Do RECs need another coordination platform?
The Inter-regional Coordination Centre platform seeks to improve regional economic community collaboration, but could duplicate efforts.
On 20 July 2024, the eight African RECs launched a common digital platform for information sharing. The website was unveiled on the sidelines of the African Union (AU) and REC mid-year coordination meeting in Accra, Ghana. It was among outstanding initiatives mooted since the creation of the Inter-regional Coordination Centre five years ago.
The platform aims to strengthen solidarity and cooperation among RECs in trade, economic and social development, and peace and security. It fulfils the vision of the Organisation of African Unity, the AU’s predecessor, of the African economic community enshrined in the 1991 Abuja Treaty. However, its purpose alongside the Inter-regional Knowledge Exchange Platform (I-RECKE) and AU-REC mid-year meetings should be assessed.
There is potential comparative advantage and value add, as I-RECKE is an AU-REC/regional mechanism (RM) coordination vehicle and the newcomer could address cross-regional conflict spillovers and mitigate REC competition as crises first responders. However, it could duplicate efforts and resources, raising concerns about its functions and connection to AU platforms.
Existing mechanisms
While the new website could boost interactions and allow regional bodies to better address challenges through peer experience sharing, it could foster silo REC-REC engagements, which the AU’s platforms seek to prevent. In addition, while REC-REC cooperation is needed to achieve the African economic community, this should not exclude the AU given its continental integration mandate per the Abuja Treaty. Therefore, the value add of the REC-REC platform must be compared to that of existing mechanisms.
The platform aims to boost REC solidarity and cooperation in trade, economic and social development
The AU has aimed to facilitate collaboration with RECs/RMs primarily through the mid-year meetings and, most recently, through I-RECKE. The first mid-year gathering was on 8 July 2019, in Niamey, Niger, with five subsequent meetings, the latest in Accra. The objectives are to reinforce efforts to achieve continental integration, development, peace and security through enhanced AU-REC/RM cooperation and to strengthen inter-REC/RM collaboration.
The focus on continental integration aligns with Abuja Treaty Article 4 requiring coordinated action between the AU and RECs. Therefore, substantive inter-regional trade, peace and security issues are discussed during mid-year meetings, ensuring ample room for engagement and experience sharing.
I-RECKE, launched in July 2022, aims to enhances peace, security and governance. Involving the AU Commission and RECs/RMs, its main objective is knowledge exchange to foster coherence in the response to peace and security challenges. To achieve this, the parties have placed good governance ― which extends beyond peace and security ― at the heart of their endeavour. I-RECKE’s July 2024 theme ‘Joint resource mobilisation for continental governance, peace and security’ illustrated this. By facilitating consultations, I-RECKE could enhance exchange and collaboration between the AU and RECs/RMs and among economic communities. The new platform mirrors the objectives of I-RECKE.
Avoiding duplication and silos
The July 2024 mid-year meeting reiterated the four pillars of the Inter-regional Coordination Centre, namely strengthening integration, avoiding duplication, addressing coordination difficulties and enhancing inter-REC capability to implement Agenda 2063. The digital platform’s sole difference is the exclusive participation of RECs.
The value add of the new platform must be compared with that of established mechanisms
A coordination platform could advance integration should RECs use it exclusively to prepare for participation in continental meetings and to build common positions. Anything more would run counter to Abuja Treaty objectives, particularly Article 4.1.c, which calls for perennial and collaborative ‘promotion of cooperation in all fields of human endeavour’ jointly by continental and regional bodies.
In addition, RECs/RMs, with their centre and website, could perpetuate silos when recent AU-REC efforts have sought to eliminate them. This could exacerbate subsidiarity, complementarity and labour division challenges, given that the centre will allow RECs/RMs to decide on crucial issues without AU input.
AU policymakers consulted added weight to the concept of a consultation, meeting-preparation mechanism. In contrast, REC representatives have lamented AU policymakers’ reluctance to thoroughly examine their concerns and challenges. They argue that continental meetings are short and periodic, while the centre offers more flexibility and consistency.
To avoid silos and duplication, RECs must seize existing I-RECKE and mid-year meeting opportunities
However, as REC-REC meetings take place on the mid-year session sidelines and follow a similar format, this weakens the flexibility and frequency argument against continental platforms. Instead, both AU and REC policymakers should concentrate on improving existing mechanisms, covering challenges the newest offering seeks to address. If mid-year meetings and I-RECKE foster coordination and collaboration between the AU and RECs and among RECs/RMs, a REC-REC platform is superfluous.
Harmonising initiatives
To avoid silos and duplication, which do not serve continental interests, RECs must improve established platforms by, for example, seizing opportunities presented by I-RECKE and mid-year meetings. Concerns about the format, duration or policy uptake of these bodies’ decisions could be discussed formally or informally.
RECs should commit to effective implementation of the revised 2021 protocol on AU-REC cooperation, which undertakes to reduce gaps and bolster collaboration. Consultations with the AU should precede continental meetings and RECs should promote existing structures further rather than adding to their numbers, which will drain resources and perpetuate coordination stumbling blocks.
