Approaches to regional integration in the southern African context

The relative size of South Africa’s economy compared to that of the rest of the region and the extensive economic ties it already has with other southern African countries have led to South African involvement being widely seen as a potential catalytic event which could give new momentum to a programme of regional and/or economic integration. This article highlights the arguments for and the underlying conceptual bases of various proposals for a regional integration programme in a postapartheid southern Africa. It recognizes two distinct approaches or paradigms: the market or trade integration paradigm, advocated by the IMF/World Bank, and a developmental approach or paradigm, advocated by the SADC. The author argues that a strategy based on the economic development of member States, especially the least developed ones, would be in the long-term interest of all concerned. Ref.