Impact of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) in shaping the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2022 in the subject African Studies - Miscellaneous, Bindura University of Science Education (Department of Peace and Governance), course: International Relations, language: English, abstract: Trade blocs are usually created through trade agreements by the governments of member countries. This has been the quest for Africa. To a greater extent, trade will enhance economic development and improve livelihoods in Africa. However, the aspect of trade which impacts every state in Africa requires a regional trading agreement. The fundamental rule of a regional trade agreement is the liberalisation of the domestic market. Market liberalisation may ultimately incorporate some global perspectives, which would imbibe a multilateral dimension as espoused by globalisation. Trading in Africa has been too secretive since the colonial era. This was underpinned by the behaviour of Europeans who believed in exporting their loot to their mother countries rather than trading within Africa for the benefit of Africans. As a resultantly, Africa continued to suffer under development with all the vast resources found in the continent. To embrace a communal African trading behaviour, indeed there is a need for trade liberalisation which clearly articulates intra-regional trade within the African continent. There has been a lack of clear information regarding the trade components of Intra-regional trade within the African continent. To a greater extent, that is an adverse effect of the colonial damage perpetrated by colonialism to impede development in Africa. The lack of clear information regarding African trade is because a few of the countries pay little attention to the competitive advantage of neighbouring countries in the production of certain products or the offer of certain services. By implication, quite a substantial part of imports into Africa can very easily be sourced from close-by neighbours, and sometimes at far cheaper rates. For example, Kenya imports raw hides from New Zealand, whereas Burundi and Botswana export same product to other continents at much lower prices (Olayiwola, 2020). There is low demand for products manufactured in Africa by other African countries, not because they also manufacture similar goods, but because they consider those products inferior and thus inadmissible to their markets. This paper seeks to assess the impact of the United Nations Economic Commission in Africa (UNECA) in shaping the African continental free trade area, (AfCFTA). The assessment will encompass presenting both backgrounds and of links between UNECA and Afcfta. This will enhance the thrust of the paper towards locating the impact desired from UNECA.