- There is a great need to distil experiences of integration in Africa and world-wide and share them in a systematic way. Lessons learned from Africa’s experience at integration and other relevant experiences include the fact that the African Union is a politically-driven process. Therefore the involvement of the people must be assured. It was observed that there is a plethora of initiatives that could not take off because of a number of serious impediments, notably unwillingness to sacrifice sovereignty, a poor level of implementation of treaty commitments, lack of knowledge of integration initiatives at the national level, and the lack of commitment to getting everyone involved.
- Further lessons include the fact that the challenges of regional economic integration should not be underestimated. Powerful factors stand in the way of integration and must be consciously dealt with. These include the similarity of economic structures and products between countries, the weak industrial base and dependence on raw material exports, the low level of intra-African trade, the integration of unequal partners, and macro-economic policies demanding stronger integration with the global markets and greater global competitiveness.
- We need to be realistic in prioritising implementation and decide consciously in a focused manner on sequencing. We should not try to implement everything simultaneously. We need to build harmonised structures for trade and investment legislation and judicial processes.
- We need to focus on countries geographically proximate to one another rather than selecting on the basis of the level of development. We need to recognise the linkages among the four areas of trade, sectoral development, infrastructure and human resource development. We need to integrate and adopt carefully the process of globalisation.
- Implementing economic integration and the African Union is a demanding task. There is a need to determine the status and the role of the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) with respect to the African Union. There should be annual meetings of RECs and the AU to ensure coherence, overcome overlap, rationalise structures, and harmonise policies and work programmes.
- The private sector needs to be brought into the structures of decision-making of the African Union in a more meaningful manner. There is a need to give effect to the statutory provisions in the Constitutive Act of Union to give status to the private sector and civil society organisations as two major components of the economic integration process, and ensure their participation in the specialised technical commissions. The private sector and civil society organisations need to be proactive in finding regional mechanisms for co-ordinating their input into the African Union in accordance with the protocols.
- The institutional capacity and the technical human resource competence of the African Union, including the current OAU Secretariat needs to be strengthened to ensure the effective implementation of the economic integration processes.
- Common negotiating forums are essential. The relationship with Africa’s trade and development partners is of critical importance and needs to be managed in a strategic manner. The capacity of the existing regional negotiation machinery needs to be strengthened to enable Africa to effectively participate in the global trading system and negotiate in multilateral fora to best advantage, particularly post-Doha and the ACP-EU Cotonou Agreement. There is a need to strengthen capacity for quick learning on the complexities of the issues involved, and long-term training of trade negotiators, and strengthening the African missions in Geneva.
- NEPAD is a political reality and so is the African Union. We need to clarify the objectives and the strengths of NEPAD in support of the AU. We need to utilise NEPAD to achieve breakthroughs in critical areas of African economic integration such as infrastructural development, human resource development and HIV/AIDS. We should deepen our understanding of NEPAD and broaden the involvement of stakeholders. NEPAD should be discussed in a major participatory forum such as the ADF.
- The African Union should incorporate the model of civil society participation applied by the CSSDCA process, whereby CSOs have their meetings within the CSSDCA, thereby bringing their views to the Heads of State and Government. In this regard, the main management units of the structure of the Commission which are currently under consideration should incorporate the involvement of civil society, which is not the case at present. We should ensure that national legislation does not legislate against the provisions of regional economic integration and the AU in the name of national sovereignty.
- We need to define what African citizenship stands for in terms of the protection, duties, rights and responsibilities under the law that are necessary to foster intra-African investment and cooperation.
- Civil society organisations must have the willingness to listen to grassroots communities and voice their concerns, including such cross-border issues as child labour, sexual exploitation and the debt burden.
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