Regional community in southern Africa has been limited to the region’s states. As a result, deeper notions of community emanating from non-state actors, particularly transnational social movements, continue to be ignored. In an attempt to transcend state centrism, this thesis highlights alternative forms of regional community by exploring the Zion Christian Church (ZCC), one of southern Africa’s biggest and fastest growing cross-border movements. The ZCC is a potential agent for developing regional community from the bottom-up, driving a people-oriented regional integration approach in southern Africa. The ZCC, with its extensive following among the region’s poor, offers a compelling example of a grassroots and truly bottom-up approach to regional community. This thesis explores the possibility of the ZCC as a model of alternative community and identity centred on people’s daily experiences and grounded in a shared history and solidarity. It seeks to highlight the significance of transnational movements like the ZCC to policy makers in the region and it argues that grassroots communities are marching ahead of SADC member states and politicians in the area of integration. There exists a transnational cooperation amongst followers of the ZCC and other grassroots communities across the region and this cooperation transcends the traditional notion of state sovereignty, thereby highlighting deeper notions of what it means to be a community at regional level.

The process which culminated in the establishment of the East African Community (EAC) in 1967 started in the early 1920s. The idea was first conceived in Britain. Initially, East Africans vehemently opposed this idea fearing that it would sustain British hegemony in the region, but their resentment did not prevent the establishment of the East African High Commission (EAHC) in January 1948. It was only in the 1950s and 1960s that East African leaders embraced the idea due to political and economic reasons. In 1961 they converted the EAHC into the East African Common Services Organisation (EACSO) and in 1967 they established the EAC. Nationalism and sub-nationalisms in the region cast a spell on the EAC. The coup, which took place in Uganda in 1971, strained relations between Idi Amin and Presidents Nyerere and Kenyatta thus making it impossible to hold regional meetings. Eventually, the EAC collapsed in June 1977. / Political Science / M.A. (Politics)

This research summarizes, compares and analyzes the origins and developments of integration in Europe, Asia and Africa since World War Two. There have been some interesting findings. Europe has been the most successful region, having realized free movements of people, goods, services and money in several countries within the European Union (EU). Africa has been more advanced in institutional integration than Asia, although its level of economic development, constrained by instability, corruption, and poor socio-economic conditions, has hindered integration; meanwhile, its regional economic communities (RECs) have been more successful than the continental organization. Despite the improved economic conditions, Asia has been experiencing difficulties in community building due to lack of consensus and a partnership among major powers. There has not been any continental organization in Asia; nor has the subregional grouping, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), progressed far in economic and political integration. / x, 327 leaves : ill. ; 29 cm

The process which culminated in the establishment of the East African Community (EAC) in 1967 started in the early 1920s. The idea was first conceived in Britain. Initially, East Africans vehemently opposed this idea fearing that it would sustain British hegemony in the region, but their resentment did not prevent the establishment of the East African High Commission (EAHC) in January 1948. It was only in the 1950s and 1960s that East African leaders embraced the idea due to political and economic reasons. In 1961 they converted the EAHC into the East African Common Services Organisation (EACSO) and in 1967 they established the EAC. Nationalism and sub-nationalisms in the region cast a spell on the EAC. The coup, which took place in Uganda in 1971, strained relations between Idi Amin and Presidents Nyerere and Kenyatta thus making it impossible to hold regional meetings. Eventually, the EAC collapsed in June 1977. / Political Science / M.A. (Politics)

African Union (AU) multilateral efforts in governance flounder at the level of implementation and their substantive intervention worth do not accord with the aspirations embodied in adopted normative frameworks and instruments. The research served to uncover the policy and delivery challenges within the overall AU institutional system as a means of providing a perspective on the future of AU governance mechanisms and related intervention modalities. Detailed empirical engagement, through an institutional lens, with norm formation and implementation in accountability, the rule of law and state capacity, and related delivery practices, enabled the extraction of crucial efficacy challenges in the AU institutional system. The exploration, using evidence embodied in documents from the AU governance implementation system, served to confirm that the AU continues to struggle between the imperatives of integration through established shared values and the exercise of state sovereignty. Within the policy-delivery nexus, the research points to the importance of agency by AU institutions and how practices and incentives serve to pervert the aspiration for a multilateral value-adding system in governance. In addition to providing a comprehensive historical macro-overview of AU governance intervention and related implementation modalities, the research served to uncover the implementation ‘black-box’ through a careful and comprehensive study of practices in each of the governance intervention terrains. The institutional focus serves to affirm that answerability for performance in the use of public resource and the structuring of organisations, matter for delivery and the production of substantive regional integration value. The core efficacy challenges at the level of AU multilateral engagements and implementation, such as norm proliferation, the exercise of power and sovereignty, staffing and capacity gaps, point to the need for a substantive and strategic reorientation of the AU governance normative framework and related intervention modalities. As an outcome of the analysis and reflection, a ‘norm graduating model’ is proposed to accommodate contextual realities in AU Member States on the back of historically hard-fought-for shared values in governance. At the level of implementation modalities, efficacy challenges point to the importance of a more tempered and realistic delivery approach. The primary focus in the immediate term should be on building governance through a diffused peer-engagement strategy culminating in norm compliance and full adherence to the provisions of established AU governance instruments over the long-term. / Public Administration and Management / Ph. D. (Public Administration)

This study sought to establish the critical underpinnings for the organisational effectiveness of regional integration institutions (RIIs). The interest arose out of a general observation of failure by RIIs in Africa to effectively achieve the objectives for which they were established. Informed by theories of organisational effectiveness, the study hypothesised that RIIs are likely to be effective in achieving the objectives for which they were established if the basic fundamentals of organisational effectiveness theory are embedded in their institutional structures, systems and processes. The East African Community (EAC) was used as a unit of analysis. A comparative analysis of the world's most advanced RII, the European Union (EU) was also undertaken. The findings revealed that the basic fundamentals of organisational effectiveness theory are only weakly ingrained in the EAC while deeply embedded in the EU. Recommendations were made on how the EAC could improve its organisational effectiveness. / PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION / MA (PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION)

This study sought to establish the critical underpinnings for the organisational effectiveness of regional integration institutions (RIIs). The interest arose out of a general observation of failure by RIIs in Africa to effectively achieve the objectives for which they were established. Informed by theories of organisational effectiveness, the study hypothesised that RIIs are likely to be effective in achieving the objectives for which they were established if the basic fundamentals of organisational effectiveness theory are embedded in their institutional structures, systems and processes. The East African Community (EAC) was used as a unit of analysis. A comparative analysis of the world's most advanced RII, the European Union (EU) was also undertaken. The findings revealed that the basic fundamentals of organisational effectiveness theory are only weakly ingrained in the EAC while deeply embedded in the EU. Recommendations were made on how the EAC could improve its organisational effectiveness. / PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION / MA (PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION)