Regional Integration in Africa: Bridging the North-Sub-Saharan Divide

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements v Acknowledgements In 2009 Dr Raufu Mustapha, a lecturer in political science at Oxford University and of Partners in Development (PID) whom I have known since the 1980s, contacted me and inquired whether the Africa Institute of South Africa (AISA) could accept his doctoral student Mrs Rawia Tawfik Amer as a fellow. My response was that if we could negotiate a mutually beneficial project then we would gladly welcome her. AISA had not undertaken work on North Africa for a while and this was a golden opportunity to engage with this region, especially within the context of our research agenda covering regional integration. Thus we commenced discussions with Ms Amer and eventually agreed on “Regional integration in Africa: bridging the gap between the North of the continent and sub-Saharan Africa” as our joint project. We issued a call for papers on various issues under this topic to scholars globally, but targeting mainly North Africa. Ms Amer then joined us from October 2009 to February 2010 when she would work on the project whilst also undertaking the fieldwork for her thesis. During this time she was involved in getting the abstracts, reviewing them together with AISA staff and overseeing the authors as they prepared the papers. Our initial plan was to have a conference in Cairo, in June 2010 where the authors together with other academics and interested parties would meet in a conference and discuss the papers. Unfortunately this was only possible in November 2010. Ms Amer was instrumental in facilitating connections with Dr Mustapha and AISA who worked with us in planning the conference. By having the conference in Cairo, we reduced the costs of travel and translation since most of the participants were from that region and the Middle East. Secondly, it allowed AISA to re-establish ties with various partners in the region and increase our footprint. AISA and PID singed a Memorandum of Understanding whereby the latter was responsible for the logistics of the conference – arranging accommodation , conference facilities, ground transport and cultural activities. AISA paid for these services, but having a partner on the ground was value for money since it alleviated the extra costs we would have incurred of having someone from South Africa going to Egypt to make the above arrangements. A big shukran (thank you) to them. PID also organised many other local partners like the Arab Africa Centre, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, African diplomatic missions, universities, think tanks and media that provided facilitators, chairs for sessions, rapporteurs or participants etc. The project would not have been successful without the writers of the papers who provided valuable insights into various national and international issues related to North Africa which will contribute to knowledge production and an interest in this region by the rest of the continent. The conference was held just before the Arab spring that began in Tunisia in December 2010 and continues to sweep across various countries in North Africa. Interestingly, when issues of democracy, good governance and rule of law were raised during the conference many speakers including some academics chose the ostrich head in the sand approach – arguing that their governments were stable and the people were content. Other speakers vi RegionalIntegrationinAfrica:BridgingtheNorth-Sub-SaharanDivide were more objective and recognised the challenges facing their countries and the region. Well just about a month later the region erupted, with the people fighting for freedom and change of autocratic governments. We might not be able to predict what will happen, exactly when; but it is important as social scientists to study social phenomenon and try to be as objective as possible. This was the first project under the revised AISA fellowship guidelines and it proved very successful. There were many lessons learnt on all sides and it was beneficial to all. The pilot is over and we will now institute the guidelines as we work with other fellows in future. Through this project AISA has spread its footprint all the way to the north of Africa and the Middle East; new networks have been created and increased opportunities for collaboration have been created. Many staff in AISA contributed to the success of this project. These included the researchers who assisted with the final conceputalisation of the project proposal, mentoring the fellow, reviewing abstracts and papers (including contributing a joint paper), participating in the conference and marketing AISA. Our Publications Division took over the manuscript after the conference papers had been reviewed and revised and got it ready for...