Integration Along the Abuja Road Map

2018 ◽  
pp. 387-410
Author(s):  
Jaime de Melo ◽  
Mariem Nouar ◽  
Jean-Marc Solleder
Keyword(s):  
Regional Integration ◽  
Trade Costs ◽  
Regional Economic ◽  
Road Map ◽  
Manufactured Products ◽  
Slow Progress

This chapter reviews integration among the eight African Regional Economic Communities by comparing their characteristics and progress with three other South-South Regional Integration Arrangements. Three conclusions emerge: (i) slow progress towards meeting overly ambitious objectives; (ii) small changes in the destination of trade across all Regional Economic Communities, indicative of persistent high trade costs and few new manufactured products destined for geographically close markets; and (iii) compared with other South-South Regional Integration Arrangements, the Regional Economic Communities include a high number of provisions not covered in Word Trade Organization negotiations, but these have low legal enforceability. Reasons for this slow progress are explored in the chapter.

scholarly journals Southern social world-regionalisms: The place of health in nine African regional economic communities

2020 ◽  
pp. 146801812096185
Author(s):  
Nicola Yeates ◽  
Rebecca Surender
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Health Systems ◽  
Regional Integration ◽  
Regional Cooperation ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
World Health ◽  
Regional Health ◽  
Regional Economic

This article presents key results from a comparative qualitative Social Policy study of nine African regional economic communities’ (RECs) regional health policies. The article asks to what extent has health been incorporated into RECs’ public policy functions and actions, and what similarities and differences are evident among the RECs. Utilising a World Health Organization (WHO) framework for conceptualising health systems, the research evidence routes the article’s arguments towards the following principal conclusions. First, the health sector is a key component of the public policy functions of most of the RECs. In these RECs, innovations in health sector organisation are notable; there is considerable regulatory, organisational, resourcing and programmatic diversity among the RECs alongside under-resourcing and fragmentation within each of them. Second, there are indications of important tangible benefits of regional cooperation and coordination in health, and growing interest by international donors in regional mechanisms through which to disburse health and -related Official Development Assistance (ODA). Third, content analysis of RECs’ regional health strategies suggests fairly minimal strategic ambitions as well as significant limitations of current approaches to advancing effective and progressive health reform. The lack of emphasis on universal health care and reliance on piecemeal donor funding are out of step with approaches and recommendations increasingly emphasising health systems development, sector-wide approaches (SWAPs) and primary health care as the bedrock of health services expansion. Overall, the health component of RECs’ development priorities is consistent with an instrumentalist social policy approach. The development of a more comprehensive sustainable world-regional health policy is unlikely to come from the African Continental Free-Trade Area, which lacks requisite social and health clauses to underpin ‘positive’ forms of regional integration.

Investigating the Role of Regional Economic Integration on Growth: Fresh Insights from South Asia

2020 ◽  
pp. 097491012097480
Author(s):  
Muhammad Ibrahim Shah
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Human Capital ◽  
South Asia ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Economic Integration ◽  
Regional Integration ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Regional Economic Integration ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
Regional Economic

Regional economic integration is the key to achieving prosperity and stability. However, intra-regional trade in South Asia accounts for not more than 5%–6% of their total trade. This study aims to examine the role played by regional economic integration in determining the economic growth of South Asian countries over the period 1980–2015. Since shocks in one country may affect another country in the region, this is taken into account in the article by employing methodologies that are robust to cross sectional dependence. Specifically, continuously-updated and bias-corrected (CupBC) of Bai et al. (2009) and Dumitrescu–Hurlin panel causality test (2012) have been employed to estimate long-run coefficients and determine the direction of relationship among the variables, respectively. The findings suggest that economic integration increases economic growth significantly in this region. However, contrary to popular belief, both democracy and human capital are negatively related to economic growth. Bidirectional causality is found between economic integration and democracy, regional integration and human capital, democracy and human capital and, democracy and labor. This study also presents several policy implications for South Asian countries.

South Asian Regional Integration – Challenges and Prospects

2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 299-316
Author(s):  
MOHD AMINUL KARIM
Keyword(s):  
South Asia ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Regional Integration ◽  
Future Prospects ◽  
Regional Economic ◽  
High Politics

AbstractSouth Asian regional integration is seemingly confronting many challenges. The aim of this paper is to identify those challenges and also look for prospects. Although regional integration in South Asia has adopted a kind of institutionalization, it is yet to deliver any concrete outcomes. High-politics and the not-so-conducive regional economic structures hinder any effectual culmination. However, constructivism, as a theory, is given due credence in this paper when looking for future prospects. The paper highlights the issues, and attempts to offer certain policy directions by analyzing the challenges and identifying the prospects in the on-going integration/cooperation process.

scholarly journals The Problems of Africa’s Industrialization Substitution Strategy and Reformation Needs

2020 ◽  
pp. 44-54
Author(s):  
Simeon Maxime Bikoue
Keyword(s):  
Regional Integration ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
International Market ◽  
Foreign Market ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Manufactured Products ◽  
New Strategy ◽  
Out Of Africa ◽  
Fierce Competition ◽  
Infant Industries

This study showed that industrialisation by substitution of imports has been a failure in Africa and has made industries in this part of the world less competitive on the foreign market. As such, a different industrialisation strategy which in the context of globalisation of economies and the fierce competition of the international market reinforces the competitiveness of African countries. This new strategy was translated amongst others by the appropriation of new technologies, protection of infant industries, cloning of manufactured products imported out of Africa, regional integration and the culture of exporting manufactured products.

scholarly journals DEVELOPMENT TRENDS OF REGIONAL ECONOMIC INTEGRATION: METHODOLOGICAL ASPECT

2020 ◽  
pp. 82-98
Author(s):  
Mariia LYZUN
Keyword(s):  
Economic Integration ◽  
Regional Integration ◽  
Methodological Aspect ◽  
Regional Economic Integration ◽  
Structural Element ◽  
Development Trends ◽  
Regional Economic ◽  
Hub And Spoke ◽  
Factors Influencing

The article investigates the transformation of approaches to understanding the processes of regional economic integration. The macro-region as a structural element of regionalism is explored. Criteria for typology of regional economic integration are systematized and divided into dichotomous and trichotomous. Factors influencing regional integration and current tendencies of its development are determined. A modern group of regional integration associations is identified, thus improving the existent typology. It includes regional and multilateral associations, hub and spoke regionalism, gravity agreements, plurilateral, bilateral, minilateral regionalism. JEL: F15, F13, F60, R10.

scholarly journals A Value Chain Approach to Support Southeast Asian Economic Regionalism

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 40
Author(s):  
Craig Jones
Keyword(s):  
Value Chain ◽  
Regional Integration ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Single Market ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Policy Integration ◽  
Production Networks ◽  
Integration Model ◽  
Regional Economic ◽  
Value Capture

This article includes an exploration of the economic data sets of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Statistics, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund, as well as primary regional economic initiatives and agreements to assess the strategic indicators of economic regionalism using thematic analysis. The aim of this research is to determine how Southeast Asian regionalism can circumvent vulnerabilities to another economic crisis in North America and the European Union. To correct such financial vulnerabilities, ASEAN has significantly remolded the region into a single market consisting of a 10-nation integrated production base. The ASEAN Economic Community’s main pillars are the establishment of a regional economic foundation based on comprehensive investment initiatives; the liberalization of capital markets, tariffs, and professional labor; infrastructure connectivity; regional policy integration; and free trade agreements to create a regional value chain as part of a single market and production base. The more attainable this comprehensive value-capture-and-integration process becomes, the more attractive it will appear to the global economic investment community and for business opportunities to establish a robust regional foundation. Although the process appears straightforward, capturing value is not a single phenomenon or method, but rather a multifaceted phenomenon, as explored in this study. The regional integration model seeks profitability within effective cross-border production networks and regional liberalization.

scholarly journals Embedding trade liberalisation in social policy: a research agenda on social regionalism and the Global South

2019 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 265-281
Author(s):  
Diamond Ashiagbor
Keyword(s):  
Economic Integration ◽  
Regional Integration ◽  
Market Integration ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Regional Economic Integration ◽  
Social Citizenship ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Regional Economic ◽  
Sub Saharan

Underpinning this article is the proposition that regional integration with a social dimension has the potential to engender a more equitable pattern of globalisation. The empirical focus of the article is on the extent to which the insights of ‘embedded liberalism’ associated with regional economic integration between the industrialised nations of the European Union (EU) can be applied to regional economic integration within sub-Saharan Africa. The article contends that EU market liberalisation has been embedded within labour market institutions and institutions of social citizenship at the domestic level. These have served as social stabilisers to counter the far-reaching effects of the internal market and global trade. Less industrialised nations have never enjoyed adjustment mechanisms of this sort, raising the question for this article, and for further research: in which legal and institutional structures can these nascent forms of market integration at regional and sub-regional level be embedded?

scholarly journals Is the Whole Greater than the Sum of its Parts? Strengthening Caribbean Regional Integration

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdullah Al-Hassan ◽  
Mary Burfisher ◽  
Julian Chow ◽  
Ding Ding ◽  
Fabio Di Vittorio ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Economic Integration ◽  
Regional Integration ◽  
Fixed Costs ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Caribbean Community ◽  
Essential Components ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
Slow Progress ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Policy Priority

Deeper economic integration within the Caribbean has been a regional policy priority since the establishment of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the decision to create the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME). Implementation of integration initiatives has, however, been slow, despite the stated commitment of political leaders. The “implementation deficit” has led to skepticism about completing the CSME and controversy regarding its benefits. This paper analyzes how Caribbean integration has evolved, discusses the obstacles to progress, and explores the potential benefits from greater integration. It argues that further economic integration through liberalization of trade and labor mobility can generate significant macroeconomic benefits, but slow progress in completing the institutional arrangements has hindered implementation of the essential components of the CSME and progress in economic integration. Advancing institutional integration through harmonization and rationalization of key institutions and processes can reduce the fixed costs of institutions, providing the needed scale and boost to regional integration. Greater cooperation in several functional policy areas where the region is facing common challenges can also provide low-hanging fruit, creating momentum toward full integration as the Community continues to address the obstacles to full economic integration.

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