Regional Economic Integration and Sustainable Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: The ECOWAS Experience
Alozie, Cyprian C.
Department of Political Science
Abia State University, Uturu
Email: aloziechimdi@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
This study examined regional economic integration and sustainable development in Sub-Saharan Africa with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) as case study. Regional economic integration represents a form of collective agreement and solidarity among nation states located within a given geographical or political entity who decide to jointly pool their resources together for improvement of their national and human welfare. ECOWAS as a sub-regional economic integration was basically set up for the advancement of regional integration
and sustainable development of member states. Individually, the capacities of these states to embark and sustain meaningful socio-economic development were hitherto crippled by a good number of factors such as their uneven sizes, differences in resource endowments, ideological differences, poor technological take off, mono-cultural oriented economic base and leadership ineptitude. ECOWAS has continued to grapple with the challenges confronting it in a bid to realize the aims and objectives
for which it was set up. The functionalist theory was found to be a suitable theoretical framework for this study. Methodologically, the study adopted the qualitative means of data collection. The method adopted for data analysis is content analysis. The paper reveals that although the goal of a full economic integration is yet to be attained among ECOWAS member States, ECOWAS has at least been recording some achievements since its establishment in 1975. The paper recommends among others an improvement on the quality of political leadership in the sub region, increased interregional trade and commitment to the implementation of ECOWAS protocols. In conclusion, ECOWAS should pursue developmental regionalism where the major focus should not just be on removal of tariffs.
Keywords: Regional Integration, Sustainable Development, ECOWAS, Sub –
Saharan, Africa.
