BY DANIEL ALEMAYEHU
Like its neighboring continents, Africa has been taking actions to creating a world that incorporates its citizens and makes the continent a hub of economic and social activities. The continent’s major organizations have been working closely to form multiple platforms. It has worked on establishing inter- continental trade areas. Different African leaders have signed the agreement to make real the long waited objectives of many African nations.
Under the major international organizations such as the United Nations (UN), African Union (AU) and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the continent is implementing strategies and policies that can take a leap forward to its desired goals. Implementing its bigger vision, Africa designed long and short agenda under the big umbrella of Agenda 2030 and 2063 to realize the theme ‘Africa We Want’.
Under this big theme, there are a number of questions that should be answered and need immediate agreements among the African Union member states. The union has taken a key step in realization of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in order to move forward to create trade and market integration among African states. As of October 2022, 44 countries had ratified the Agreement Establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area and deposited their instruments of ratification with the African Union Commission.
Though the continent and member states of the African Union have implemented such agreements, there have been numerous ups and downs in the world economic activities. In the past three years, the whole world has gone through tough economic conditions as the global economy has started going nose dive. The major catalysts for the deteriorated economic conditions around the world, as mentioned so many times, were the global pandemic COVID- 19 and the war between Russia and Ukraine. These two challenges have influenced people from all walks of life experience the hardest times in their lives. In the African situation, in particular, people who live in dire situation have got the worst scenarios in this regard.
With all the odds, the African nations have been working on the realization of the free trade area. In this regard, there are questions that should be answered that all member states should come to a unified agreement to make things real. Similarly, pan- African institutions including the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the African Union Commission and the African Development Bank are working closely to achieve their goals. Out of those many issues that need to be addressed; the free movement of people takes the lead.
Lately, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) has organized the 2023 ECA Conference of Ministers dubbed ‘Fostering Recovery and Transformation in Africa to Reduce Inequality and Vulnerabilities’. On the 41st meeting of the Committee of Experts of the Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development 2023, various issues of the continent have been raised and discussed.
According to a report presented in the conference on Assessment of progress on regional integration in Africa, the importance of free movement of people has been entertained by Stephen Karingi, Director, Regional Integration and Trade Division of the Economic Commission for Africa. According to the Protocol of the Abuja Treaty ratified in January 2018, the Free Movement of Persons, Right of Residence and Right of Establishment were endorsed. Such advancements and ratifications play a major role in fostering the sub-regional and continental integrations.
The document also says, “The protocol needs 15 ratifications to come into force and to be implemented, but has received only four ratifications (from Mali, Niger, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe) and 33 signatures. The African Union Commission took the lead in developing guidelines for the design, production and issuance of the African Union passport, and the first copies of the passport were delivered to Heads of States and selected officials at its launch at the 27th ordinary session of the Assembly of Heads of States and Governments of the African Union. However, the mass rollout to African citizens is yet to be implemented.” In the case of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), such implementation of protocol shows a way to adopting an ECA passport and recognition of temporary travel permit to facilitate movement of citizens of the member states.
Likewise, this time, Africans are enjoying visa-free entry to only 25 percent of other African countries, must secure visas on arrival in 24 percent, and must have visas to travel to 51 percent. An electronic visa was available in 24 African countries in 2021. Visa restrictions rose in 2021 due to the reduction in the number of countries offering visa-free access or visas on arrival. Most visa-open countries in 2021 were in West Africa, while the remaining was in Eastern, Southern and North Africa. The Arab Maghreb Union, ECOWAS, EAC and SADC are performing well particularly on open reciprocity, the report noted.
Again, on the Experts’ Group Meeting to Review the Policy Report on the theme; “The Free Movement of Persons for Trade: Towards an Accelerated Ratification of the AU Free Movement of Persons Protocol in Support of the implementation of the AfCFTA” held in March 2023, in Nairobi, Kenya, Karingi called African nations for the speedy ratification of the Protocol and endorsement of the free movement of people across their borders to boost the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
According to the director, though 33 African states have adopted the Free Movement of Persons Protocol in 2018, only four African states have ratified the protocol to date. “The state of ratification is disheartening, to say the least, given that the Protocol is aimed at facilitating regional integration in general, and the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), in particular,” Karingi said.
The two days experts’ group meeting reviewed the policy report from the joint study by the African Union Commission (AUC) and ECA. The joint study disclosed that the benefits of the free movement of persons for the implementation of the AfCFTA and identified factors behind the slow ratification of the Protocol.
The slow ratification of the Protocol has been attributed to lack of knowledge and appreciation of the benefits of free movement of persons, lack of awareness of the Protocol, lack of political will, security and health concerns. Furthermore, the study recommended spirited advocacy and sensitization campaigns targeting member states and civil societies to initiate domestic processes for ratifying the Protocol.
Karingi noted that while some of the concerns around ratifying the Protocol were valid, policymakers and African citizens should be made aware of the support available to address some of the technical concerns raised. “Free movement of persons can be a catalyst for entrepreneurship and trade, providing employment opportunities and addressing poverty and inequality,” Karingi noted.
In addition, the Director of Trade in Services, Investment, Intellectual Property Rights and Digital Trade at the AfCFTA Secretariat, Emily Mburu-Ndoria, pinpointed that peoples’ free movement across the continent is a key to the successful implementation of the AfCFTA because business people can move across the continent, thereby boosting economic growth. “Trade and mobility on the African continent are interweaved and the greater conditions for the mobility of workers have the potential to lower unemployment rates, promote integration and Pan-Africanism,” Mburu-Ndoria said.
To conclude what has been entertained above, the African continent is in its better position to realize the objectives that make the continent a favorable place to its citizens. The beginning of the African Free Trade Area could be a gear shifter to seek the desired goals. Implementing the objectives of the Free Trade Area, the question of free movement of people comes along. To this end, member states and responsible organizations should exert their effort to ratify the protocol. Such protocols have the capacity to work as a catalyst towards the realization of the Africa We Want.
The Ethiopian Herald April 16/2023
