The quest for African economic integration : an assessment of NEPAD's African Peer Review Mechanism.
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Abstract
This study examines the complexities, realities and challenge of African economic integration
in the quest for socio-economic development. The central concern of the study is that, while
the African continent has experienced different stages in the development of regional
economic integration and despite the fact that regionalism has continued to be recognised as
crucial to Africa‟s development agenda, the continent has remained the least integrated of the
world‟s major regions. Slow in realising self-sustaining socio-economic development and
confronted with several political and socio-economic crises, it still harbours most of the least
developed countries of the world, despite its enormous wealth in natural, material and human
resources.
The thesis argues that regional integration is nevertheless a viable strategy to redress Africa‟s
development challenges and marginalisation in world affairs especially in the light of ongoing
processes of globalisation, regionalisation and liberalisation which present several
challenges for individual African political economies. The need for addressing the challenges
of effective regionalism in Africa is no longer a disputable reality. This study therefore
analyses on-going efforts of the African Union/New Partnership for Africa‟s Development
(NEPAD) and African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) initiatives as the latest attempt of
African leaders to foreground sub-regional and continental goals of economic cooperation
and integration. Examining the discourse from the angle of governance deficits in African
countries, the study specifically assesses the effectiveness of the APRM in interrogating
issues of regionalism in Africa and in furthering the AU/NEPAD agenda.
During the course of the research, data was collected from both primary and secondary sources.
Primary data includes: interviews held at the African Union Commission, Economic Commission
for Africa (ECA), Pan African Parliament (PAP), NEPAD and APRM Secretariats, and a number
of civil society organisations, research institutions and media houses, as well as official
documents of these organisations. Interviews were also held with Professors who are experts in
the field of study, a number of academics and well informed scholars and doctoral students
whose studies relate to governance, security and development in Africa. Secondary sources
include: scholarly literature, books and journals, institutional reports and documents, and various
reliable internet sources. The thesis utilises qualitative research methodology and a descriptive
and analytical approach. Using a thematic discourse and thematic content analysis, the study
draws from a combination of theories (economic theories – market integration and trade theories,
functionalism/neo-functionalism and neo-realism) to enable a political-economic analysis of the
field of study. Included in the overall methodology, is a sample of three APRM Country Review
Reports for Rwanda, South Africa and Nigeria. The reports are deployed to interrogate the
following issues and questions: contending issues on governance and socio-economic
development in African countries; how these issues impact on the continent‟s integration agenda;
and how the APRM could possibly become an instrument to address these challenges in
furtherance of the African Union/NEPAD objectives. A connection is established between
governance; democracy; peace, stability and security; development at the national level in
individual African countries and the realisation of national and regional integration goals.
The study finds that in many respects, the AU/NEPAD and APRM adequately respond to key
issues of African economic integration. However, the contending issues of debate with regards to
these initiatives also are examined. It is argued that these contentions have become pronounced
because of the regional integration problematic in Africa and various political and socioeconomic
challenges bedeviling African countries. This is the area in which the study finds that
the APRM, in its capacity as a governance initiative, occupies a key position in reversing the
negative trend of African economic integration and advancing the objectives of the African
Union/NEPAD. The study examines various primary and official publications indicating progress
in Africa; statistical reports of successes achieved from the period of the establishment of the
AU/NEPAD and APRM initiatives as against the periods of the late 1970s and 1980s.
Notwithstanding the progress recorded, considering the central argument of this study on the need
for regional initiatives to promote socio-economic development, the failures and challenges of the
AU/NEPAD are identified, further portraying the usefulness of the APRM. Bringing together the
various discourses, this study advances scholarly views on the need for a redefinition of the
concept and goals of African economic integration not only to realise the socio-economic
development and transformation of the African continent but also to enable African countries,
individually and collectively to exploit the benefits of a period of more intense globalisation.
The study concludes that the APRM, as a programme of the AU, within its NEPAD framework,
has the potential to improve governance and policy making processes in African countries, and to
motivate reforms which are critical to African economic integration. The Mechanism should
therefore be empowered to achieve its mandate of advancing constructive processes of change in
Africa.
Description
Ph. D. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg 2015.
Keywords
New Partnership for Africa's Development., Africa -- Economic policy., Peer review -- Political aspects -- Africa., Theses -- Political science.