What the blocs are missing

The author contends that Africa's 14 regional economic communities are largely ineffective due to a lack of funding, staff, and political commitment. Using the Southern African Development Community (SADC) as a primary example, the text highlights how vague strategic documents like the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) fail to assign clear responsibility for implementation. The author suggests that national leaders may prefer weak regional bodies to avoid conflict and concludes that these organisations must adopt the same transparency and accountability standards required of national governments to eliminate inefficiency and corruption.

• Africa's 14 regional economic communities generally lack the necessary resources, political will, and organisational structure to meet their goals of creating common currencies, harmonising policies, or forging free trade areas.
• The SADC Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) is criticised for being a vague document that uses non-committal language and fails to specify who is responsible for executing its promotion and coordination tasks.
• The author suggests that heads of government may intentionally maintain weak regional organisations to signal goodwill to neighbours without risking the friction that would come from demanding meaningful reform or decisive action.
• Regional bodies like SADC operate with a lack of transparency regarding their budgets and programme status, which the author argues makes them susceptible to corruption, waste, and inefficiency.

APA

South African Institute of International Affairs (2007). What the blocs are missing. https://saiia.org.za/research/what-the-blocs-are-missing/

Chicago

South African Institute of International Affairs. What the blocs are missing. 2007. https://saiia.org.za/research/what-the-blocs-are-missing/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=South African Institute of International Affairs |title=What the blocs are missing |date=28 January 2007 |url=https://saiia.org.za/research/what-the-blocs-are-missing/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{southafricaninstituteofinternationalaffairs2007what, author = {{South African Institute of International Affairs}}, title = {{What the blocs are missing}}, institution = {South African Institute of International Affairs}, year = {2007}, month = jan, url = {https://saiia.org.za/research/what-the-blocs-are-missing/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }