Opening Borders: Extra-governmental Involvement in African Regional Integration
Drawing extra-governmental constituencies into regional integration initiatives is important in ensuring that durable systems emerge.
Drawing extra-governmental constituencies into regional integration initiatives is important in ensuring that durable systems emerge.
The leaders of the African continent declared their resolve to follow through on their ‘Agenda 2063’ vision at the 24th African Union (AU) Summit held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia last month.
The African Union’s emerging 50-year development plan, Agenda 2063, aims to cap a century of the organisation’s work with a thoroughly transformed continent.
Small-scale fisheries in South Africa play a crucial role in supporting livelihoods and contributing to food security in the country’s coastal provinces. Policy changes in recent years have sought to establish a more inclusive and equitable governance system.
Since President Mbeki’s administration gave way to President Jacob Zuma’s one, South Africa has taken a back seat on international issues. This does not bode well for a country like South Africa with so much political capital accrued over the past two and half decades.
Africa’s Environment Day is celebrated on the 3rd of March each year. It is an important event which contributes to raising awareness of pressing environmental challenges for Africa. It also highlights the importance of environmental sustainability in achieving the continents development goals, and the centrality of the continent in these discussions.
Regional integration has long been recognised as an important vehicle for Africa’s development; currently, the African Union (AU) officially intends achieving a continent-wide common market by 2023 and a currency union by 2018.
The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) offers duty-free access to the largest market in the world, and has the potential to be a major driving force in African development.
South Africa and its partners in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) removed Zimbabwe from its agenda following the July 2013 elections in Zimbabwe, which saw Zanu-PF return to power.
Putting aside all the controversies surrounding President Jacob Zuma’s delivery of the 2015 State of the Nation address, the speech is worth analysing.