IDEG launches Book on sub-regional integration (17/8/09)

Story:Jennifer Dornoo & Natasha Lewis

THE Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG) in collaboration with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has launched a book on the challenges of integration in West Africa.
The book discuses critical issues such as Ghana and the Politics of Sub-Regional Integration, the Fate of Ghana’s Agricultural Commodity, the challenges of a single currency for West Africa as well as Gender mainstreaming policies on national and sub-regional integration.
Titled “Nation States and the Challenges of Integration in West Africa: The Case of Ghana”, the 160-page book launched in Accra today, has seven chapters and seven authors.
The Executive Director of IDEG, Dr Emmanuel Akwetey said many protocols within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) framework had not met the expectations of ordinary citizens.
He said civil wars in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea Bissau and the crises in Cote d’Ivore had limited ECOWAS to more peace keeping activities to the detriment of economic and social integration and development.
He said the book answered questions on why the regional integration process since the establishment of ECOWAS in 1975 had been affected by so many delays and impediments, how to create an effective and efficient movement of people, goods and services in the region as well as how national planning priorities could be reconciled with aspirations at the sub-regional level.
Dr Akwetey added that the publication would serve as a reference and learning material for the media, policy makers, researchers in Ghana and the West-African sub-region.
Reviewing the book, a Senior Research Fellow of the Legon Centre for International Affairs (LECIA), Dr Vladimir Antwi-Danso outlined the need for ECOWAS agenda and integration to be popularised for citizens to better understand sub-regional issues and take advantage of social and economic integration.
He said West Africans were inadequately informed and poorly prepared for the ECOWAS agenda, adding that, ECOWAS had not chalked enough success in economic integration.
He said the book contained information on the various aspects of integration and could enlighten readers on the challenges of integration.
The Programme Specialist of Social and Human Sciences, UNESCO, Dr Abdul Lamin, said the organisation was delighted to be working closely with African institutions to promote the continents regional integration priorities.
Edited by a renowned Political Scientist, Professor Kwame A. Ninsin, the book featured authors namely Mr Kwame Boafo-Arthur, Mr Bonaventure Adjavor, Mr Daniel Sarpong Bruce, Mr Steve Tonah, Dr Lehlohonolo Tlou, Mr Paul Agbedor and Mr A.D.Amarquaye Laryea.