The Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2063: Implications for Economic Integration in Africa

This paper examines how Africa’s recent efforts to promote economic integration, specificallythe Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and the proposed Continental Free Trade Area(CFTA) are supported by and in harmony with the Post 2015 Development Agenda and theAfrican Union’s Agenda 2063 initiative.The World Bank’s Global Economic Prospects projects for the period 2014-2017 that five ofthe world’s 13 top growing economies will be in Africa. However, it is distressing and puzzlingthat such growth has not been accompanied by reduced poverty, income inequality andunemployment. It is also unsettling that few states met all of the Millennium DevelopmentGoals (MDGs) which expired at the end of last year. Furthermore, Africa will likely beconfronted by daunting challenges in the near term. This ominous situation is enhanced by thenature of Africa’s trade, both within the continent and in the global economy.To counter some of these constraints, especially the tariff barriers, the RECs and the CFTA willbe critical in stimulating trade growth. Increased economic integration, either on a regionallevel or on a continent-wide level under the general guidelines of the Sustainable DevelopmentGoals (SDGs) and Agenda 2063 will result in increased trade which will, in the long term,increase incomes, reduce poverty, increase employment, provide greater consumer choice, andwill offer shelter from exogenous external shocks. However, at least in the short term, suchgains are also typically accompanied by loses. This paper calls for a continental IntegrationCompensation Funding Mechanism (ICFM) to balance some of these loses. The ICFM wouldbe developed and managed by the African Development Bank, the United Nations EconomicCommission for Africa and the African Union.