Regional Economic Cooperation offers opportunity for economic growth and yet its success so far is mixed

 

The revival  of the East Africa Community (EAC) in 1995 was received with a lot of optimisms and yet to date the EAC as a Regional Economic Cooperation mechanism for promoting trade and economic opportunity has recorded mixed success.

Gaps and barriers exist, citizens think the EAC is yet to deliver tangible results to ordinary citizens and thus somehow disengaged. The EAC is underfunded , suffers sluggish political support in some pillars from some member states and is yet to achieve its goals of a fully integrated region. Trade barriers still exits and overlapping regional configurations, with multiple membership of states to more than one block have exacerbated problems in implementation and held back member states and citizens from enjoying the benefits of regional economic integration. Progress on key pillars such as a single Customs Union, monetary union and ultimate political federation has stalled and the EAC risks to faced a similar fate experience by other regional economic integration blocks.

Previous efforts to promote trade and economic  integration  under frameworks such as the Economic Cooperation of West Africa States (ECOWAS), Preferential Trade Area and Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (PTA- COMESA), Southern Africa Development Cooperation (SADC)  have struggled to survive and fully benefit member states , particularly in expanding opportunities for small businesses, jobs and free movement of labour. The EAC faces a similar challenge.

From an academic perspective, there is a continuous debate on the role of regional integration and commercial diplomacy as instruments of economic diplomacy on trade export flows among African states. A study by the European University in 2016 show that bilateral diplomatic exchange is a relatively more significant determinant of bilateral exports among African states compared to regional integration. Regional Economic Cooperation bodies are relatively weak and member states struggle to derive value. The validity of this findings may be confirmed by the challenges and criticism that the EAC faces.

However, statistical data . For example there has been increased intra-regional trade across the member states. The increased interest of new  states to join the shows there is potential value and its current  size with the addition of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) makes the EAC the largest Regional Economic Integration block in Africa. Despite the limited growth of intra-EAC trade, the EAC is considered the most successful among all the regional economic communities in Africa, having received the highest score among those communities on the regional Integration Index of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).  The EAC now straddles from the Indian Ocean Coast in the East to the Atlantic Ocean Coast in the West.

In Tanzania there are limited Civil society organisations actively and systematically engaging at a regional level.  This project seeks to engage governments, citizens and regional bodies and organisations such as the EAC, SADC and AU on regional economic cooperation and economic diplomacy matters via:

  • Short research and generating of knowledge resources as articles , briefs and explainers
  • Convening of convening analytical debates and round table fora’s, sun downers, webinars, colloquiums covering topics on economic diplomacy, regional trade, and investment. 
  • Engage of EAC Organs such as East African Legislative Assembly (EALA), East Africa Business’ Council (EABC), East Africa Tourism Board,  Pan African Parliament (PAP) etc.

Some of this innovative work includes:

  • Short strategic research studies on National and Regional trade policies, addressing trade barriers 
  • Strategic work with the EAC on Regional Integration process
  • Strategic work on   Africa Free Continental Trade Area (AfCFTA)
  • Organizing colloquiums on topics such as foreign policy and economic diplomacy 
  • Short explainer briefs on topics on regional economic cooperation and trade

We work in close strategic collaboration with the Africa Economic Diplomats Study Circle,  a network of  African economic diplomacy and International relations professionals  working to advance the voice of Africa in the global market place.