- Integration in Africa demands leadership and vision. It requires Africa’s leaders to plan for the long term, with a broad view of common interests. It demands the highest calibre of leadership, with integrity and vision.
- Africa’s integration must proceed at the level of economic integration and political unification. The two are inextricably linked. It must include common projects, the convergence of economic policies, common approaches to peace and security, and convergence on good governance and a constitutional order under the African Union. African integration also demands a united approach to dealing with the international community.
- African integration will proceed on the basis of coordination between existing institutions at all levels. These existing regional and subregional organisations must work together, deepening their common values. The proliferation of regional economic communities must be scrutinised and where necessary they must be rationalised.
- Progressive sharing of sovereignty is required so as to achieve the greater common good. Integration requires governments to forego some of their sovereign privileges, in both the political and economic spheres, in order to achieve a more prosperous, stable, democratic and powerful African collectivity.
- The deepening of good governance at a regional level demands the democratisation of regional institutions, opening them up to greater participation by civil society. Regional integration must avoid the pitfalls of a ‘democratic deficit’, and the African Union, through the African Parliament, must be a force for democracy.
|
