[BLOG] “Accidental ECOWAS/AU citizen”: Why we might need a West African Economic Governance Architecture
Since the 1970s, West Africa has increasingly turned to regional integration as a tool for economic growth and development. Integration is now seen as one of the key and critical ways of increasing the competitiveness of the developing countries in the global market, as well as protecting West African states from globalization.
Given that regional integration is not only part of the global economic progress, and modernization of the national economic processes, it behoves researchers to carry out a deeper and more comprehensive study of the economic integration of West African countries.
One of the key reasons for studying economic integration in West Africa more comprehensively has to do with the fact that ever since the establishment of ECOWAS and UEMOA—the two organisations dominating the West African landscape--significant regional and socio-economic processes have taken place in the sub-region.
These developments have not always been harmonized given the inter-institutional competition between ECOWAS and UEMOA.
This thesis acknowledges that the research interest in economic integration of West Africa has been on a steady increase, and that it continues to require new tools for the study of economic integration in West Africa—as well as offer renewed and current interpretations of the changing realities.
If indeed economic integration is a development tool for West Africa, then both regional cooperation and integration will be an important solution.
Although the sub-region has started on its path towards cooperation and integration, these processes have developed differently—as exemplified by ECOWAS and UEMOA integration.
This makes West Africa both unique and complicated as it is arguably the only region with no less than three sub-regional organisations working at similar and different levels of integration of the sub-region.
Coupled with this complication is the language factor which finds expression in the francophone UEMOA and the bilingual ECOWAS. Simply put, the problem of fragmentation of regional formations is reflected more in West Africa as compared to the other regional economic communities.
ECOWAS started off with an economic imperative back in May 1975. It would take the Liberian conflict of 1989/1990 for Ecowas to intervene with its ad-hoc military wing of ECOMOG for radical changes to take place.
Though mired in controversy, ECOMOG is reputed to have resolved the Liberian conflict with more peace enforcement than peace-keeping. Buoyed by this relative success, Ecowas resolved to revise its treaty in July 1993 to become an economic bloc that has a double-mandate of fighting for the peace and security of the sub-region.
In accordance with the text of the revised treaty, all community conventions, protocols, decisions, and resolutions made in the 1975 treaty were to remain valid and enforced, except for those that were inconsistent with the revised treaty. The 1993 revisions were made with the two basic goals of accelerating the integration of economic policy and improving political cooperation.
To accelerate economic integration, the revised treaty outlined the necessary steps for the establishment of a common market and a shared currency.
Some of the steps of this outline, as stated in the revised treaty, call for the study and research of monetary and financial development, the promotion of activities ensuring convertibility of currencies, and the establishment of a common currency zone.
To achieve the goal of improving political cooperation, the revised treaty established a West African Parliament, an Economic and Social Council, and an ECOWAS Court of Justice, to replace the existing Tribunal and to enforce community decisions.
The revised treaty designated the responsibility of preventing and settling regional conflicts to the member states. Despite its revision, it is arguable ECOWAS has remained true to its roots in seeking to facilitate economic integration
Numerous attempts at region-building in West Africa, notwithstanding, economic integration in the sub-region finds expression, today, in three major groupings—that of the Mano River Union(MRU); UEMOA; and ECOWAS.
Despite the challenges faced by these groupings to facilitate regional integration, it is arguable that as one Igue maintains, “it is through them that African leaders have made serious attempts at improving [the] institutional framework for West African development”.
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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