Another reason to Re-visit Critical debates in Africa & West Africa’s Aviation Sector (1)

Another reason to Re-visit Critical debates in Africa & West Africa’s Aviation Sector (1)

By E.K.Bensah Jr

The twin weekend accidents of 2 and 3 June in Ghana and Nigeria respectively, which resulted in a total loss of almost 180 souls should be seen as two accidents too many for the West African aviation sector. Never mind the three days mourning and the grounding of Dana Air in Nigeria, or the call for relocation of Kotoka International Airport,  if there is anything we must take out of these two tragedies, it is the call and need for a re-vamped and more secure African aviation industry.

There’s no gainsaying the innovative industry that is the air industry contributes significantly to the economy of any nation. It drives economic and social progress; connects people, countries; and cultures. It also offers access to global markets and generates trade and tourism. According to the African Union, “aviation in general provides the only rapid worldwide transportation network, which makes it essential for global business and tourism thus facilitating economic growth, particularly in developing countries.”

The AU maintains that “the air transport industry directly generates 5.58 million jobs globally and directly contributes USD408 billion to global GDP.” It also contributes “USD1.1 trillion to world GDP through its direct, indirect and induced impacts – equivalent to 2.3% of world GDP.” Worldwide, Africa represents 10% of total jobs and 2% of GDP generated by the air transport industry, including catalytic impacts.

Liberalisation has played a critical element in the aviation industry worldwide. First, it has permeated all aspects of the aviation industry with competition by helping to elevate awareness, expectations and choice at the same time as protecting consumer rights. Second, liberalization and privatization have led to a steady reduction of state control of the aviation sector.

An upside of this trend has been many more states collaborating among themselves through the establishment of regional; inter-regional and other strategic partnerships based on common economic interests, such as the Nairobi-based Association of African Airlines (AFRAA), and the Abuja-based Banjul Accord Group(BAG). This has encouraged, according to the AU, harmonisation of regulations; integration and management of assets; pooling of resources, etc, which can only enhance the growth of civil aviation, thus benefiting the agencies involved and consumers.

In order to obtain a greater insight of the aviation sector in Africa, a brief description of the two collaborative ventures is necessary.

Association of African Airlines (AFRAA)

The African Airlines Association (AFRAA) was established in April, 1968 originally in Accra, Ghana as a Trade Organisation open to membership of airlines of African States. Today, there are currently forty members from African Union member States, including Ethiopian Airlines; Kenya Airways; South African Airways; ASKY, and Ghana’s Starbow airlines

According to the AFRAA website, “the formation of the African Airlines Association (AFRAA) was the result of historic developments and economic imperatives”. Though it is vague on what these “imperatives” are, it goes on to explain the context of the Cold War and the ushering of independence of many African states in the 1960s as one of the reasons for its establishment.

In the early 1960s, a great number of African States acceded to independence and created their own national airlines. Most of these airlines became members of the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

In 1963, AFRAA had its “conceptual beginning” when a number of African airlines, taking the opportunity provided by the IATA Annual General Meeting (AGM) began holding consultation meetings prior to the IATA AGMs to discuss matters of interest to African airlines and to adopt common positions. This was the first step towards the creation of AFRAA.

From that first step in Rome in 1963, the establishment in 1968 in Accra, of a regional organisation for the articulation of regional views and promotion of co-operation was undertaken by 14 founding members.

Cairo, Egypt, would play host to the first Annual General Assembly in February, 1969 which approved the Articles of Association among other decisions taken.

According to the association’s website, its activities over the last four decades show that AFRAA can modestly claim that: (a)it has been in the forefront of major initiatives in the air transport field in Africa in sensitizing African airlines to take concrete actions for co-operation in operational, commercial, technical, and training fields. An ancillary claim-to-fame is being “instrumental in sensitizing African Governments through the African Civil Aviation Commission and other regional and sub-regional organisations on the actions to be taken for the development of an efficient air transport system. It has been a catalyst for all the major policy decisions in the Continent”.

Banjul Accord Group (BAG)

On 29 January 2004, seven West African States namely Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Cape Verde and Sierra Leone met in Banjul, Gambia to sign the Banjul Accord Group (BAG) Agreement. The objective of this agreement requires BAG member States to harmonise their policies and procedures on civil aviation and foster the development of international civil aviation through cooperative arrangements between the States. Interestingly, with the exception of Lusophone Cape Verde, the other six ECOWAS member states are all members of the West Africa Monetary Zone.

Subsequently, in 2004, the seven BAG member States signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the implementation of the Co-operative Development of Operational Safety and Continuing Airworthiness Project for the Banjul Accord Group (COSCAP-BAG). According to the BAG website, “the project was implemented under the ICAO Technical Cooperation Programme through assignment and technical back-stopping of internationally recruited experts in the fields of flight operations, airworthiness, flight Safety Regulations and aerdromes and regionally recruited inspectors, for carrying out safety oversight functions on behalf of the BAG member States.”

It may interest one to know they have an updated website on http://www.bagasoo.org/en/, and have culled the information of the twin crashes on their site at the time of writing.

The African Civil Aviation Commission

A specialized institution of the African Union, the Dakar-based African Civil Aviation Commission (AFCAC) was created by the Constitutional Conference convened by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the-then Organization of African Unity (OAU) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 1964. AFCAC was fully established and began functioning in 1969 and on 11 May, 1978 became an OAU Specialized Agency in the field of Civil Aviation.

From its inception, AFCAC was technically, administratively and financially managed by the UN agency ICAO through African member State’s contributions. AFCAC became autonomous from ICAO management as recently as 1st January 2007, meaning that it has officially been financially-independent for only five years!

AFCAC today comprises 54 African States and is managed through a triennial Plenary (consisting of all member States). The Bureau is made up of a President, 5 vice-presidents (representing North, West, East, Central and South African Regions) and the Coordinator of the African Group at the ICAO Council and the Secretariat is headed by a Secretary General.

According to the website of AFCAC on http://www.afcac.org/en/, its vision is to “foster a safe, secure, efficient, cost-effective, sustainable and environmentally friendly Civil Aviation industry in Africa”. The Third meeting of the African Ministers in charge of civil aviation matters which was held on 11th March 2007, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia entrusted AFCAC with the attributions and responsibilities of the Executing Agency for the implementation of the Yamoussoukro Decision. The Resolution was endorsed by the Assembly of the Heads of State and Government in Accra, Ghana on 29th June 2007. To accommodate these added responsibilities, AFCAC adopted a new Constitution at a meeting of Plenipotentiaries which was held in Dakar, Senegal on 16 December 2009 and the Constitution came into force on 11th May 2010.

In the next piece on aviation industry in Africa/West Africa, I will spend more time on the role of the aviation sector especially in the sub-region and offer a summary of the second session of the AU conference of Ministers responsible for Transport that took place in Luanda, Angola in November 2011.

In the meantime, Saturday 16 June will be two weeks since the Ghana/Nigeria crashes. Is anyone counting down to the outcome of the report from the established committee?

In 2009, in his capacity as a “Do More Talk Less Ambassador” of the 42^nd 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: 0268.687.653.

Will the African Integration Revolution be Televised? (3)...especially when Africa is rising?

“The Accidental Ecowas & AU Citizen”:

Will the African Integration Revolution be Televised? (3)...especially when Africa is rising?

By E.K.Bensah Jr

Even if the cover story of the latest Economist is somewhat of a redemption of Africa's “loneliness” on the global stage, truth is Africa did not need that kind of endorsement before realising it is going places. Admittedly, the apology-of-sorts by the magazine for calling Africa “a hopeless continent” back in 2001 can only serve to vindicate the efforts made by the eight AU-recognised regional economic communities populating the continent.

Truth be told, it is almost hard to believe that it was only two weeks ago that the African Union rejected the Economic Partnership Agreements, telling the EU that their priority is regional integration. It is also hard to believe that it is only four years ago that the so-called Grand Debate on Union Government took place in Accra when Ghana played host to the AU Assembly of Heads of State. I mention this only to remind us that when we couple that July 2007 meeting with the ECOWAS Ministerial Monitoring Committee meeting and 7th Session of the Conference of African Trade Ministers in early December, it is easy for us to speculate that by some twist of fate, Ghana continues to play host to tectonic changes on the African integration landscape.

Elsewhere, this would have created the imperative among the populace to be better-sensitized to the developments in the African Union and regional economic communities. Seeing as we depend a lot on hope in this country, it seems we can only hope that more of the Ghanaian media looks beyond reporting on politics excessively.

As I write this, the UN Economic Commission for Africa(UNECA) is hosting a meeting in the home of the AU for the 2nd African Union Conference of Ministers Responsible for Mineral Resources Development.

According to a press release from the UNECA, “a key premise of the AMV is that mining should become a catalyst for broad-based sustainable development. The Mining Vision argues that until now mining has been run as an enclave activity, meaning that the economic and social linkages within Africa itself have not been as strong as they should be.”

Secondly, according to the AMV, African governments have “focused too much on getting revenue from mining and not enough on using the industry as a catalyst for development.” Going forward, the industry has to do much more to encourage enterprises “develop around mining centres.”

In fact, one of the major outcomes of the Conference is to launch a new major report, “Minerals and Africa’s Development” that was drafted by an expert technical task force – the International Study Group, which includes the Accra-based Third World Network-Africa – established under the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).

The UNECA release states that “the Report reviews current mineral regimes across Africa and against this background sets out the policy implications for implementing the Africa Mining Vision. The main recommendations of the report, and the Vision itself, have formed the basis for an action plan which will be agreed at the Conference. The plan is expected to form the basis for implementing the vision.”

This significant development is consistent with the “Productive Capacity Cluster” of the “Action Plan for boosting intra-African trade” I touched on in the first part of this three-parter.

Simply put, the action plan pointed the finger of blame for Africa's woeful productive capacity on the low level of intra-African trade. The imperative, therefore, is to effectively implement initiatives like the African Mining Vision, which are considered essential for the enhancement of the productive capacities of African countries and for the boosting of intra-African trade. Regrettably, much of this momentous development seems to be taking place on the blind side of most of the African media!

When Africa rises, it's thanks to the people

As you may well know, all is not entirely lost—as exemplified by the relative success of two weeks ago when Ghana’s Minister of Trade and Industry had to, in effect, capitulate to her hostile intentions of forcing Ghana to sign an interim Economic Partnership Agreement with the EU. This might not have happened without a people-centred intervention, including a major statement launched by West African civil society, including the Accra-based Economic Justice Network.

In the “Joint Statement  by the West African Civil Society Platform on the Cotonou Agreement(POSCAO), Economic Justice Network of Ghana and the Secretariat of the Africa Trade Network…”, the statement included sections on “Unity for Development not EU Deadlines”; “Current contentious issues in the EPA Negotiations”; “ECOWAS CET”; “EPA Development Programme (PAPED)”; “ECOWAS Solidarity Fund”; “Programming Alternatives to the EPA”; and “West Africa, the EU and current development in the World Economy.”

Some of the demands include welcoming the initiative of Nigeria on the ECOWAS Common External Tariff rate to raise it from 35 to 50 percent, “collectively tak[ing] this as a point of departure for finalizing [West Africa’s] CET”; supporting the statement made by the ECOWAS’s Director of Trade “that a proper and binding PAPED” is a “precondition for an ECOWAS EPA and hold West African officials to this commitment.”. In addition, there is the call by West African civil society to “immediately establish its own Solidarity Fund to enable members absorb associated [costs] with the EPA in the short-term.”

Now while the EPAs are not common currency in the discourse of Ghana’s national development, it is conceivable that the statement offered a degree of policy space even for West African diplomats to use the sliver of opportunity to engage civil society in a way that might not have been possible a decade ago when civil society agitations were in their infancy.

In conclusion, we can draw our own conclusions as to whether Africa is on the cusp of significant and palpable change. I will not lie to you and pretend I feel it isn’t. There is enough happening around the African Union—from its celebration of its tenth year in September 2012; and its AU summit in January on boosting intra-African trade—for one to be conceivably excited over prospects for growth and economic emancipation. Africa has been rising a long time – just that it was not being articulated as strongly as now. In between the trough and crests of structural adjustment and Breton Woods prescriptions lay buried an African Integration narrative that is now asserting itself. Africa, arise!

In 2009, in his capacity as a “Do More Talk Less Ambassador” of the 42^nd 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.

Will the African Integration Revolution be Televised (2), (or a Tale of Africa’s Zeitgeist!)

“The Accidental Ecowas & AU Citizen”:

Will the African Integration Revolution be Televised (2), (or a Tale of Africa’s Zeitgeist!)

By E.K.Bensah Jr

After the indefatigable efforts of West African civil society organizations, including the Economic Justice Network, to stall and stop Ghana from signing an interim Economic Partnership Agreement(EPA) with the European Union, you could be forgiven for thinking the guard of African integration watchers might be let down. Truth be told, the stalling serves only as a reminder of Nkrumah’s call for eternal vigilance. That no less than the African Union has stated categorically that the EPAs are not “a priority” for Africa, but regional integration is, can only help vindicate all those who work assiduously every day towards the emancipation of Africa—be it in West Africa, or continentally.

Last week, I touched on three (out of five) major developments that might lend weight to the view that Africa’s about to take off in 2012. The first was the Africa Trade Forum, hosted by the UN Economic Commission in Africa; next was the Seventh Ordinary Session of Conference of African Trade Ministers that just concluded meetings in Accra on 3 December; third was the launching of the Least Developed Countries report in Geneva – at which I expressed disappointment that there was no coverage of it probably because Ghana is not an LDC.

The two remaining developments are the Second Congress of African Economists; and the ECOWAS Ministerial Monitoring Committee—and related activities by civil society—that concluded discussions in Accra on 1^st December.

Second Congress of African Economists

If there is a second, then it surely means there was a first – and the First Congress took place in Nairobi, Kenya in July 2009. The theme was: “Towards the Creation of a Single African Currency: Review of the Creation of a Single African Currency: Which optimal Approach to be adopted to accelerate the creation of the unique continental currency?” Doubtless, a heavy topic, so it is little wonder the outcome document is more than 200 pages!

The Second Congress of African Economists took place from 24-26 November in the West African state of Cote d’ivoire. The theme is “Achieving strong and sustainable economic growth in Africa to curb unemployment and promote regional and continental integration dynamics.” Unbeknownst to many African Integration watchers, the main objective of this gathering is to provide a platform for Economists from Africa; the continent and the Diaspora to “come up with concrete solutions to integration and development challenges facing Africa.” Above all, the Congress promotes knowledge sharing; and provides clear recommendations “to assist African countries in reformulating their economic policies with a view to addressing current socio-economic challenges.”

The Abidjan Declaration is the final outcome statement from the Congress. Recommendations were made on the following: foreign direct investment and domestic resource mobilization as a tool for alleviating poverty and generating employment in Africa; Unemployment as a barrier to sustainable economic growth in Africa; Governance, institutional reform and the role of the private sector in boosting economic growth in Africa; Africa and the new development paradigm; Boosting intra-African trade; and Aid effectiveness.

On “foreign direct investment and domestic resource mobilization as a tool for alleviating poverty and generating employment in Africa”, the Congress recommends that Africa should agree on its own definition of poverty as well as an appropriate system of measurement; second, the AU should work with member states and RECs to “develop a comprehensive plan for the promotion of long-term investment and strategies for the creation and retention of labour in Africa.”

On “Unemployment as a barrier to sustainable economic growth in Africa”, the Congress includes “comprehensive strategies should be developed aimed at the transformation of Africa’s natural resource based economies into knowledge-based economies…”; second, there should be more investment in research and development; third, gender dimension should be reflected in employment policies.

As regards “Governance, institutional reform and the role of the private sector in boosting economic growth in Africa”, the recommendation includes “specific strategies on SME development” and how they should be led by African countries; the need to improve the competitiveness of African industries; as well as the need for member states to “implement financial sector reforms aimed at deepening the financial system…”

With respect to “Africa and the new development paradigm”, the Declaration states that “African countries should consider enhancing the use of the Human Development Index to complement GDP as a measure of development”; African countries ought to work towards implementing African-led development initiatives, such as NEPAD. Above all, and most importantly, the AU; RECs; and member states ought to “take all necessary measures to expedite the regional and continental integration process as a stepping-stone towards integration into the global economy through measures such as the implementation of the Minimum Integration Programme(MIP)”, which was the outcome of the Fourth Conference of African Ministers of Integration(COMAI IV) in Yaounde, Cameroon, in 2009. In addition, African countries should set their sights on outreach with the Diaspora and seek “to build alliances” with them to attain development.

On “Boosting intra-African trade”, the AU should be tasked to work with RECs and Pan-African institutions “to promote monetary and financial integration in Africa”; African countries ought to take steps to implement regional and sub-regional agreements on free movements of persons; goods; services; and capital; the AU and member states should support “cross-border infrastructure development programmes”, such as the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa(PIDA). Critical to all these ought to be the support given by the AU and its member states to boost intra-African trade and create a continental free trade area – as prescribed by the just-ended 7^th ordinary session of African Trade ministers here in Accra.

If there is anything that has brought into sharp relief this year the need for the AU to seek alternatives sources of financing, then it must be the Libyan crisis. Although this does not feature in the Abidjan declaration, what does is the need for the AU and its member states to continue to seek alternatives to the conventional sources of Overseas Development Assistance(ODA); and the donor funding, which is often late and inadequate in any case.

Little wonder, therefore, that in the final point on “Aid effectiveness”, the Congress recommends how “Africa should explore innovative sources of finance, including domestic resource mobilization n and Diaspora bonds as a means of reducing dependence on aid.” Closely tied to this is the proposal for a monitoring and evaluation mechanism, which finds expression in an “annual reporting on the delivery and utilization of aid within member states as well as regional institutions such as RECs and the AU.”

If, like me, you can feel some sense of Zeitgeist of African Integration, then you’ll look out for next week when I conclude on the fifth development that will contribute to sending Africa off to better places in 2012.

In 2009, in his capacity as a “Do More Talk Less Ambassador” of the 42^nd 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.

Will the African Integration Revolution be Televised?

“The Accidental Ecowas & AU Citizen”:

Will the African Integration Revolution be Televised? (1)

By E.K.Bensah Jr

You would not know it if you saw it, but Africa’s at the cusp of historic change. If the month of November is anything to go by, you might think that Africa’s about to take off in 2012. Five major developments have conspired to remind us that the issue of regional integration and trade are very much at the forefront of the minds of policy-makers, civil society activists and citizens alike.

Africa Trade Forum

According to the website of the ATF, the “strategic objectiveof the inaugural Africa Trade Forum, ATF 2011is to promote and enhance multi-stakeholder policy dialogue and advocacy on trade issues in Africa, by mobilising all the different trade constituencies Africa and the world in general, to debate and exchange views on all the key issuesrelating to intra-African trade, and Africa’s trade with the rest of the world”. Additionally, the Executive Secretary of the UNECA was perhaps more instructive and insightful. In his opening speech, he touched upon the low performance of Africa’s trade performance at “international and regional levels”, going on to say that “the continent’s share of global trade remains low at about 3% and continues to be dominated by primary commodity exports.”

He also touches upon how intra-African trade is faring, saying that it is “just about 11% of total trade as compared to 72% in Europe and 52% in Asia.” He suggests that a solution is through “regional value chains, which have contributed to high intra-regional trade elsewhere, which in turn has helped firms in other parts of the world to be key players in global value chains.”

Another positive outcome finds expression in the forthcoming Economic Report on Africa2012, which shows “some regional economic communities have exceeded the average intra-African trade growth.” One example cited is that of intra-COMESA trade that is reported to have grown “by at least 35.4 percent between 2009 and 2010, rising from US$12.7 billion to $17.2 billion.”

Janneh further maintains that the Forum is “intended to deepen the dialogue on how these challenges can be best addressed including through sharing of best practices.” In this respect, the Heads of States and Governments from the Tripartite of COMESA-SADC-EAC have committed themselves to the establishment of an FTA by 2014 “that will be based not just on market integration, but that will seek shared benefits through industrialization and infrastructure development.” 

That the AU Assembly will in January 2012 focus its meeting on the discussion of boosting intra-African trade can only “contribute to the process of helping build consensus around some key areas.” In addition, the forthcoming Assessing Regional Integration in Africa V, (jointly published by the AUC and AfDB) “suggest that harmonization of RECs trade policies through a continental FTA would result to an additional US$34 billion in intra-African exports…” In short, he maintains, “if we do what is required, we can optimize intra-African trade.”

Seventh Ordinary Session of Conference of African Trade Ministers

 A second major development is that of the Conference of African Trade Ministers currently being held in Accra this week, and which ends on 3rdDecember. A quick perusal of the AU website reveals two major documents that make recommended reading – that of an “Action Plan for boosting Intra-African Trade” a ‘Draft Framework, Roadmap and Architecture for Fast-Tracking the Continental Free Trade Area(CFTA)”. In the interests of space, I will seek to summarise the major highlights of the action plan, which comprises no less than six(6) programme clusters—namely: Trade policy; Trade Facilitation; Productive Capacity; Trade-Related Infrastructure; Trade Finance; and Trade Information.

The primary objective of the TRADE POLICY cluster is to fast-track intra-African trade development. Some of the activities outlined include: mainstreaming of intra-African trade in national trade development strategies; boosting of intra-African trade in food products so that tariffs, non-tariff measures and quantitative restrictions on intra-African trade in food products are removed; promotion of “Buy in Africa” and “Made in Africa” goods, which ought to lead to increased trade in goods among member states.

The main objective of TRADE FACILITATION is to reduce the time it takes to move goods from one point to another by 50%. Activities include: reduction of road blocks; the harmonization and simplification of customs and transit procedures, documentation and regulations; and the establishment of an “Integrated Border Management”, which output is a harmonized and simplified set of customs procedures; standards; regulations and documentation.

The third cluster – the PRODUCTIVE CAPACITY cluster – is perhaps the most contentious – and not just because the Action Plan dedicates a longer explication of it! The Plan reports that “to a large extent…the inadequacy of productive capacity, especially in the dynamic sectors of global trade” has a lot to do with the low level of intra-African trade.  While Africa exports more than it imports of ores, “metals, precious stones and fuels”, the reverse is the case with manufactured goods, chemicals, machinery and transport.

In short, the necessity of the diversification of Africa’s economy and the enhancement of its productive capacity and competitiveness for meeting the challenges of sustainable economic growth and development has led the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the AU to adopt a number of initiatives.

These include the adoption of the Action Plan for Accelerated Industrial Development of Africa(AIDA), which is aimed at the enhancement of the continent’s industrial capacities and capabilities. In addition, there is the African Productive Capacity Initiative(APCI); the Action Plan for the Development of Science and Technology; and the Africa Technology and Innovation Initiative(ATII); the African Mining Vision; and the African AgriBusiness and Agro-industry Development Initiative(3ADI). The report maintains “the effective implementation of these initiatives is essential for the enhancement of the productive capacities of African countries and for the boosting of intra-African trade.”

Little wonder, then, that the main objective of this cluster is to create regional and continental value chains/complementarity, to increase local production/ trade in goods produced in Africa. Some of the programmes and activities scheduled include: the prioritization of the implementation of continentally-agreed programmes, such as AIDA; ATII; APCI; and 3ADI; the establishment of integrated and inter-connected trade information systems; and the establishment of Regional Centers of Excellence for technology development, adaptation and diffusion resulting in each regional economic community(REC) having its own regional centre.

The fourth cluster deals with TRADE-RELATED INFRASTRUCTURE, with its main objective being the development of innovative, legal, financial and other mechanisms for multi-country infrastructural development projects. Some of its programmes include: the prioritization of the implementation of the AU Programme for Infrastructural Development in Africa(PIDA); and  the enabling environment for private sector participation in the development of infrastructure.

Cluster number five—TRADE FINANCE—focuses on developing and strengthening African financial institutions and mechanisms to promote intra-African trade and investment. Programmes include: strengthening and enhancing the capacity of existing regional and continental financial institutions; improving payment systems so that cross-border payments are facilitated; and finally, enabling environment for financial service companies to supply export credit and guarantees.

The sixth and final cluster—TRADE INFORMATION—focuses on bridging the information gap so as to enhance opportunities for intra-African trade, with, among other things, the envisaging of the creation of inter-connected centers of trade information exchange; as well as the development of “innovative legal, financial and other mechanisms for multi-country infrastructure and industrial projects”.

All this notwithstanding, there is even better good news to help resolve the problem of Africa’s low level of trade – and that is with the establishment of CFTA, or a Continental Free Trade Area Architecture. This would include: a High-Level African Trade Committee; a Joint Conference of Trade/Finance Ministers; an African Trade Forum; African Business Council; Trade Observatory; and an African Court of Justice. AU policymakers envisage the CFTAA to be ready by 2017.

UNCTAD’s Least Developed Countries Report

The report was launched last week—sadly without much fanfare. First, Ghana is not a Least Developed Country, and secondly, LDCs rarely make the headlines these days. Nonetheless, the report came out with much interesting analysis, including an issue I touched on last week – that of the regional and sub-regional banks.

According to the report, regional monetary funds are “instrumental in avoiding uncontrolled exchange devaluations that may compromise the integration process.” The report maintains “it might be argued that a regional reserve pool would not work if an external shock affects the whole region.” Despite that, they continue to be “an important source of development finance for regional member countries.”

It was back in 2002 that the Monterrey Consensus of the International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD) emphasized the crucial role regional and subregional banks can play “in serving the development needs of developing countries and countries with economies in transition.” Further, they can serve as “a vital source of knowledge and expertise on economic growth and development for their developing member countries.” Third, given the structure of regional ownership, regional development banks can facilitate a stronger voice to developing country borrowers, as “well as enhance regional ownership and control”. Fourth, they can be effective because they tend to govern more through informal peer pressure “rather than imposing conditionality.” Finally, “information asymmetries are smaller at the regional level, given the proximity as well as close economic and other ties.”

(to be continued…)

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.netekbensah@ekbensah.net  / Mobile: +233.268.687.653.