Civil society participation in regional integration in Africa: A comparative analysis of ECOWAS,SADC, and the EAC

There is an undeniable trend towards civil society participation in virtually all issue-areas of global governance, yet civil society participation varies widely among international organisation (IOs). While this trend has inspired a voluminous academic literature, empirically-based, comparative studies of IO-civil society interaction in Africa remain largely absent. This article therefore examines civil society participation in three African subregional organisations – the East African Community (EAC), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). What are the factors that have made regional integration in ECOWAS relatively more people-driven, and that have thus far hindered effective civil society participation in the affairs of SADC and the EAC? Support from member states, allies in the respective organisation’s bureaucracy, and characteristics of civil society itself, the research shows, affect participation in regional integration, with the latter aspect apparently more salient in SADC and the EAC than in ECOWAS.