Regional Cooperation And Integration Within Industry And Trade In Southern Africa

Regional cooperation and integration within industry and trade in Southern Africa is analysed in relation to three central elements: general approaches, South African Development Coordination Conference and the World Bank.

In South Africa and the Logic of Regional Cooperation, James J. Hentz addresses changes in South Africa's strategies for regional cooperation and economic development since its transition from apartheid to democracy. Hentz focuses on why the new South African government continues to make regional cooperation a priority and what methods this dominant state uses to pursue its neighborly goals. While providing a synthetic overview of the history of regional cooperation in southern Africa, Hentz considers the logic of cooperation more generally. An extensive discussion of South African politics provides the context for Hentz's exploration of the more widely felt effects of domestic change. Readers interested in the international organization of the politics and economy of southern Africa will find thought-provoking material in this important book.

In the face of increasing economic globalization, the countries of southern Africa have made commitments to enhanced regional development and the integration of their economies. Margaret Lee examines the challenges to regionalism in southern Africa, providing a critical assessment of the prospects for successful implementation. Lee's detailed study of the processes driving (or inhibiting) regional integration is firmly grounded in the history of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Her analysis of the evolution of the SADC regional economy, as well as its political, social, and economic contexts, is a major contribution to debates about the merits and pitfalls of regionalism and options for African integration.

Based on Africa's deep routed structural problems, the key aspect of a transformative regional integration is how to promote structural transformation by adapted strategies and policies for the African regional economic communities, for the Continental Free Trade Area, and for the Tripartite Free Trade Area. Regional integration in Africa is based on a conventional (linear) model, starting with trade preference zones and moving to free trade areas, customs unions, and monetary and economic zones, with the ultimate goal to reach political unity. Specific problems of a more transformative regional integration agenda are discussed, such as: ?food security and agriculture; industry development, enterprise growth and competition; and economic partnership agreements with extra-regional partners. In the final section, the impact of three global value chains of importance for Africa (diamonds, shea butter, and sesame) are considered on regions, on sub-regions, and on regional integration. (Series: African Development Perspectives Yearbook, Vol. 18) [Subject: African Studies, Economics

Despite a long history of regional integration and a multiplicity of regional organizations in southern Africa, the effect of regional integration on economic growth and poverty reduction remains debatable or elusive. This causes many to doubt whether regional integration is in actual fact an effective poverty-reduction strategy. Accordingly, the focus of this book is to explore and analyze whether specific Southern African Development Community (SADC) trade integration policies, especially the trade liberalization regime, have produced economic growth and reduced poverty in the region. While it is generally agreed that economic growth is the panacea to poverty reduction, there is little evidence as to whether regional integration in Africa is associated with economic growth in the countries concerned and subsequently leads to poverty reduction. The book makes recommendations on how the SADC FTAs can contribute to poverty reduction and socioeconomic development, and goes on to suggest policy proposals on how to enhance the contribution of the FTAs to poverty eradication and economic development. It also identifies specific activities to be undertaken to enable supply-side and productive competitiveness interventions to support the FTAs and contribute to economic development. The potential constraints and negative impacts of the FTAs are investigated and highlighted, and possible solutions are recommended and motivated.

This study outlines the challenges to mutual linkages at a regional level - to social and economic development across the continent. Organised topically and covering all regional groupings in Africa, the study provides a historical overview of integration and common markets of COMESA and ECOWAS, discussion of Africa in the global economy, the question of regionalism in North Africa and the Arab-Maghreb union, the case of the Southern African Development Community, and a survey of the political economy of the Horn of Africa.