There are vast literatures on regional integration and the role of regional institutions in Africa, ranging from official documentation to academic commentary. There are fewer evaluations or assessments of the attempts by regional institutions to promote good governance in Africa.
Notwithstanding, the following challenges are identified in the literature:
- lack of political will from African leaders
- implementation and enforcement challenges
- lack of resources
- prioritisation of pressing short-term peace and security issues over long-term preventative measures to reduce the risk of conflict
- lack of coherence between institutions
- lack of engagement with civil society actors.
A number of recommendations are made in the literature:
- Mainstreaming of ‘good governance’ is required in order to harmonise governance issues with other areas of intervention.
- Reflecting ‘good governance’ in regional institutions is crucial.
- The need to ‘own’ the governance agenda is also a common talking point.
- Increasing the capacity of regional institutions appears to be a unanimous recommendation.
- There is a need to engage civil society in decision making and implementation.
