Introduction

Regional integration, regional cooperation, regional coordination, regional harmonisation, regionalism, alternative/new regionalism, pan-Africanism, African unity…. All are processes, strategies and ideologies aimed at encompassing the current limits, dysfunctions and weaknesses of African states. The vast number and diversity of these approaches concede that these attempts have encountered numerous difficulties. The above list also underlines the fact that two major levels have emerged that remain crucial today: the continental scale and the macro-regional scale, different not only in their size, but also in their aims and instruments. Moreover, they demonstrate the problems associated with bypassing the national scale in Africa. Despite their institutional and technical gaps, African states remain central and key stakeholders in the political arena.

This debate also revives an ancient implicit questioning of the most suitable scale for development and, consequently, for capacity building. From the local to the regional, and through all the intermediate levels, development has been conceived and practised at different levels by different actors during the course of the 20th century. The difference between the most local village-based projects (such as the NAAM projects in Burkina Faso or the CAMPFIRE programme in Zimbabwe), still favoured by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) like Manitese, and the ‘trans-boundary conservation and development areas’ that contribute to the protection and maintenance of biological diversity, as well as to the promotion of social and economic development (IUCN, nd), is huge.

The current debates on the post-2015 sustainable development agenda also emphasise a regional dimension at the core of the agenda, together with both national and global components. This regional level should be tailored to regional needs, to identify regional trends, obstacles, commonalities, best practices and lessons learned. This regional operating scale should include the various stakeholders and be participatory (UN General Assembly, 2014). There is no doubting the relevance of the regional level for the future of African countries and the continent as a whole. The issue is more about strategies and choices adapted to African contexts. Furthermore, recent security threats (such as Al-Shabab, Ansar Dine and Boko Haram) and health issues (like the Ebola pandemic) increase the need for regional responses and mechanisms to counter security and safety concerns, especially in developing countries.