REGIONALISM AS A TOOL FOR PROMOTING ECONOMIC AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT: A CASE STUDY OF THE ECONOMIC COMMUNITY OF WEST AFRICAN STATES (ECOWAS)

Regionalism, whether from the perspective of developmental regionalism or new regionalism, in the current discourse of the global economy is frequently associated with development. The common thread of development is pervasive within the different schemes of regionalism; be it EU, APEC, NAFTA, MERCOSUR or ECOWAS. Concerning economic and regional development, regionalism as an ideology is increasingly linked with, expanded markets, trade, comparative advantage and specialization, economies of scale, industrialization, increased competition and productivity. As with many other regional groupings, regionalism in West African was crystallized in 1975 by ECOWAS to facilitate economic development to improve the living standards of people in the region through trade, harmonization of policies and selfreliance. The original ECOWAS treaty was revised in 1993 to include among other things the importance of good governance, rule of law, food security, peace and stability as enabling conditions for economic development. Since the transformation of OAU to AU, ECOWAS has used NEPAD's policy on regionalism as benchmarks. In promoting "rapid and balanced growth in West Africa," ECOWAS has not made much progress. This paper will examine the reasons why, even though ECOWAS has moved to the new paradigm of new regionalism with the implementation of policies such as the Economic Partnership Agreement, West African Power Pool, the ECOWAS Monetary Cooperation Program, the trade liberalization scheme, the harmonization of immigration policies by the establishment of the Resident Card and Travel Certificate, the ECOWAS Brown Card Scheme and the ECOWAS Agricultural Policy, it still has challenges realizing its goals.