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Development news - Africa

ECOWAS

Could strengthening of the ECOWAS reintegration form basis for bottom-up development?

April 2009

ECOWAS regional integration has equal chance of remaining top-level ideal like NEPAD or distilling integration impact as catalyst to boost grassroots development. What many African politicians fail to recognise is that they are in position because of the people. If today’s African leaders can pledge their commitment to the entire populace then the true basis for the ECOWAS ongoing integration should be measured from the community level than just what happen at the top bureaucratic desks. ECOWAS has made commendable progress with the integration implementation at the top political and what remain is putting the required mechanism to make the integration actually people’s own .

Thinking about regional reintegration has remained a situation of dilemma for most African states. There appear to be all kinds of doubt about the feasibility of sub-regional integration, let alone continental one. There is the clout of political uncertainty among states in other regions on speeding up regional integration processes though there is no dispute on some of the processes requiring gradual approach . ECOWAS audacious step to strengthen the regional integration process has not been without hassles giving the lingua-franca divide of the region into Franco-Anglo zones politically and economically . Though much still remain to be done with regard to the benefit of the integration at the local level, there is the need to translate the achieved ECOWAS integration political goals into policies that reduce the hassle citizens of the region faces with regard to severe poverty due to restricted and small space for production and commerce.

The key objectives of ECOWAS in forging ahead for formidable integration has been the consolidation of peace through good governance and conflict prevention; the creation of a highly functional regional market and its equitable integration into the global market; the effective attainment of regional food security based on enhanced production, effective storage, distribution and marketing; the establishment of a viable regional infrastructure network; the main-streaming of institutional and human resource capacity-building.

Good governance remains problematic with many years of bad ones that has saddled the region as one of the poverty endemic areas not only in Africa but in the world . The mention of high poverty is a disincentive to FDI. High poverty has semblance to poor or low skills, poor statutory enforcement as well as crime, and corruption. The need to reduce poverty is essential which ECOWAS Secretary General Ibn Chambas has on many occasions lamented the state of poverty in the sub-region, especially among the young people, who perceive EU as the safer heaven on earth due to discouragement by the manner of politics in the sub-region . Many of such young people attempting migration to EU under pressure of severe economic circumstances have ended losing their lives in harsh conditions of the Sahara dissert. The situation of despondency among young people requires a political deliberation and collective effort of leaders to galvanise their will to make change for better Africa. This is achievable if there can be a genuine political will.

This is the stage where the politics of the book, the realpolitik need to give way to true sense of African politics where kingdom is the prosperity of the subjects. Over the years Africa has come to symbolise crass, inferiority, incompetence, ineffectiveness and ‘empty shell’ . This isn’t the real Africa that inspire merchants across its coastline and dissert highways. As the mother of humanity, the African continent despite human failures, remain inspiring in all manners from natural resources endowments to human potentials. The case of Mandela, Obama and Annan buries our dirge and invoke the in today’s young people that beyond the pride of our dark skin lies ancient greatness of potentiality. This greatness achieved centuries ago, though marred in contemporary leadership style, is that which was a kind of joint or collaboration among African nations of the pre-colonial era. They waged wars in joint attacks and sought the mind of their subjects in critical issues of which the pre-colonial Akans in Ghana have been typical example .

The integration isn’t something new to pre-colonial Africa. Though there were no states but nations of ethnic groups, collaboration between clans and inter-ethnic groups was fostering advancements in pre-colonial societies . We need this collaborative effort today that removes barriers of differences when issues that are threat to well-being and life face African societies. The future prosperity of Africa are the problems and challenges we’re able to resolve today. Fifty years ago with acquired African statehood the challenges that were unresolved due to sharp acrimonious divisions not only of states but the continent’s people have undermined African economic growth and development.

Now, with progress made in winning ECOWAS leaders to think along lines of unity and togetherness, new ideas that are taking place has much prospect than ever to contribute to transformation of the sub-region from abject poverty. The West African Institute on Regional Interaction supposed to promote research on regional integration and social dialogue signifies the trend to bridge the gap between the elite and the people. It signifies a new era where information is becoming cornerstone to policy formulation and the need to understand the dynamics of issues outside political desk. In all societies political elites are essential, but how the elites impact society by their significance as dreamers and thinkers whose ideals can bring about better changes than harm is what ECOWAS and Africa need. Our human resources encompass our elite structure as well. Our prospering farmers are part of our elite structure but today majority of farmers are nothing more than impoverished households.

The emerging structures such as ECOWAS Emergency Response Team (EERT) to facilitate rapid ECOWAS intervention in emergencies and natural disasters has the potential as ecological early-warning system and can mitigate the level of destruction caused by uncoordinated and disjointed emergency response activities.

The introduction of a region-wide Common External Tariff (CET), which supersede the sub-region elimination of agro-product tariff in the 1980s, because now there will be standardised import and export regulation which promote and attract external markets. This coupled with effort made in regional trade liberalisation can have tremendous effect in intra-continental commerce. The current global recession has come with one key lesson for Africa and not only ECOWAS. The need to strengthen the intra-continental trade above foreign exports is key to real growth and making sense of economic policy that is self-driven. This means the capacity of the continent to produce and utilise much of the goods in the continent can also provide platform that will make Africa equal partner in the global political economy sphere. West Africa is being followed in challenging manner by COMESA recent 26 states signing pact to liberalise trade in their sub-region . This signifies emerging healthy competition in the African region where African states are beginning to recognise the enormity of local market potential to promote growth and improve income making activities of ordinary people. Notwithstanding, we cannot discount the contribution of the pressure of EU for more broader approach to Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) which requires regional integration.

What remain in ECOWAS is how to translate the bureaucratic formats into programmes that compel the citizenry to benefit not by way of grants and free offers, but individual effort to decent daily entitlements of income for household. How arable land can be utilised and the produce find access to expanding local market without worry about foreign export or import? How young people can form cooperatives and access credit to engage in viable business activity that has wider market in a trade liberalised local environment? There are many more issues on health and education. How can serious regional integration positively impact health and education sectors of ECOWAS region? The role of the private sector has been tabled by ECOWAS leaders and we shall consider some of these and interested writers may contribute their views and opinions.

Bernard Owusu – Sekyere Endnotes