Regionalism and Regional Integration in Africa: A Debate of Current Aspect and Issues.

The Nordic Africa Institute organised and hosted a Consultative Workshop on "Regional Integration in Africa" on 8 and 9 March 2001. It brought together policy makers from the Nordic countries with academics working on the subject matter from different perspectives. This was a result of the initiative by the Department for Africa at the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) to reformulate its policy in support of regional integration efforts in Africa. To gain academically based but policy-oriented insights SIDA provided the funds to implement the Workshop and has also financed this publication. Arne Tostensen from the Chr. Michelsen Institute in Bergen and Betil Odén (then with the Expert Group on Development Issues at the Swedish Foreign Ministry) joined Nina Klinge-Nygârd and myself in planning and organising the event. The papers by Sheila Page, Morten Boas and Kate Meagher compiled in this volume have been drafted for the first part of the workshop dealing with more general aspects. They have been revised for publication. The overview on SADC (the region which was considered in more detail by several papers on different sectors) was drafted earlier during 2000 and has since been updated and revised. I wish to thank all those who made the Consultative Workshop and this subsequent publication possible by their individual and institutional commitment.