Is Africa ready for regional economic integration?

Thesis(Master) --KDI School:Master of Development Policy,2017Since the early 1960s, African states have been engaged in the process of uniting their economies and politics to improve the welfare of their people. A decade earlier, the West European countries also embarked on similar mission. The latter's economic integration project succeeded not only in bringing together the economies of the six founding members, but it also expanded to include 22 additional countries both from the western part of Europe and the formerly communist Eastern Europe. Moreover, the European integration process managed to jump from customs union to a single market and then to monetary union within a span of forty years. Now the European Union is looking for deeper and wider integration that resembles political union. On the other hand, the African integration endeavor has barely achieved any progress. After almost 55 years of efforts to unite the African economy, the continent has witnessed the proliferation of regional economic communities (RECs) rather than establish its African Economic Community. Currently, Africa is home to 14 different RECs. Though these RECs are at different levels of integration, their success rate in terms jumping from one integration level to the next is dismal. This paper attempts to answer why Africa’s economic integration project has not succeeded in achieving its goal after half a century’s journey.CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW CHAPTER 3: Historical Background of the ‘African Nation-State’ CHAPTER 4: Democracy and Regional Integration CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONSmasterpublishedHizbawi Menghisteab KINFE