The impact of structural adjustment on regional integration in Sub-Saharan Africa: A case study of the Economic Community of West African States and the Southern African Development Community

Since the mid-1970s, the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa have been enmeshed in severe economic decline. In response to the challenges of reversing the trend of economic decline and restoring sustainable growth and development, two key strategies have been adopted—regional economic integration and structural adjustment programs (SAPs). SAPs are a set of “free market” economic policy reforms imposed on developing countries by the Bretton Woods institutions as a condition for receipt of loans.;In their basic orientation, SAPs have generally emphasized the development of outward-oriented trade regimes to be brought about through unilateral trade liberalization. In addition, the programs have been designed for and have focused upon individual countries, dealing specifically with national and sectoral entities. Regional integration based on collective self-reliance, on the other hand, is the preferred African strategy for socio-economic development. It is inward-looking by nature and focuses on coordinated community-based projects and the harmonization of economic policies of partner states. There is a general consensus in Africa that the integration of African economies is crucial for their sustainable development. On the basis of this consensus, a number of sub-regional integration schemes have been developed. There has, however, been little attention paid in the literature as to how the policies of structural adjustment affect regional cooperation and integration in Sub-Saharan Africa.;Utilizing historical and comparative analyses, this study examines the relationship between structural adjustment and regional integration with a view to determining how SAPs accelerate or hinder regional integration process in Sub-Saharan Africa, using the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and Southern African Development Community (SADC) as case studies.;The study establishes that the divergent ideologies which inform the two key development models—neo-liberalism and structuralism—render them incompatible strategies for a simultaneous implementation. Whereas economic neo-liberalism is committed to the construction of an international capitalist system based on global free trade, the African model of regional integration is dedicated to a partial de-linking from the global economic system in order to develop the sub-regions. The study also examines the various policy prescription of SAPs, such as exchange rate adjustment, trade liberalization and privatization, and shows how these prescriptions thwart the efforts by African countries to establish viable regional economic integration arrangements on the continent.