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Bashi Rudahindwa, Jonathan and van Huellen, Sophie (2020) Regional Developmentalism in West Africa: The Case for Commodity-Based Industrialisation through Regional Cooperation in the Cocoa-Chocolate Sector. London: SOAS Department of Economics Working Paper No. 239.

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Abstract

Regional integration occupies a prominent place in the economic policies of most SubSaharan 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 transformation and commodity-based industrialisation against the shortcomings of the current regional integration approach embodied in the institutional framework of ECOWAS.

Item Type: Monographs and Working Papers (Working Paper)
Keywords: West Africa, regional integration, development, developmental state, industrialisation, cocoa, ECOWAS
SOAS Departments & Centres: Departments and Subunits > Department of Economics
ISSN: 17535816
Copyright Statement: © Copyright is held by the author(s) of each working paper.
Date Deposited: 05 Jan 2021 10:31
URI: https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/id/eprint/34649

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