Uneven progress towards African regional integration

Abstract

“Regional integration should be seen as the means and opportunity to step up sustainable growth in Africa,” said Mr. Rene Guettia Kouassi, Director in the Economic Affairs Department of the African Union Commission, Thursday, at the opening of the Committee of Experts of the 9th Joint ECA-AU Conference of Ministers. The experts are meeting ahead of the Ministerial segment next week on the theme: “Towards an integrated and coherent approach to the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals.” In his address to the experts, Mr. Kouassi urged African countries to speed up the pace of integration efforts. “Some goals have been fulfilled, but the problem is the pace; it is still slow, compared to the rest of the world”, he said.