A Critical Analysis of the Role of Civil Societies in Fostering Regional Integration within the SADC Region
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25159/2663-6549/11876Keywords:
regional integration, Southern Africa, civil society, Africa, Southern African Development Community, SADCAbstract
There is a corpus of knowledge on the challenges of regional integration (RI) in Africa, and Southern Africa in particular. What emerges from this body of knowledge is that the key issues pertaining to RI are not uniformly addressed, and they are largely framed from state-centric thinking, which is mostly rooted within a Westernised worldview. This paper argues that civil society has a significant role to play in the realisation of the full potential of RI in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. The authors concede that there are numerous challenges to the envisaged role of civil society. As such, they use the findings of the research for this paper to propose solutions for consideration by policymakers.
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Accepted 2023-04-28
Published 2023-07-21
