Cooperation Calabash
Africa should proceed along the three tiers of cooperation:
- Among African countries - using bilateral and multilateral agreements and the existing subregional economic groupings as building blocks towards the achievement of an African Economic Community;
- South-South cooperation ...; and
- North-South cooperation.
[Key principles:]
- Economic integration: African countries cannot expect to compete or develop individually, in the evolving international economic system dominated by regional economic blocs. Economic integration should be intensified and a shortened timetable for the African Economic Community should be agreed upon. Economic integration should be fostered by encouragement of increased interaction by people through removal of restrictions for temporary entrance and exit by Africans from and to any other African country.
- Joint development of common natural resources: African countries will need to collectively act in utilizing such resources as waterways, forests, coastal zones and the management of environment.
- Interdependence: African countries must seek to explore opportunities for beneficial cooperative relations with other developing and industrialized nations. There is no contradiction between the need for intensified cooperation between African and non-African countries and the principle for self-reliant and self-sustained development.
- Supranationality: As African countries foster cooperation and integration, the need for devolving certain key responsibilities to continental institutions would be imperative. ...
[Policy measures:]
Trade and Production:
Improvement of a variety of trade-related facilities such as transport, communications and payments arrangements are keys to enhanced intra-African trade. At the same time, there is need for African countries to deliberately seek and promote trade opportunities among themselves. ...Joint ventures:
The main focus of joint ventures should be increased production ... African countries should cooperatively stress the production of key components of medium and high technology goods taking into account economies of scale. Such joint ventures should build on comparative endowment of African countries. Thus, the CSSDCA process should promote cooperation in joint production by matching countries that have natural resource endowments with those that have financial capital or other inputs. The private sector should assume the lead role in promoting joint ventures while the public sector assumes the role of facilitator.Financing regional cooperation programs:
Development of policies on financing cooperation and integration should be given special attention. Innovative ways of raising resources for cooperation and integration programs and projects have to be found, given ... the paucity of intra-African savings and investments and donor preference for bilateral cooperation. African countries should set up a fund financed by a certain percentage of surcharges from the imports of individual countries. This approach will need to be implemented alongside arrangement for resources from multilateral financial institutions.Selecting lead countries to promote cooperation projects:
An important element in accelerating the cooperation process is the identification, development and management of cooperation projects. Given the time that cooperation projects are fully established and independent management installed, a lead country should be designated for promoting the project. That way, other member states can have recognized focal points to which all issues pertaining to the project are directed. The lead country, then, becomes a catalyst for bringing a project to fruition ...Focal points should be established in various African countries to promote cooperation and integration. In particular priority consideration should be given to establishing ministries of cooperation and integration. The participation of non-governmental organizations in promoting cooperation should also be encouraged.
Joint development of infrastructures:
To accelerate cooperation and economic integration among African countries, there should be intensified efforts at common development among African countries, of such infrastructurual facilities as railways, roads, air and river transport as well as energy resources.Accelerating integration among African countries:
The Final Act of Lagos endorsed the approach of phased continental economic integration, with the sub-regional economic groupings as the building blocs. Presently, all the sub-regional groups in Africa now have an economic group, though some countries do not, as yet, belong to any of these groups. The signing of the treaty establishing the African Economic Community would be a watershed event. But more important would be the policy mechanisms which are designed to give effect to the treaty as a framework for African wide cooperation.The prospects for all the development policy measures in every sector in Africa and the whole CSSDCA process will critically be determined by the degree of collective effort towards continental integration. ... A structuralist model of continental integration should be adopted based on a minimum timetable for an African Economic Community. Continental Integration through strictly subregional models should be reviewed to allow for more innovative measures and strategy.
Promoting and accelerating integration among African countries would depend crucially on the support and commitment of African countries. Equally important, however, is the need to encourage and promote active involvement in the integration process of various socioeconomic factors such as trade unions, chambers of commerce, women, youth associations as well as other professional associations. These professional associations should be a vanguard force in cooperation, in standards, in training and research and civil liberties, as well as in other areas. The operations of professional associations, entrepreneurs and research scientists must not be restricted by national borders. Free movement of persons must be encouraged bilaterally, subregionally and continentally. More importantly, the selection of personnel of the secretariat of African Economic Communities should be based on merit to ensure the highest calibre of such personnel.
Rationalization of existing intergovernmental organizations:
Given the multiplicity of intergovernmental organizations in the field of cooperation and integration in Africa, it is vital that their numbers be reduced. Such a step would not only reduce the expenditures of member states for such organizations, but would also enable governments to devote more attention to the IGOs that would remain. The few IGOs should then be redesigned to render more effective services to member States.South-South (African and other developing countries) cooperation:
There is considerable scope for promoting cooperation between African and other developing countries. The Global System of Trade Preferences (GSTP) already serves as a framework for accelerating South-South trade. African countries should identify specific areas of benefit in the GSTP in the context of the continents' structural weaknesses.African countries should encourage foreign investments from other developing countries which can contribute to enhancing their production and exports. Such investments should emphasize technology transfer arrangements and may be organized through licensing arrangements, franchising and joint ventures. Investments should be targeted at producing not only consumer goods but also intermediate and capital goods.
Cooperation between Africa and the Industrialized countries: Cooperation between Africa and the industrialized countries would continue to be an important source of acquiring financial and industrial capital for the socioeconomic development of Africa. The objective of these cooperation arrangements should be to remove the basic structural weaknesses of the African economies. Seeking to elevate Africa from its status of exporter of raw materials to producer of manufactured and other processed products should be the key consideration in any cooperation arrangements with the industrialized nations. Very importantly, there is need to promote cooperative arrangements in the areas of science and technology, food and agriculture, environment and energy.
International policy initiatives, such as the Global Coalition for Africa and others, designed to promote development and cooperation should include significant African participation in decision-making and management ...