This paper sets out to review and critically examine the Agenda 2063, a strategic long term planning instrument for the development of Africa in the next fifty years, prepared by the African Union Commission on the occasion of celebrating the OAU/AU golden jubilee in 2013. The objectives of this paper were to examine the viability of the agenda, to elucidate critical issues underpinning its successful implementation, to analyze its strengths and weaknesses, and to suggest ways of dealing with persisting challenges. Through perusal of the agenda 2063 and various other documents related to it, the authors build their argument around three thematic issues namely: Agenda 2063 and African Integration, socioeconomic aspects of Agenda 2063 and the political ideological basis of the agenda. Limitations and challenges have been explored and recommendations formulated. It was noticed that Agenda 2063 provides an excellent vision for African countries and African people. It was prepared following a broad-based bottom-up participatory approach, and advocates for inclusion and empowerment of all groups of people. However, the point was made that the agenda 2063 is likely to be confronted by the same or similar setbacks which prevented previous African long term plans from achieving significant results. These include limited finances, lack of ownership, lack of political will, diverse and sometimes conflicting interests, and lack of ideological backup to sustain the vision. Thus, unless adequate measures are put in place to overcome these challenges, Agenda 2063 may be added to the pile of the many other planning documents which were never implemented.
The proponents of African regional integration hoped to create large economic spaces that allow economies of scale, increased efficiency, competitiveness and faster growth of Africa states. Whereas the linear model of regional integration seemed to have worked for the European Union, many have questioned its applicability in the African context. The applicability of the Linear model at the stages of Regional Economic Communities (RECs) like the EAC has met with significant stagnation primarily because of some bottlenecks such as poor infrastructure that limits the connectivity with the continent and lack of political will out of fear for the loss of sovereignty. The question thus lies in how the dream for a regionally united Africa will arise when its people cannot move and interact freely within the continent? By utilizing a secondary research design, this paper, therefore, sought to not only examine the effectiveness of the linear model of regional integration for Africa but also explore the possibility of incorporating the functionalist and federalist approach into an inclusive model for African regional integration. In examining the economic dynamics of regional integration, the paper identifies the benefits of economic integration, such as larger markets as a result of free movement of people and goods that could be harnessed by trading communities within Africa. Thus, the central argument in this paper does not discard the benefits and successes of the linear model of regional integration but concludes that its effectiveness can be enhanced by incorporating functionalist and at later stages federalist approaches to regional integration in Africa. The principal argument is that political and elitist integration agreements are futile when the continent is not connected physically and trade wise.
Using protection motivation theory as the theoretical framework, this study investigates the factors that motivate COVID-19 response in Ghana, Cameroon, Lesotho and Uganda. Through simple random and snowball sampling techniques, 651 participants were selected. The study collected data with the aid of a survey questionnaire, which was analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics. Results show high perceived COVID-19 threats among the respondents. Consequently, response strategies, such as wearing of nose mask, hand sanitizer application and social distancing, which are perceived to be effective, have been adopted. It is evident that respondents’ demographics influence their COVID-19 threats and coping strategies. Nevertheless, the severity of COVID-19 impacts ( p = .00), efficacy of response strategies ( p = .00) and access to COVID-19 information ( p = .02) were the significant predictors of COVID-19 response, even though the efficacy of COVID-19 response strategies (beta = .55) emerged as the best predictor. It is imperative for African governments to prioritize COVID-19 education to control the spread of the pandemic and minimize its impact.
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