| Description: |
he majority of sub-Saharan African countries are members of one or more regional or sub-regional arrangements that seek to pro-mote economic coordination, cooperation or integration among the member countries concerned. The various African regional economic blocs, and indeed the individual countries that comprise their member-ship, are at varying stages of development and implementation of their regional arrangements. The blocs ’ scope covers various socio-economic, developmental and political considerations, including the promotion of intra-regional trade, socio-economic policy coordination, and manage-ment or development of shared physical infrastructure and the environ-ment. Some of the African regional arrangements also cover issues of common interest in the areas of public governance, defense and security, among other socio-economic and political dimensions (see Box 2 below). Some of the many African sub-regional arrangements have a long history of existence, dating back to the pre-independence era, which has been punctuated by occasional stagnations or reversals in a few cases, and only modest achievements at best in others. Some African countries have only recently rekindled their interest in economic integration, but for different reasons from the initial decolonisation agenda and the desire to overcome the colonially imposed “artificial ” boundaries. They have been inspired by the success of integration efforts in Europe and the Americas. They also need post-independence economic integration to |