Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: development policy, agency and Africa in the post-2015 development agenda
- one The post-2015 development agenda: Building a global convergence on policy options
- two Debating post-2015 development-oriented reforms in Africa: agendas for action
- three Public diplomacy for developmental states: implementing the African Mining Vision
- four The role of gender in development: where do boys count?
- five Service-oriented government: the developmental state and service delivery in Africa after 2015 – are capacity indicators important?
- six Employment creation for youth in Africa: the role of extractive industries
- seven Financing the post-2015 development agenda: domestic revenue mobilisation in Africa
- eight Economic performance and social progress in Sub-Saharan Africa: the effect of least developed countries and fragile states
- nine From regional integration to regionalism in Africa: building capacities for the post-Millennium Development Goals agenda
- ten Reforming the Development Banks’ Country Policy and Institutional Assessment as an aid allocation tool: the case for country self-assessment
- eleven Development and sustainability in a warming world: measuring the impacts of climate change in Africa
- twelve African development through peace and security to sustainability
- thirteen African development, political economy and the road to Agenda 2063
- Notes
- Index
nine - From regional integration to regionalism in Africa: building capacities for the post-Millennium Development Goals agenda
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 March 2022
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: development policy, agency and Africa in the post-2015 development agenda
- one The post-2015 development agenda: Building a global convergence on policy options
- two Debating post-2015 development-oriented reforms in Africa: agendas for action
- three Public diplomacy for developmental states: implementing the African Mining Vision
- four The role of gender in development: where do boys count?
- five Service-oriented government: the developmental state and service delivery in Africa after 2015 – are capacity indicators important?
- six Employment creation for youth in Africa: the role of extractive industries
- seven Financing the post-2015 development agenda: domestic revenue mobilisation in Africa
- eight Economic performance and social progress in Sub-Saharan Africa: the effect of least developed countries and fragile states
- nine From regional integration to regionalism in Africa: building capacities for the post-Millennium Development Goals agenda
- ten Reforming the Development Banks’ Country Policy and Institutional Assessment as an aid allocation tool: the case for country self-assessment
- eleven Development and sustainability in a warming world: measuring the impacts of climate change in Africa
- twelve African development through peace and security to sustainability
- thirteen African development, political economy and the road to Agenda 2063
- Notes
- Index
Summary
Introduction
Regional integration, regional cooperation, regional coordination, regional harmonisation, regionalism, alternative/new regionalism, pan-Africanism, African unity…. All are processes, strategies and ideologies aimed at encompassing the current limits, dysfunctions and weaknesses of African states. The vast number and diversity of these approaches concede that these attempts have encountered numerous difficulties. The above list also underlines the fact that two major levels have emerged that remain crucial today: the continental scale and the macro-regional scale, different not only in their size, but also in their aims and instruments. Moreover, they demonstrate the problems associated with bypassing the national scale in Africa. Despite their institutional and technical gaps, African states remain central and key stakeholders in the political arena.
This debate also revives an ancient implicit questioning of the most suitable scale for development and, consequently, for capacity building. From the local to the regional, and through all the intermediate levels, development has been conceived and practised at different levels by different actors during the course of the 20th century. The difference between the most local village-based projects (such as the NAAM projects in Burkina Faso or the CAMPFIRE programme in Zimbabwe), still favoured by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) like Manitese, and the ‘trans-boundary conservation and development areas’ that contribute to the protection and maintenance of biological diversity, as well as to the promotion of social and economic development (IUCN, nd), is huge.
The current debates on the post-2015 sustainable development agenda also emphasise a regional dimension at the core of the agenda, together with both national and global components. This regional level should be tailored to regional needs, to identify regional trends, obstacles, commonalities, best practices and lessons learned. This regional operating scale should include the various stakeholders and be participatory (UN General Assembly, 2014). There is no doubting the relevance of the regional level for the future of African countries and the continent as a whole. The issue is more about strategies and choices adapted to African contexts. Furthermore, recent security threats (such as Al-Shabab, Ansar Dine and Boko Haram) and health issues (like the Ebola pandemic) increase the need for regional responses and mechanisms to counter security and safety concerns, especially in developing countries.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Development in AfricaRefocusing the Lens after the Millennium Development Goals, pp. 251 - 282Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2015