Beyond Decolonisation: Insight into Africa’s Institutional Cooperation and Integration

Abstract

With Africa’s decolonisation in the late 1950s, African states were born into a system of global interdependence. As a result, the need for cooperation and integration becomes imperative. It has been argued that despite Africa’s institutional cooperation and integration the continent has remained the least developed and integrated. This paper x-rays how Africa’s institutional cooperation has helped to facilitate Africa’s economic development. In discussing Africa’s institutional cooperation and integration, two perspectives were put into focus (1) Africa’s institutional cooperation at the global level and (2) Africa’s institutional cooperation and integration at the regional level. For a clear conceptual analysis, the paper adopts the historical and analytical research methods. It utilises primary and secondary sources of information collected from libraries, archives of multilateral agencies as well as oral interviews. For what has been done so far in this research, findings reveals that Africa’s institutional cooperation either in the global or regional level has helped African states to forge a common course of economic development. Findings have also showed that through institutional cooperation African states have been able to partner with advanced economies of world to facilitate economic development. The paper concludes that for Africa to achieve a greater measure of economic development, African leaders should be fully committed to economic development by exploiting the gains in institutional cooperation.