A “Schengen” Agreement in Africa? African Agency and the ECOWAS Protocol on Free Movement

Samuel Kehinde Okunade and Olusola Ogunnubi

Journal of Borderlands Studies, 2021, vol. 36, issue 1, 119-137

Abstract: Established in 1975, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was conceived, primarily to facilitate free trade and movement of persons, goods and services within the sub-region. Although preceding the lauded Schengen Treaty which created a single external border for the European Union (EU) in 1985, the ECOWAS Protocol on the Free Movement of Persons and Goods established in 1979 aimed to convert borders from walls into “bridges”. This paper examines the implementation of the ECOWAS Protocol by member states in order to establish whether the Protocol has strengthened or flagged the porosity of West African borders. In addition, the study explores the recurring challenges that impede the successful implementation of the Protocol as an expression of Africa’s agency for regional integration. The authors conclude with suggestions on what is required to address these impediments to pave the way for the fulfillment of ECOWAS’ aspiration of an open border system.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/08865655.2018.1530128 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:rjbsxx:v:36:y:2021:i:1:p:119-137

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/rjbs20

DOI: 10.1080/08865655.2018.1530128

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Borderlands Studies is currently edited by Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly, Henk van Houtum and Martin van der Velde

More articles in Journal of Borderlands Studies from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().