“Today’s developing countries, as latecomers, face a stark choice: stay divided and lose ground, or become winners without borders.”

World Bank Development Report 2009

The State of East Africa Report 2012: Deepening Integration, Intensifying Challenges

The State of East Africa 2012, with support from TradeMark East Africa (TMEA), compiles and analyses data across key economic, social and political indicators from the five member states of the East African Community (EAC). One of the key conclusions of the report is that more than a decade since it was rekindled, the EAC integration process is deepening, but the challenges facing the integration units and people are intensifying. The report will hope to fill the void that exists between civil society, private sector and government officials on the challenges and opportunities that the regional integration process presents.'One of the major goals of the State of East Africa report is to provide policy makers, civil society and the private sector with information and analysis that they can use to advocate their concerns and interests with respect to regional integration'. (Juma V. Mwapachu, President, SID).

Regional Integration and Human Development: A Pathway for Africa

This report explores regional economic integration and its potential impacts on human development, with a focus on Africa. It assesses how contextual factors common to many African countries might condition the impacts of regional integration on human development, and draws on experiences in other continents. It supplements this qualitative analysis with simulations of regional integration processes for different regions in Africa, and economic integration of the whole of Africa. In doing so, it builds on a substantial body of work on regional integration in Africa undertaken by many institutions, notably the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).

Assessing Regional Integration in Africa

“It is reasonable to assume that the most significant trend in this new millennium is global competitiveness. In the face of the opportunities and challenges posed by the new paradigm of the “global economy,” nations are moving to integrate their economies with those of their neighbors, to create larger and more competitive regional economic blocs, and to engage in international trade—not just as individual states but as regional powers. This shift is nowhere more urgent than in Africa, where the combined impact of our relatively small economies, the international terms of trade, and the legacy of colonialism, mis-rule, and conflict has meant that we have not yet assumed our global market share— despite our significant market size…”

Assessing Regional Integration in Africa II: Rationalizing Regional Economic Communities

Chapter 1 - The Drivers of Regional Integration for Africa’s Development

"The major problem with establishing free trade areas and customs unions is that most African countries depend on foreign trade taxes as revenue to finance public expenditures.”

Assessing Regional Integration in Africa IV: Enhancing Intra-African Trade

“ARIA IV, which is a joint-publication of the ECA, the AUC and the AfDB, finds on average that over the past decades, only about 10 to 12 per cent of African trade is within the continent which is one of the lowest intra-regional trade levels worldwide. Low intra-African trade implies that many opportunities are lost for benefiting from the gains of trade, promoting growth and accelerating development.”