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[BLOG] “Accidental ECOWAS/AU Citizen”: Why we might need a West African Economic Governance Architecture (2)

Despite the dominance of ECOWAS in the sub-region, the irony is that it is the Mano River Union that was first established back in October 1973 in Malema, Sierra Leone between Liberia and Sierra Leone. It would be followed by ECOWAS, which was established in May 1975 as “a large-scale project of regional integration, which was planned to function as a West African Common Market.” It would be January 1994—on the sidelines of a Dakar-meeting to discuss the devaluation of the CFA—that it would be established as a secondary consideration to replace the erstwhile Economic Community Of West Africa (ECOWA).

Its membership would include eight member states of ECOWAS. The West African Economic Monetary Union (UEMOA) would be later enlarged with the accession of Guinea-Bissau.

Over the years, however, there have been challenges between ECOWAS and UEMOA, which have found expression in the economic programmes of ECOWAS and UEMOA. Political Scientist Igue wonders whether “the logical question”, therefore, “is why is it necessary to establish WAEMU, while existing regional institutions have serious problems functioning properly.” He further wonders whether “it is realistic to work within the framework of a single monetary policy when the sub-region was already projecting the creation of a community currency for the first decade of the 21st century?”

For this reason, Igue writes of four major obstacles to regional integration in West Africa. For him, the most important of these problems concern the questions of political governance; the overlap of existing institutions; the lack of a diversified economy; and basic infrastructure deficits alongside the weakness of African states in the light of the need to build nations and achieve true statehood.

Truth of the matter is that—as Tolentino(2011) argues—“the debate on regional integration in West Africa involves such issues as the transfer of sovereignty; shared identity; relevance of strategic objectives; effectiveness of the processes of decision-making; ratification and implementation of the treaties; organization and functioning of administrative bodies; the level of integration; gaps and overlaps.” Tolentino continues that after all these, “the most dramatic question seems to be: how much do ECOWAS and UEMOA contribute to the improvement of the living conditions of citizens of member states?” The answer is at best not clear and at worst, negative.

The violent conflicts; illicit trafficking; systematic violations of human rights and the negligible intra-regional trade are indicators of the poor performance of sub-regional organizations.”(Tolentino, 2011).

Considering how far both ECOWAS and UEMOA have come in contributing to the development of the sub-region, and given how the diffusion of European norms of integration continue to be prevalent in integration theory, this mapping of the West African terrain might come out as conceived of prejudice or bias. The reality is that it offers an insight into a complex sub-region that is complicated for the very fact of having UEMOA and the veteran ECOWAS operate at similar levels.

Truth be told, with these obstacles, it has been challenging to conceive of any dominant emerging theories in West Africa. It is probably for this reason that the establishment of the West African Institute has been timely.
According to Kuhnhardt(2011), the West Africa Institute—the brainchild of ECOWAS; UEMOA; ECOBANK; UNESCO; and Cape Verde—is “at the forefront”  of the development of an emerging new generation of regional integration experts.

This is because it is the first research and policy institute of its kind on the African continent. For Kuhnhardt, “it echoes the importance of regional integration studies in the African context”, and “ECOWAS, UNESCO and other partners in the founding process have demonstrated their leadership in promoting the creation of WAI.”(ibid:15).
According to Kuhnhardt, the WAI will “flourish in the years and decades to come.”

This is because its importance for accompanying West African region-building is beyond any doubt. It will advance the agenda of regional integration in West Africa by focusing its work on the most burning issues currently limiting region-building. Furthermore, the research program of WAI will echo the urgent political, economic, social and legal priorities in West African regional integration.

Its outreach activities will “broaden the constituency supporting region-building beyond a small circle of dedicated national and regional leaders.” It is envisaged, in fact, that the “multi-dimensional potential of the West Africa Institute will soon become a source of inspiration and a point of reference for qualitative regional integration research and studies in Africa.”

Proposed emerging theories for West Africa

In the absence, yet, of widely-known work by the West Africa Institute, the readings suggest that it is Borzel(2011)’s analysis that speaks most of an emerging theory for West Africa. There are at least three instances when she proffers examples of ECOWAS in the context of the theoretical framework of “new regionalism” and how recent developments fly fully in the face of that so-called “new regionalism.”

The first is when she argues that “while…forms of shallow economic regionalism [described as trade regionalism, which includes establishment of PTAs and FTAs] have been spreading, we also see a deepening and widening of existing forms that started in some cases well before the 1990s.” Here, she refers to these “long-standing regional organizations”, including ECOWAS, as having “experienced the delegation of more authority and new policy competencies as well as the admission of new members.”

She further argues that while the League of Arab States have shared ASEAN’s reluctance “to delegate political authority to regional institutions”, the former has planned institutional changes that “bear some striking similarities with some of the changes of ECOWAS introduced”, even going as far as stating that like MERCOSUR and ASEAN, ECOWAS has “committed its members to democracy and seems to have outpaced the EU with its power to use military coercion in order to safeguard democracy.”

 

In 2009, in his capacity as a “Do More Talk Less Ambassador” of the 42nd Generation—an NGO that promotes and discusses Pan-Africanism--Emmanuel gave a series of lectures on the role of ECOWAS and the AU in facilitating a Pan-African identity. Emmanuel owns "Critiquing Regionalism" (http://www.critiquing-regionalism.org). Established in 2004 as an initiative to respond to the dearth of knowledge on global regional integration initiatives worldwide, this non-profit blog features regional integration initiatives on MERCOSUR/EU/Africa/Asia and many others. You can reach him on ekbensah@ekbensah.net / Mobile: +233.268.687.653.

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