Uniting to Develop: Assessing Regional Integration Efforts to Foster Sustainable Development in North-East Africa

Freshwater scarcity, underdeveloped infrastructure, and economy, alongside severe climate conditions of equatorial and near-equatorial areas, have long cast a negative effect on both agri-food policies and development conditions of the African continent in general for the last 25 years at least. Countries of North-East Africa are no exception to this, as severe droughts have numerously caused humanitarian crises in this region, with Ethiopian and Sudan drought and hunger crises being the most acute in the latest decade. Access to freshwater was highlighted both as a crucial value and an international goal in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. With a view to the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, this issue remains vital in the most drought-prone areas of the world, particularly in North-East Africa. This paper assesses joint regional initiatives of the North-East African countries that deal with promoting the MDG/SDG goals. It focuses on the efforts and projects of regional integration groups, such as The IGAD (Intergovernmental Authority on Development) Partner Forum and The Nile Forum (Nile Basin Group) to evaluate the policies that were applied jointly by the countries of North-East Africa region to achieve MDGs and their prospects of continuing any effective joint policy-making in this respect. The paper overlooks the origins and the dynamics of this developing regional integration group in particular and evaluates both the failures and successes that were achieved to this date starting in 1996 (before this date, the Intergovernmental Authority on Drought and Development (IGADD) was in action since 1986). Focal attention in this paper is attached to fighting droughts and overcoming their consequences with the joint effort of all countries in the region. To provide a wider picture of prospects of regional cooperation in fighting poverty, hunger, severe droughts, inequalities of economic development of countries of this region, several bilateral agreements are also analyzed. Possible scenarios for fostering joint regional integration efforts with the help of the UN (especially UNECA) and the international community are suggested.