Regional Economic Communities
(REC's) of Africa
Africa's Regional Economic Communities (RECs) include eight sub regional bodies which are the building blocks of the African Economic Community established in the 1991 Abuja Treaty which provides the overarching framework for continental economic integration. These are:
in the north, in the west, in the east, also in the east, in the south, in the southeast, in the centre, and in the north.
Africa’s RECs do not only constitute key building blocks for economic integration in Africa, but are also key actors working in collaboration with the African Union (AU), in ensuring peace and stability in their regions.
As the building blocks and implementing arms of the African Union (AU), the RECs have been central to various transformative programs of the continent, including the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) adopted in 2001, and the AU’s Agenda 2063 adopted by its Summit in January 2015, and its First Ten-Year Implementation Plan adopted by the 25th Summit of the AU in June 2015.
Beyond their role in peace and security, RECs have the immense challenge of working with governments, civil society and the AU Commission in raising the standard of living of the people of Africa and contributing towards the progress and development of the continent through economic growth and social development.
The RECs will be highly essential and instrumental for the effective implementation, financing, monitoring and evaluation of Agenda 2063 and its flagship programmes, at particularly the regional levels. As African Union’s 50-year structural transformation and development plan for realizing the Pan-African vision of “an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the global arena,” Agenda 2063 provides a new impetus for enhanced engagement by the RECs.
