Popular Participation and Africa's Development Agenda: Projecting a Citizen-Based United States of Africa

Abstract

The discourse on the formation of a Continental union government and subsequently, the United States of Africa (USA) is the most contemporary regional agenda in Africa. This is rooted in the Pan-African idea, which sought to promote the unity, solidarity and integration of African states as a basis of facilitating their development and gaining voice and power in the international arena. However, a major obstacle in the consummation of any union government agenda or United States of Africa is the active involvement of the people in the continental initiative and their ownership of it, without which the project cannot be enduring, sustainable and people-driven. If people are the means and the end of development, they should be in the foreground of Africa's regional economic and political integration project. The paper takes both a retrospective and a prospective view on the issue of popular participation in Africa's development agenda especially regarding the current discourse on a union government and the United States of Africa. The paper argues that while popular participation and citizen involvement was a major cliché and rallying point in the anti-colonial struggle, this has not been a reality in postcolonial governance. In fact, the continent is witnessing disengagement between state and society in national as well as regional development projects. For meaningful regional economic and political integration to take place in Africa, people must be made the focus of the debate, institutions, processes and policy agenda of the evolving regional integration architecture. This needs to extend beyond the current superficial engagement through the advisory organ of the Social, Economic and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) of the African Union.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the anonymous reviewers who provided useful comments for the revision of the paper. The views expressed herein are personal and in no way represent the official position of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) or the United Nations in general.

Notes

This is a revised version of a paper presented at the symposium ‘The United States of Africa’, organized by Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar, Senegal and the Government of Senegal, 27–30 July 2009, Dakar, Senegal.

RECs such ECOWAS and the EAC have established regional parliaments with even more far-reaching powers than the Pan-African parliament.

The legal texts, political frameworks, institutions and organs of popular participation in the context of the African Union are as follows:

Texts

(i) The Constitutive Act of the African Union (2000)

(ii) The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) Document (2001)

(iii) The African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (1981).

(iv) African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (2007d)

(v) The African Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption (2003)

(vi) Protocol to the Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community Relating to the Pan-African Parliament (2001)

(vii) Statutes of the Economic, Social and Cultural Council of the African Union (2004)

Protocol on the African Court of Justice and Human Rights (2008)

Institutions, organs and mechanisms

(i) The Pan-African Parliament

(ii) Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC)

(iii) The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM)

(iv) The African Court of Justice and Human Rights

(v) Citizens and Diaspora Directorate (CIDO) (department within the African Union Commission). Mandated to mobilize and mainstream CSOs into the activities and programmes of the African Union Commission (AUC).

According to the report's roadmap the union government should be established in three phases. Phase one (2006–2009) is the establishment of the union government, which entails actions at the continental, sub-regional and national levels to agree on clear areas of competencies and the funding of the union, to review the Constitutive Act, to establish some of the institutions of the union government, to rationalize RECs and harmonize their instruments, and at the national level, to work on popularizing and building constituency for the project. Phase two (2009–2012) is the consolidation of the union government, which, at the continental level, requires establishing key institutions such as the African Central Bank (ACB) and African Monetary Fund (AMF), restructuring the main remaining continental organs, consultation on and preparation of the draft Constitution on the United States of Africa; at the regional level, adopting measures for the effective free movement of persons, rights of residence, and the establishment and consultation on the draft constitution of the USA; and at the national level, convening national conventions on the draft USA Constitution. The third and final phase (2012–2015) is the establishment of the United States of Africa. This period will be devoted to the adoption of the draft constitution and the conduct of elections at the continental, regional and national levels, and the global recognition of the new political community.

See the Submission from Civil Society Organizations to the Pan-African Parliament on the Proposal for Continental Government. 14 May 2007, Gallagher Estate, Midrand, South Africa (mimeo).

See Statement of the Roundtable Debate on the African Union Proposal to Establish a union government, 20 June 2007 (mimeo).

The African Governance Report (UNECA, 2009) noted that between 1990 and 2007, in no less than eight countries, the political leadership amended the constitution, mostly against popular wishes, to prolong the tenure of the president.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Said Adejumobi

Chief, Public Administration Section and Coordinator, African Governance Report (AGR) at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.