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Rethinking Regional Integration for Development and Eradication of Poverty in Africa: The Missing Link

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Abstract

Six decades after Africa started attaining independence its states remain distinct and underdeveloped, despite the “Africa rising” hype and the historical consideration that integration is essential to transformation and development. Why is Africa failing to integrate and subsequently achieve development and overcome poverty? This chapter attempts to answer this question through a comparative historical assessment of competing ideational explanations of and associated solutions to Africa’s perceived developmental challenges, and highlights three that have been prominent as well as exploring their inadequacies in addressing the continent’s developmental challenges. Africa’s inability to harness a bustling informal sector amidst claims of lack of funds for development and continued dependence on external technical assistance shows a failure to realize long-term aspirations to train, mobilize and effectively utilize Africa’s human resources for an African-driven, self-reliant development.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The eight RECs that the AU recognizes for this purpose include the Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD), East African Community (EAC), Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), Intergovernmental Authority for Development (IGAD), Southern African Development Community (SADC), Union du Maghreb Arabe (UMA). See, http://www.au.int/en/recs/ (accessed November 26, 2012).

  2. 2.

    See, e.g., Fioramonti 2013, among others, who details the central problem of GDP (or Gross Domestic Problem, as the title of his book reads) as measure of the economic wellbeing of a country.

  3. 3.

    Botswana, Namibia and Swaziland.

  4. 4.

    Lesotho and Mozambique.

  5. 5.

    South Africa.

  6. 6.

    The SADC EPA group concluded negotiations in July 2014. Angola was not party to the negotiations, opting to join the SADC EPA in future. The SADC-EU EPA was signed on June 10, 2016.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for the Study of Governance Innovation (GovInn), Department of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

    Christopher C. Nshimbi

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  1. Christopher C. Nshimbi
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute, University of South Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Samuel Ojo Oloruntoba

  2. Department of History, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA

    Toyin Falola

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Nshimbi, C.C. (2018). Rethinking Regional Integration for Development and Eradication of Poverty in Africa: The Missing Link. In: Oloruntoba, S., Falola, T. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of African Politics, Governance and Development. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95232-8_39

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