Regional developmentalism in West Africa: The case for commodity-based industrialisation through regional cooperation in the cocoa-chocolate sector

Jonathan Bashi Rudahindwa and Sophie van Huellen
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Jonathan Bashi Rudahindwa: Université Protestante au Congo, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo

No 239, Working Papers from Department of Economics, SOAS University of London, UK

Abstract: Regional integration occupies a prominent place in the economic policies of most Sub-Saharan African countries. However, despite different waves of initiatives across the African continent, the majority of African regional schemes have not managed to achieve their ambitious goal of promoting sustainable development through trade integration in Africa. In light of this observation, using the West African cocoa-chocolate sector as a case study, we propose the regional developmentalism paradigm as an alternative approach to regionalism in Africa, placing a particular emphasis on the use of regional and sub-regional approaches to development. Instead of full-fledged trade liberalisation and indiscriminate economic integration, the regional developmentalism paradigm advocates for state-led trade facilitation, regulatory convergence and capacity-building through the adoption of policies directed at strategic sectors. We evaluate the potential of the regional developmentalism paradigm to promote economic ttransformation and commodity-based industrialisation against the shortcomings of the current regional integration approach embodied in the institutional framework of ECOWAS.

Keywords: West Africa; regional integration; development; developmental state; industrialisation; cocoa; ECOWAS (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F02 F13 K33 O13 O24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 25
Date: 2020-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo and nep-int
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