Good Practices Platform on Cross-Border Cooperation in Africa

Since the inception of the African Union Border Programme (AUBP), the African Ministers in charge of Borders Issues highlighted the importance of maintaining close networks among relevant institutions in Africa for the successful achievement of the AUBP’s objectives, thus recognizing the critical need for synergies between the AUBP, the RECs and other actors working on border management. In their Declarations (2007, 2010, 2012 and 2016), They emphasized the need for collaboration between the continental and regional bodies – in order to avoid gaps and ensure synergy between their respective border-related policies and activities. 

On this basis, the AUBP took the initiative to invite all RECs currently acknowledged by the African Union to a joint coordination meeting hosted by the ECOWAS in Abuja, Nigeria, on 29-31 October 2013. As put in the report, the purpose of the meeting was to create a platform to encourage interaction and networking between the AUBP and the RECs, and among the RECs; and to develop a road map for further collaboration and synergy in implementing an integrated approach to border management on the continent.  The basis for the meeting was the ministerial declarations on the AUBP and its implementation modalities.  The meeting was governed by the overarching principles of subsidiarity between the regional and the continental levels.

The meeting resulted in the development of joint roadmap between the AUBP and RECs defining their roles and responsibilities in terms of border management and identifying interaction tools to allow a flawless cooperation. The RECs presented to the AUBP (and vice versa) their policy status and activities on Delimitations and Demarcation, Cross Border Cooperation, Capacity building and resource mobilisation efforts and identify areas of cooperation, cross fertilisation and experience sharing and where synergies could be built to complement each other’s work and reach the common overall goal of African integration. The discussion resulted in the adoption of a joint strategic roadmap depicting roles and responsibilities of the regional and continental level.

Both RECs and AUBP recognized the need to have such an exchange platform. As a result, periodical coordination meetings on border governance in Africa was put in place to ensure complementarity through smooth exchange, interaction and cooperation, and follow up on decisions taken.

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Cross-border cooperation, as one of the main components of the African Union Border Programme (AUBP), is, when implemented properly and widely across the continent, a way to:

• structurally prevent conflicts by addressing their root causes;
• secure borderlands through the provision of more effective and efficient border control;
• facilitate the free movement of persons and goods;
• promote the socioeconomic development of borderlands;
• promote local diplomacy through the strengthening of good neighborly relations.

Aware of the added value of cross-border cooperation as a strategic objective for the implementation of the AUBP, the African Ministers in charge of Border Issues stated, in their Declaration of June 7, that “the Commission of the African Union should take the necessary steps to ensure that cross-border cooperation is included in major international initiatives launched in favor of the continent, as well as play a coordination role and facilitate the exchange of information and good practices between the Regional Economic Communities” ( Declaration BP/MIN/Decl.(II) on the African Union Border Programme and its Implementation modalities. Conference of African Ministers in charge of Border Issues, Addis Ababa, 7 June 2007). The Ministers also emphasized in 2012 the following:

• the effective implementation, by the AUC and the Regional Economic Communities (RECs), of an exchange programme on cross-border cooperation among African states and other stakeholders;
• the preparation by the AU Commission, in close collaboration with the RECs, of a Plan of Action to encourage and support local initiative cross-border cooperation, being understood that Member States will take all the necessary measures to facilitate this cooperation (Declaration AUBP/EXP-MIN/7 (5) on the African Union Border Programme, 3^rd Conference held in Niamey (Niger) on 17 May 2012. The 21^st Ordinary Session of the Executive Council, endorsed the Declaration of May 2012 (DOC. Ex. CL/726(XXI), and requested Member States and RECs and other stakeholders to take the necessary steps to ensure its implementation).

The declaration on the African Union Border Programme and Measures for its Consolidation of 6 October 2016, requested the Commission to “facilitate the publication of Good practices”. It was in this spirit that the 3^rd AUBP-RECs/RMs Coordination Meeting on Border Management in Africa, held from 9 to 10 November 2017, agreed to Develop “a good practices Platform that enables the exchange of experiences by all RECs on Border Related Issues”.

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The 4th Ministerial Conference, in October 2016, again requested the “effective coordination between the AUC and RECs regarding the implementation of activities together with Member States and partners, encouraged the full respect for the principles of subsidiarity and complementarity”.

• Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD), Tripoli, Libya
• Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), Lusaka, Zambia
• East African Community (EAC), Arusha, Tanzania
• Eastern Africa Standby Force Coordination Mechanism (EASFCOM), Nairobi, Kenya
• Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), Libreville, Gabon
• Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Abuja, Nigeria
• Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), Djibouti, Djibouti
• Southern African Development Community (SADC), Gaborone, Botswana
• North African Regional Capability (NARC), Tripoli, Libya
• Union du Maghreb Arabe (UMA), Rabat, Morocco

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