ACP regional organisations
African Union
The advent of the African Union (AU) can be described as an event of great magnitude in the institutional evolution of the continent. On 9.9.1999, the Heads of State and Government of the Organisation of African Unity issued a Declaration (the Sirte Declaration) calling for the establishment of an African Union, with a view, inter alia, to accelerating the process of integration in the continent to enable it play its rightful role in the global economy while addressing multifaceted social, economic and political problems compounded as they are by certain negative aspects of globalisation.
03/02/2006
NEPAD
The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) is a pledge by African leaders, based on a common vision and a firm and shared conviction, that they have a pressing duty to eradicate poverty and to place their countries, both individually and collectively, on a path of sustainable growth and development and, at the same time, to participate actively in the world economy and body politic. The Programme is anchored on the determination of Africans to extricate themselves and the continent from the malaise of underdevelopment and exclusion in a globalising world.
03/02/2006
African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM)
The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) is an instrument voluntarily acceded to by Member States of the African Union as an African self-monitoring mechanism.
The mandate of the African Peer Review Mechanism is to ensure that the policies and practices of participating states conform to the agreed political, economic and corporate governance values, codes and standards contained in the Declaration on Democracy, Political, Economic and Corporate Governance. The APRM is the mutually agreed instrument for self-monitoring by the participating member governments.
03/02/2006
ECOWAS
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is a regional organization of 15 west African nations formed in 1975. There were 16 nations in the group until recently when Mauritania withdrew membership from ECOWAS. The main objective of forming ECOWAS was to achieve economic integration and shared development so as to form a unified economic zone in West Africa. Later on, the scope was increased to include socio- political interactions and mutual development in related spheres. Currently, there are 15 member countries in the organization. The membership list includes the following countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.
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03/02/2006
CEMAC
The Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC) launched in 1994 replaced the Customs Union of Central Africa States (UDEAC - Union Douanière des États d'Afrique Centrale) has at stake the strengthening of the economic integration process aiming the sub-region development. In this context, Cameroon’s weigh is important as it concentrates ¾ of the sub-region global foreign trade, half the gross domestic product (GDP) and half the population of the sub-region.
Through the gradual implementation of a common market leading to a free trade between member states, and the extension of domestic market, the CEMAC aims to improving living conditions of the population. Indeed, the establishment of sub-regional economic group should allow for a greater participation of African economic operators in development process and the rational exploitation of natural resources at national, sub-regional and regional level.
The members of CEMAC include: Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Guinea Equatorial, Central African Republic and Chad. The CEMAC leans on two pillars, an Economic Union (UEAC – Union économique de l’Afrique Centrale) and a Monetary Union (UMAC – Union monétaire de l’Afrique Centrale).
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03/02/2006
COMESA
20 countries are members of the Common Market Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), namely: Angola, Burundi, Comoros, DR Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
COMESA strategy so far has been to emphasis the integration of the economic space through removal of trade and investment barriers. Although COMESA has made good progress using this approach, and will continue to pursue it, the focus in the next decade and beyond will shift towards development integration. This will mean giving increased prominence to the supply side of integration, namely investment in the productive sectors. This shift in emphasis recognises developments both at the global and regional level. Globalisation in general and trade liberalisation under WTO in particular is pushing countries to remove trade barriers and open up their markets. Regionally, COMESA trade and investment promotion programmes have improved the investment environment making it more attractive for investment in the productive sectors.
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03/02/2006
SADC
The Declaration and Treaty establishing the Southern African Development Community (SADC) was signed on July 17, 1992, in Windhoek, Namibia. It came from the transformation of the Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC) created in 1980 which main aim was to coordinate development projects in order to lessen economic dependence on the then apartheid South Africa. The Member States are Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. SADC headquarters are in Gaborone, Botswana.
Seychelles, Comoros and Madagascar, with SADC-members Angola, DRC, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe, are members of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA).
03/02/2006
Cariforum
Fifteen independent countries in the Caribbean region are signatories to the ACP–EC Conventions. In October 1992, they established the forum of the Caribbean ACP States (Cariforum), bringing together the Caribbean Community and Common Market (Caricom) and Suriname, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, with a view to a better coordination of support from the European Union and improved regional integration and cooperation. Meanwhile, Suriname and Haiti became members of Caricom, while the Dominican Republic signed a free trade agreement with Caricom in 2001.
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03/02/2006