 Collective action can soldify peace and security, and cooperation and integration are vital for reversing Africa's declining presence in increasingly competitive global markets. (The continent's participation has slipped from 3 percent to about 1 percent over the last two decades at a cost, in terms of lost exports, equivalent to 20 percent of Africa's GDP). African leaders realize that purely national programs of development will not achieve the growth rates needed to fight poverty.
Five years ago, the African Union launched the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) as a framework for bringing regional cooperation and into the mainstream of African development. Although the the pace of NEPAD's implementation has been slow, the political commitment to integration has not wavered. The issue for African countries and the associated regional institutions is not 'whether' but 'how'. Many of the projects the Bank will want to support will be regional in scope. For example, growth will depend on developing trade, which will require regional infrastructure projects and regional capacity development. These regional endeavors include transport corridors, interconnected power systems, improvement and rationalization of systems for tertiary education and agricultural research and management of regional natural resources and vulnerabilities to the natural environment.  Scaling up NEPAD priorities
It is evident from such projects as MOSOL, the Chad-Cameroon Pipeline and West Africa Gas Pipeline that large infrastructure projects in Africa are almost invariably trans-national, and that regional approaches are needed for their development. This is because the investment needed weighs too heavily on the host country's (Mozambique, Chad) budget. In addition, investors seek diversification of political risks, and there are long distances between resources and markets. In scaling-up deliveries under IDA 14 more projects will be of this type. These are expensive projects for the Bank to develop, typically with budget requirements in excess of $1m compared with an AFR average of about $0.5m. New partnerships will be needed for the Bank to take on more of these large and complex undertakings. A strong emphasis on infrastructure scale-up (within the NEPAD Short Term Action Plan) is balanced with support for regional capacity building and new approaches on agricultural productivity and the management of regional natural resources. These programs and projects are developed with country teams within the CASs as a way the Bank can assist clients to deliver additional impact at the national level through regional approaches.  Building capacity (human and institutional)
The challenge of scaling-up and taking on additional regional projects underlines the urgency of institutional reform of the sub-regional organizations. These organizations have important roles in driving regional policy debate and are central to regional integration from that perspective. They have an equally important role in producing the political alignment needed for trans-national infrastructure projects to move forward, for example on infrastructure regulation. An important aspect of accelerating implementation of NEPAD will be to strengthen the capacity of regional institutions to drive regional policy formulation and to produce the political alignment needed for trans-national projects to move forward. While the Bank has considerable experience of institutional reform, and is well known to the regional organizations, the Bank's ability to provide investment support for these reforms and associated capacity building is constrained under IDA 14. Analytical work and policy agenda The Bank’s more extensive regional engagement will require reinforcing the existing platform of regional knowledge. Considerable investment in AA will be needed to fulfill important knowledge gaps. Work will be undertaken in partnership with the regional institutions and their national counterparts. Two main objectives of the analytical work will be to (a) create regional knowledge and develop institutional capacity to drive regional policy debate and policy formulation; and (b) provide analytical depth to the Bank’s engagement in priority regional investment projects. Reinforcing donor coordination While considerable progress on harmonization has been made within country programs, harmonization of regional programs has yet to commence in earnest. This will be a priority, both because donors can risk overwhelming the limited capacity of regional institutions and because the complexity of scaling-up deliveries in trans-national engagements will require better operational coordination and effectiveness among donor partners. Harmonization at the regional level will pose a particular challenge for donors.  Donor partners for the most part have yet to engage strongly in the regional agenda. Partly this has been out of concern not to dilute national ownership of this pan-African initiative. But it has been a reflection also that donor partners, and the multilaterals in particular, are only partially equipped to respond to the additional and somewhat different requests from clients to support development of this new plank in their growth strategies. The considerable increases in resources provided to the Bank under IDA 14 are one of the keys to a successful effort to scale-up and deliver more impact. In this regard, continuation of the pilot program of regional financing under IDA 14 is most welcome. However it is already evident that this envelope falls short of priority needs, even allowing for strong participation by other donor partners, and that the absence of regional grants will be a significant impediment in efforts to scale-up support for priority regional projects.
For more information on the World Bank Africa Region's Regional Integration Department, please refer to Strategy, Organization and Programs. |
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