Strengthening collaboration and integration across Africa is a major stepping-stone toward the continent's meaningful integration in the global economy and a critical building block for stronger growth and poverty alleviation.
That is the main message of the Regional Integration Assistance Strategy (RIAS) for Sub-Saharan Africa, presented to the World Bank Board of Directors earlier and the first of its kind at the Bank.
As increasingly recognized by African leaders and partners, the cost of the continent's geographic, political and economic fragmentation and its separation from international markets is rising, in many ways becoming untenable.
Some countries enjoy the gains of historically high oil prices, while many others struggle with power-shortages and rolling blackouts.
"By addressing these obstacles, regional integration can pave the way for a more competitive and faster growing Africa," said Mark Tomlinson, director of the Regional Integration Department in the Bank's Africa Region.
"Regional integration holds a particularly strong promise for Africa's 15 land-locked countries since their economic potential is inherently linked to the particular interests and conditions of their surrounding countries."
According to Tomlinson, "regional integration and cooperation also offers possibilities to ensure much improved and more sustainable management of shared natural resources, water and sensitive ecosystems, in particular, and to more effectively address regional commons, such as migratory diseases and climate change."
Jacob Kolster, a senior World Bank official for African affairs, said, "once you ensure ownership at the country level, regional projects can then be approached like a joint venture between countries. The shared vested interest builds cooperation toward a common goal, such as cross-border power trade."
Projects such as the Regional Communications Infrastructure Project (RCIP) and East Africa Submarine System (EASSy) aiming to bring high speed broadband internet access to Eastern Africa and the West Africa Power Pool Project, connecting national power grids across West Africa to dramatically reduce costs and increase supply and reliability of electricity, serve as prime examples of how regional programs stand to benefit people across borders.
With the aim to maximize the leverage and impact of the increasing regional assistance to be provided under the 15th International Development Associations (IDA) replenishment, the regional integration assistance strategy marks the first comprehensive strategic framework to guide the World Bank's regional engagements in Africa.
According to the strategy, the focus of the World Bank engagement will be given to the development of regional infrastructure to create economies of scale and connect landlocked countries to regional and global trade routes, institutional cooperation for regional policy harmonization, reduction of tariff and non-tariff barriers and coordinated investments for shared water resources, climate change, emergency response, agricultural productivity.
Implementation of the World Bank strategy will be framed within four sub-regional plans of implementation, namely West, Central, East and Southern Africa.
Source:Xinhua
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