It was within the framework of inward-oriented economic policies that the African regionalization process began in earnest in the late 1960s. The process would have been smooth and tidy if it had centred only on subregions as recommended by the ECA and adopted by African leaders. There are today over 100 African cooperation structures. This paper focuses on subregional groupings and multipurpose groupings within the subregions (West Africa, Central Africa, Eastern and Southern Africa), most of which were established by treaties negotiated at intergovernmental technical and policy meetings. An evaluation of their performance shows that this has been disappointing. African economies have persistently been on a downward trend, and this seems to be the major obstacle to regionalism. In order to make the tool of regionalism a successful modernization mechanism priority should be given to the restructuring of national economies in order to achieve internal economic dynamism and arrest economic decline. Another condition for success in the promotion of regional cooperation is the openness of the regional structures themselves.
