the effects of an African fish cartel. The model shows that wielding market power entails both ecological and economic dimensions. Africa would substantially restrict access catch, which raises biomass by 16%. But this also confers economic benefits to all African nations, raising profits by an average of 23%. These benefits arise because market power shifts from foreign buyers to African sellers. While impediments to sustainable development like corruption are hard to change in the medium-term, deeper African integration is an already-emerging solution to African countries’ economic and ecological challenges.

Leadership and the Success of African Integration and Development Agenda: Juxtaposing the African Continental Free Trade Area - AFCFTA and Agenda 2063

After achieving independence from slavery and colonialism, African countries implemented various developmental policies, including import substitution, industrialization, and structural adjustment programs, among others. However, political instability, civil wars, poverty, bad governance, and environmental degradation hindered the continent's progress. This paper focuses on how leadership impacts the success of African regional integration and development, specifically the African Continental Free Trade Area (AFCFTA) and Agenda 2063. The study uses content analysis and secondary sources to analyze leadership's role in achieving integration and development. The paper finds that visionary, competent, selfless leaders are crucial for achieving sustainable integration and development. These leaders should be committed to disentangling from neocolonial dependence and promoting mutual cooperation. The paper supports its findings with good governance theory and regional integration theories. Furthermore, the paper highlights the need for African leaders to unite, be disciplined, and pursue integration with integrity and transparency. This requires leaders to prioritize the continent's interests over their personal gains and reduce their reliance on foreign aid. Ultimately, the paper concludes that the success of African integration and development depends on the quality of leadership, which must be accountable, transparent, and committed to promoting the welfare of African citizens.

L'intégration africaine face au régionalisme: état des lieux, défis et perspectives

"The African continent, long on the fringes of history, after more than half a century of independence, continues to ask questions about its future. After having missed the appointment of development and then that of globalization, the time has come, in this context of integration, since it is not necessary to reinvent the wheel, for Africa to assume and to take off. There is nothing new, the European experiences of integration, enriched by centuries of world domination and nourished by years of planetary conflicts, constitute a boon of theories and doctrines in the light of the current processes of integration. The proximity of cultures, values and history is a major player in the sharing of customs. In order to constitute its own model, the culmination of African integration is the genius of the synthesis resulting from the dialectic between its tradition and Western modernity. This is an effective approach to overcoming regionalism on African soil for integration on a continental scale. Keywords: integration, regionalism, neocolonialism, pan-Africanism, Eurafrique. "

Re-Thinking Pan-Africanism and African Integration

It is 129 years since an African-American journalist in Chicago coined the word “Pan-Africanism”. Pan-Africanism began as a gift of the diaspora to the African continent. These civil society initiatives in the diaspora culminated in an elaborate permanent, continental, state-centric institutionalisation, starting six decades ago with the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in 1963. Its current dispensation is the African Union, and sub-regional organisations such as the Economic Community of West African States, the East African Community, and the Southern African Development Community. Diplomacy, peace-making, and economic integration have been prominent dimensions of Pan-African endeavours. As well as the continuing growth of African diasporas in countries ranging from the USA to China, we need to note the precarious position of growing intra-African diasporas in other African countries. Pan-Africanism will remain fragile until it can grow mass support, as opposed to being usually limited to intellectuals and some members of the ruling elites. African integration has not yet achieved the extraordinary supra-national aspirations enunciated in its treaties. Taken literally, they would require such significant concessions of national sovereignty as to amount to a post-Westphalian dispensation. But dense, overlapping networks of inter-governmental organisations, and continental NGOs, continue to proliferate and have substantial successes to date. These range from multi-lateral peace-enforcement expeditionary forces, to free trade areas and the start of common markets. Diplomatic alliances mark the essence of most sub-regional organisations and explain why they continue to thrive, notwithstanding the “spaghetti bowl” incomprehension of some economists and law scholars about their entanglement. We can confidently predict the continued growth of inter-governmental organising, sub-regional and continental NGOs, and Pan-African corporate expansion of an order of magnitude above what currently exists.

Brief Synopses of New Arabic-Language Publications

Brief Synopses of New Arabic-Language Publications

Integrating Africa by Competition and Market Policy

Africa has the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The agreement will lower tariffs and facilitate internal market trade on the continent, and policy makers hope that it will help lift 30 million people out of poverty. A competition protocol is now in the process of negotiation and proposals have been made ranging from a full, detailed, technical competition law as in the West to a scaffolding of regional cooperation. For the competition element of AfCFTA, this article makes a bold suggestion: Africa needs a basic but deep competition protocol, which concentrates on the priorities “at the top”: It needs to rid the continent of insidious trade-and-competition restraints at member state borders that prevent African integration, which requires a joinder of trade-and-competition violations. And it needs a voice at the top to take a stand for the continent: for example against the mega-mergers that hurt Africa. Only with these three elements—clear basic rules, trade/competition restraint prohibitions, and a voice at the top—can Africa hope to realize the promise of Africa.

Governing African Migration in Morocco: The Challenge of Positive Desecuritisation

As part of its new African integration policy, implemented under the reign of Mohammed VI, Morocco has developed a new migration policy. Traditionally, the Moroccan approach to migration was focused on the management of the Moroccan diaspora. Today, despite the low percentage of African migrants compared to European migrants in Morocco, special attention is paid to the regularisation of migrants coming from the South. The Kingdom of Morocco has therefore become an African migratory crossroads, not only for transit migration but also for incoming migration. While the European Union is trying to externalise the control of its borders to Maghreb countries, Morocco is striving to spread a positive and desecuritising discourse on migration to differentiate itself from Europe. This desire for differentiation is not an easy path, as this article demonstrates. It is motivated by the Moroccan will to affirm the African dimension of its identity and no longer be considered as a purely Arab-Muslim country looking to the Mediterranean region. To this end, Morocco has committed itself, as a ‘champion of migration’ within the African Union, to the dissemination of its own migration model over the continent and to the defence of an African vision of migration centred on continental mobility, promoting migration as a path to development and combating preconceived ideas about migration as a security problem. Overall, Morocco’s foreign policy in Africa has further encouraged sub-Saharan migration, which in turn has had many positive effects. In addition to the cosmopolitanisation of several Moroccan cities, the new migration policy seems to illustrate a boost in public policies and a willingness to overcome European normative transfers through diplomatic negotiation.