BECAUSE of the centrality of Regional Economic Communities, RECs, in African integration and the implementation of the African Union, AU, Agenda 2063, capacity deficits within the communities have become worrisome to African leaders and planners.

Strikingly, two reports in the last three years published by the continent’s premier capacity building institution, the African Capacity Building Foundation, ACBF, have shown that all the seven AU-recognized RECs have capacity deficits, making it a dicey situation that needs emergency solution.

As a result, the ACBF together with the ECOWAS Liaison Office to the AU, and the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) are convening Africa’s seven RECs to a strategic retreat at the ECOWAS headquarters in Abuja, from June 8 to 9, to work out a roadmap that will enable the RECs to fulfil their mission of leveraging Africa’s economic transformation, especially the implementation of the first 10-year plan of Agenda 2063 as well as continental integration.

The seven RECs are: The Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, Southern African Development Community, SADC, Arab Maghreb Union, UMA, in French, Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, COMESA, Community of Sahel-Saharan States, CEN-SAD, East African Community, EAC, and the Economic Community of Central African States, ECCAS.

In January 2015, the RECs mandated ECOWAS to coordinate and lead the process of inter-REC cooperation aimed at developing a strategic planning and capacity development programme for the RECs, among others. The mandate was in recognition of ECOWAS’ demonstrated commitment to working with other RECs over the years. Thus, given its unique position, the ECOWAS Liaison Office to the AU has become the bridge between it and the AU, and ECOWAS and the other RECs.

It is in line with this mandate that the upcoming strategic retreat at the ECOWAS headquarters is being held. It will be attended by senior officials of the RECs, ECOWAS, ACBF and IDEA. The main speakers will include Prof. Emmanuel Nnadozie – ACBF’s executive secretary, Prof. Adebayo Olukoshi – IDEA’s Regional director for Africa and West Asia; and representatives of ECOWAS.

Funded by the ACBF and IDEA, the Abuja retreat will be the first step of a comprehensive strategic planning and capacity development programme for the RECs, as recommended by the report on the Institutional Reform of the AU presented by President Paul Kagame to the 28th AU Summit in January 2017. Kagame’s report called for a revitalisation and repositioning of the RECs to allow them play their critical role as key actors of structural transformation of African economies.

The retreat is also among the initiatives designed to look for ways and means to implement the recommendations of the ACBF’s 2016 survey of the capacity needs of the RECs and strategies for addressing them.

The survey found that there was a gap in the capacities of the RECs in contributing to the structural transformation of Africa. This was not only because the RECs were at different levels of development and integration, but also because several of them were experiencing deficits in technical, planning, and political capacities to pursue a deeper continental integration agenda.

Over the last decade, many interventions by the ACBF have sought to move Africa’s regional integration agenda forward by strengthening the RECs as platforms for harmonizing policy and enhancing trade among member countries.

The Abuja retreat will therefore find practical ways of helping the RECs to priorities capacity development in their action plans to facilitate the implementation of Agenda 2063, and strengthen the synergies among them for continental integration.

—  Jun 1, 2017 @ 17:00 GMT  |