1st Edition
Governing Regional Integration for Development Monitoring Experiences, Methods and Prospects
Developing countries have joined the rapidly growing global system of regional trade agreements (RTAs) over the past years. The drive towards regional integration has advanced with the formation of new markets and groups in Latin America, Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Oceania with few developing countries remaining outside these regional schemes. This volume looks at how 'getting governance right' is a central element for successful RTA implementation, taking stock of the quality and effectiveness of the monitoring of development country RTAs around the world. Organized by the main world regions and primarily focusing on developing country RTAs, the book also includes two case studies focused on monitoring in developed country regional agreements by way of comparison. The contributors operationalize governance in the context of RTA implementation with a more narrow and technical term of 'monitoring' and provide eight important lessons for assessing monitoring around the world.
Biography
Philippe De Lombaerde is based at the United Nations University-Comparative Regional Integration Studies (UNU-CRIS), Belgium, Antoni Estevadeordal is based at the Inter-American Development Bank, Washington, USA, and Kati Suominen is based at The German Marshall Fund of the United States, Washington, USA.
'...a unique contribution to the literature on regional economic integration among developing countries. It looks behind the legal texts, communiqués and modelling results to provide a picture of how the machinery of integration is working in practice in developing country initiatives across the continents. The result is a most useful compendium of information that is normally difficult to access. Adding to the fascination of the volume is the opportunity it provides to make comparisons between the different groupings of the experiences, approaches and lessons from their regional economic integration efforts.' Robert Scollay, University of Auckland, New Zealand. 'Governing Regional Integration for Development: Monitoring Experience, Methods and Prospects is the premiere book to suggest that member-States of a regional integration bloc do not only commit to the economic programmes of the bloc but, in addition, adhere, collectively, to the sound political, economic and social governance. It does so by providing insights and "best practices" of regional groupings in the various regions around the world. It is a book accessible to all: the academician, the policymaker and the layperson. Contributes significantly to the discourse on regional integration in Africa and therefore strongly recommended.' Robert M. Okello, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Ethiopia
