"After their independence, African countries undertook to establish sub-regional organisations in order to join their efforts towards improving the living standard of their populations. Primarily vested with economic objectives, these sub-regional organisations, aware that economic development cannot be attained withouth peace, security and political stability, are more and more involved with political issues, especially since the 'democratic wind' of the early 1990s. It is therefore interesting to study how sub-regional integration as an external factor affects democracy domestically, that is to contemplate to what extent this sub-regional integration is contributing to the strengthening of democracy in Africa, and to research ways of enhancing this contribution. ... The study is structured into four main chapters. The introductory chapter contains the research design. The second chapter is devoted to an overview of sub-regional integration. It examines the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), but without losing sight of other groupings. The third chapter analyses the way the ECOWAS is dealing with the issue of democratic consolidation. It is interested in the question of whether the ECOWAS has an express policy and whether it has set standards as regards democratic consolidation in West Africa and, if so, how effective this policy and these standards have been so far. The fourth chapter is devoted to summary, conclusion and recommendations." -- Introduction. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2005. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/academic_pro/llm1/dissertations.html / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

This academic research is focusing on the role of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) in the maintenance of peace and security in Central Africa. It assesses the effectiveness of this Regional Economic Community in dealing with issues relating to peace and security. The study firstly discusses the legal framework that supports the mandate of the Central African subregional institution in the field of peace and security, and then it addresses its peace and security architecture. Secondly, this work stresses the achievements made by ECCAS in coping with security issues; it also stresses its shortcomings and examine the reasons behind them. Most importantly, although this research highlights the shortcomings of the ECCAS in maintaining stability and peace in the Central African subregion, it strongly advocates that the role played by ECCAS should not be underestimated and therefore, it makes some recommendations which can contribute to its rationalisation and make it more effective. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2011. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/ / nf2012 / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

Text in English, abstract in English, Afrikaans and Northern Sotho / This study examines why post-colonial African states are not able to institutionalise the ideal ethical and democratic societies, given their access to international best practices and the abundance of human and natural resources; why the future of democracy in Africa remains uncertain despite the current efforts at democratisation; if western democracy can be implemented in Africa; why the West is able to produce better systems of governance; why leaders and managers find it daunting to create the kind of society that is inspiring, ethical, immune to bureaucracy, and that possesses excellent economic performance; how leaders, members of the community, bureaucrats, corporate executives and managers can contribute to the realisation of the ethical and ideal African state; and the options for alternative democratic order for the African continent. The inability of post-colonial African states to institute systems and strategies that adequately address the needs and expectations of their citizens has created chaos and anarchy that in some states can be likened to Hobbes state of nature where the weak is at the mercy of the strong and life is nasty, brutish and short. While the West has been largely blamed for playing a significant role in Africa’s inability to effectively manage itself, other theorists criticise African leaders and the community members for their inability to conduct themselves ethically and to implement a constructive and effective system of governance. It is imperative that African states devise adequate means of ethically administering their territories in a manner that meets societal expectations and needs, and in order to avoid intractable socio-political and economic complications. / Hierdie studie ondersoek die redes waarom postkoloniale Afrika-lande nie die ideale etiese en demokratiese samelewings instabiliseer nie, gegewe hul toegang tot internasionale beste praktyke en die oorvloed van menslike en natuurlike hulpbronne; waarom die toekoms van demokrasie in Afrika onduidelik bly ten spyte van die huidige pogings vir demokratisering; as westerse demokrasie in Afrika geïmplementeer kan word; waarom die Weste beter stelsels van bestuur kan lewer; hoekom leiers en bestuurders dit skrikwekkend vind om die soort samelewing wat inspirerend, eties, immuun vir burokrasie is, te skep en wat uitstekende ekonomiese prestasie besit; hoe leiers, lede van die gemeenskap, burokrate, korporatiewe bestuurders en bestuurders kan bydra tot die verwesenliking van die etiese en ideale Afrika-staat; en die opsies vir alternatiewe demokratiese orde vir die Afrika-kontinent. Die onvermoë van post-koloniale Afrika-state om stelsels en strategieë in te stel wat die behoeftes en verwagtinge van hul burgers voldoende aanspreek, het chaos en anargie geskep wat in sommige state vergelykbaar kan wees met Hobbes se toestand van die natuur, waar die swakeling aan die genade van die wat sterk is afhanklik is en die lewe ‘n nare, brutaal en kort lewe is. Terwyl die Weste grotendeels die blaam kry in terme van hul groot bydra in Afrika se onvermoë om homself doeltreffend te bestuur, kritiseer ander teoretici Afrika-leiers en die gemeenskapslede vir hul eie onvermoë om eties op te tree en om 'n konstruktiewe en effektiewe bestuurstelsel te implementeer. Dit is noodsaaklik dat Afrika-state voldoende middele voorsien om hul gebiede eties te administreer op 'n wyse wat voldoen aan maatskaplike verwagtinge en behoeftes, en om onwikkelbare sosio-politieke en ekonomiese komplikasies te vermy. / Thuto ye e lekola mabaka a gore ke eng dinaga tša ka morago ga bokoloneale di sa kgone go hloma dipeakanyo tša maswanedi tša maitshwaro le ditšhaba tša temokrasi, tšeo di filwego phihlelelo go ditiro tše kaonekaone tša boditšhabatšhaba le bontši bja methopo ya semotho le tlhago: ke ka lebaka la eng Bodikela bo kgona go tšweletša mekgwa ye kaone ya pušo; ke ka lebaka la eng baetapele le balaodi ba hwetša go le boima go hlama mokgwa wa setšhaba seo se nago le mafolofolo, maitshwaro, se sa huetšwego ke mokgwa wa pušo wo o diphetho di tšewago ke bahlanka ba mmušo bao ba sa kgethwago, gomme ba na le tiro ye kgahlišago ka ikonomi; ka moo baetapele, maloko a setšhaba, batšeasephetho ba mmušo ba sa kgethwago, malokopharephare a dikoporasi le balaodi ba ka aba mo go phihlelelong ya maitshwaro le naga ya maswanedi ya Afrika; le go dikgetho tša peakanyo ye e hlatlolanago ya temokrasi mo kontinenteng ya Afrika. Go se kgone ga dinaga tša ka morago ga bokoloneale go hlama mekgwa le maano ao a maleba a go bolela ka ga dinyakwa le ditetelo tša baagi ba bona di hlotše tlhakatlhakano le tlhokapušo yeo mo go dinaga tše dingwe e ka bapetšwago le naga ya Hobbes ka tlhago moo mofokodi a lego ka fase ga yo maatla gomme bophelo bo se bose, bo le šoro le go ba bjo bokopana. Mola Bodikela bo pharwa molato kudu mo go bapaleng karolo ye e tšweletšego mo go se kgonego ga Afrika go itaola ka tshwanelo, borateori ba bangwe ba solago baetapele ba Afrika le maloko a setšhaba mo go se kgonego go itshwara gabotse le go phethagatša mokgwa wo hlamilwego gabotse wo o šomago wa pušo. A bonagala gore dinaga tša Afrika di loga maano a makaone a go laola ka tshwanelo dinagadilete tša bona ka mokgwa wo o tla fihlelelago ditetelo tša setšhaba le dinyakwa, le gore go thibelwe go se boelemorago ga dipolotiki tša selegae le tlhakatlhakano ya ikonomi. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Philosophy)

Thesis M.M. Finance and Investment, Faculty of Commerce, Law And Management (WBS), 2016 / This study seeks to identify and deepen the understanding of the root causes of infrastructure deficit with emphasis on the West African region. Amongst its objectives, the study explores tailored-approaches to infrastructure financing. The study takes direction from literature and similar work in the recent past and employs both conceptual and empirical - trend as well as cross correlation analysis - techniques in addressing its objectives. Literature points to Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) as the most suitable model for infrastructure finance provisioning which this study adopts. The study tests the significance of PPP and in so doing makes recommendations to policy-makers on key factors or barriers such as political stability and the absence of violence, rule of law, regulatory quality, etc. that require attention to enable the efficient use of PPP to mitigate the infrastructure gap within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the resulting consequences. / XL2018

Development economists generally argue that poor countries at their early stages of development are often faced with limited domestic resources for development, and can therefore borrow from the developed nations to boost their rate of growth and development. This financing gap problem, which is based on the Harrod-Domar growth theory, has made developing countries, especially Sub-Saharan Africa, to accumulate large amount of external debt that they could no longer sustain. Moreover, there is now a growing concern that the large external debt service payment is retarding economic growth and investment in the heavily indebted poor countries (HIPCs), while also displacing current expenditure in priority sectors like health, education, and social infrastructure. This dissertation therefore, examines the impact of external debt on economic growth and investment in ECOWAS Sub-Saharan Africa over the period 1980-1999. Unlike the traditional debt and growth studies that use a-spatial methods, this study employs spatial autoregressive growth and investment models to determine the effects of spatial interaction and spatial dependence among ECOWAS countries during the period of the crisis. It is obvious that countries are spatial entities that interact with one another, and as such, the growth trends in one country may actually depend on the growth trajectories of others. Based on the above assumptions, the models use external debt service and total debt stock ratios, which are extracted from the World Bank and African Development Bank databases, as key or control variables plus other explanatory variables. The maximum likelihood estimation of both models yield mixed results across time. The results indicate the presence of both positive and negative spatial dependence in ECOWAS countries across time. While external debt service ratio is found to have an inverse relationship with economic growth in most periods under investigation, the total debt stock to GDP ratio only affect growth in fewer periods than expected. With regards to public investment, the external debt service ratio is found to have no impact on public investment in ECOWAS countries. However, the total debt stock to GDP ratio is found to have a negative relationship with public investment in most periods, which suggest that relying on foreign capital to boost growth and investment could be counter productive in Sub-Saharan Africa. (author's abstract)

No description available.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität, Münster (Westfalen), 2005.

Magister Philosophiae - MPhil

"Ideally, peacekeeping operations demonstrate the concern of the international community in situations of instability or conflict arising between or within states. They are conceived to bring about peace and 'ensure the effective promotion and protection of [human] rights'. As a result, peacekeeping operations as well as peacekeepers are expected to comply with standards of human rights and humanitarian law. With respect to the Economic Community of West African States Cease-Fire Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), its intervention in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau, and Côte d'Ivoire have been generally welcomed as a response to barbaric and devastating wars in West Africa. However, the observation of ECOMOG missions reveals several instances of violations of human rights and humanitarian law committed by ECOMOG peacekeepers. These violations include attacks against civilians, summary executions, rapes, torture, looting, etc. In other words, the saviours have turned into violators of rights. While these violations have provoked concern and indignation, few measures have been taken to address the problem, hold peacekeepers accountable and prevent abuses in the future. ... This study is divided into five chapters. Chapter one provides, among other, the background of the study, the statement of the research problem and the significance of the study. Chapter two gives an insight into the creation, structure, mechanisms and evolution of ECOMOG as the peacekeeping organ of ECOWAS. Chapter three examines the basis for the applicability of human rights and international humanitarian law to peacekeepers and shows the violations committed by the ECOMOG peacekeepers since 1990. Chapter four analyses the responses to abuses committed by ECOMOG peacekeepers. It discusses the national, regional and universal responses to these abuses. It investigates both prevention and accountability mechanisms existing to address abuses committed by ECOMOG peacekeepers. It also explores some potential accountability and prevention mechanisms. Finally, chapter five makes some concluding remarks and suggests specific recommendations for the improvement of the existing responses." -- Introduction. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2004. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/academic_pro/llm1/dissertations.html / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

On 18 November 2010, the Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) held that legal reforms adopted by Senegal in 2007 to incorporate international crimes into the national Penal Code to enable its domestic courts to prosecute Hissene Habre for, among others, crimes against humanity committed in Chad twenty years before, violated the principle of legality, specifically the principle against non-retroactivity of criminal law. The court held that such crimes could be prosecuted only by a hybrid tribunal with the jurisdiction to try Habre for the international crimes based on general principles of law common to the community of nations. Some scholars opined that the ECOWAS decision was wrong, stating that the crimes in question were criminalised already under international law and that Senegal‟s legal reforms simply served jurisdictional purposes. Given that, as a core component of the principle of legality, the role of non-retroactivity is to prohibit the creation of new crimes and their application to past conduct, the opinions of such scholars may hold true. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2011. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/ / nf2012 / Centre for Human Rights / LLM