What kind of regional integration does Africa want for itself?
There are officially six regional economic communities (RECs) within the African Union. They are conceived as the “building blocks” of African unity. The RECs are formally constituted entities. They have treaties and constitutions which make it quite clear that the priorities are broad-based development, cooperation and integration. It is not only about trade integration the integration is both political and economic. SADC (Southern African Development Community with 15 member states), one of the six RECs, was founded in the 1980s during the development era. The vision of regionalism was state-led and development-oriented with elements of protection of the domestic and regional markets. The economic cooperation cuts across all sectors. Within the coordinating SADC secretariat, based in Gaborone, Botswana, there are four directorates dealing with clusters of related sectors: industry, trade and energy; agriculture, fisheries and food security; education, health and human development; tr
