South pacific regional organisations

The South Pacific Forum (successor to the South Pacific Bureau for Economic Cooperation (SPEC)) is the major regional organisation in the South Pacific. It is an informal organisation concerned with a wide range of economic matters relating to cooperation within the South Pacific region, and equally with the region's external relations through meetings with 'dialogue partners': in particular, commodity marketing, industrial development, tourism, shipping, civil aviation, transfer of technology, oil prospecting and environmental protection. Membership is restricted to sixteen sovereign and self-governing states in the South Pacific (including Australia and New Zealand). It consists of an annual meeting of Heads of Governments at which political, as well as economic, matters are discussed and determined by consensus; the Forum Officials Committee consisting of one representative from each member state who implement overall policy, and the Secretariat which is based in Suva.

The South Pacific Commission (SPC) is concerned principally with rural development, youth and community development, ad hoc expert consultancies, cultural exchanges, training facilities and marine resource development and research. It consists of twenty-seven sovereign states and self-governing territories in the South Pacific including Australia and New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the Unites States of America. The Secretariat is in Noumeia, New Caledonia.

The South Pacific Organisations Coordinating Committee (SPOCC), as its name implies, seeks to enhance cooperation and avoid duplication of effort in the South Pacific region.

SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT

COMMUNITY

The SADC was established by Treaty in 1992 and developed as a post-apartheid regional organisation of countries with common values and objectives. Its major aim is to create a momentum towards economic integration and close cooperation in the fields of security conflict resolution, transport and the maintenance of democratic institutions.

Heads of State meet annually and Foreign Ministers twice yearly; and member countries are Angola, Botswana, Congo Democratic Republic Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania and Zambia. The Secretariat of SADC is in Gaborone.

Visegrád group

The Visegrád Group is a regional organisation for the coordination of mutual interests: the members being the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. The major initiative is the Central European Free Trade Area, joined subsequently by Slovenia and Romania.

WEST AFRICAN INTER-GOVERNMENTAL

ECONOMIC GROUPINGS

There are over thirty inter-governmental economic groupings in West Africa. To a large extent they are the product of the historical differences within the region, and most have the same objectives of economic harmonisation and eventual integration. The most important are:

The Economic Community of West African States, created at Lagos on the 28 May 1975 to promote economic development in West Africa by establishing a common market (based on the progressive elimination of all discrimination between national boundaries) and harmonising a variety of economic policies including agricultural policies, industrial development plans and monetary policies, co-operation for the development of energy and mineral resources and for the joint development of infrastructure. In addition it agreed to add 'Political Cooperation' to its objectives in 1993, and has accepted responsibility for organising military peace-keeping forces in the area in terms of the 1981 Protocol of Mutual Assistance and Defence; the ECOWAS Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) being established for this purpose.

ECOWAS is the 'umbrella' organisation for the various economic integration groupings in West Africa consisting, as it does, of sixteen members: five are anglophone - The Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone; eight are francophone - Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo; two are Lusophone - Cape Verde and Guinea Bissau, and one arabic-speaking - Mauritania. ECOWAS operates on the basis of an annual Conference of Heads of State, meetings of the Council of Ministers at least once a year, a Tribunal which interprets the provisions of the Treaty and resolves disputes, a Fund for Cooperation and Development, the ECOBANK, six Specialised Commissions and an Executive Secretariat based in Abuja.

The Council of the Entente States is one of the oldest groupings, founded in 1959 by Benin, Burkina Faso, and Côte d'Ivoire and joined by Togo on 3 June 1966. It is an informal organisation for the coordination of economic policies among member states, and has a Mutual Aid and Guarantee Fund for economic cooperation.

The Mano River Union (MRU) was established by Liberia and Sierra Leone in October 1973, and joined by Guinea in October 1980. Its objectives are the establishment of a customs union and the expansion of trade by the elimination of all barriers to mutual trade, the creation of conditions favourable to an expansion of mutual productive capacity, cooperation in the creation of new productive capacity and the securing of a fair distribution of the benefits from economic cooperation.

The River Niger Commission or the River Niger Basin Authority (RNC) was established in October 1983 by Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger and Nigeria for promoting, encouraging and coordinating studies and programmes related to the development of the Niger Basin.

The Organisation for the Development of the Senegal River was established in 1972 in Nouakchott by Mali, Mauritania and Senegal, and is open to all states through which the river flows provided that they accept the spirit and letter of the Convention.

The Economic and Monetary Union of West Africa (UEMOA) through its central bank, the Banque Centrale des Etats de l’Afrique de l’Ouest (BCEAO), undertakes the linkage of member states’ currencies to the French franc. It consists of Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte D'Ivoire, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Togo, and the aim is regional economic cooperation for their development through free trade in products of local origin (such as livestock, agricultural products, fish and mineral products) that have not undergone industrial processing (i.e. raw materials); a special preferential import duty regime (the regional cooperation tax) for traded manufactured products that originate in member states; and the establishment of a common external tariff.