The Community of Sahel-Saharan States- CEN-SAD

The Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD) was established on 4 February 1998, following the Conference of Leaders and Heads of States held in Tripoli, Libya. CEN-SAD became a regional economic community during the thirty-sixth ordinary session of the Conference of Heads of State and Government of the Organization of African Unity, held in Lomé, Togo, from 4 to 12 July 2000. CEN-SAD gained the observer status at the General Assembly under resolution 56/92, and thereafter, initiated cooperation agreements with numerous regional and international organizations with the purpose of consolidating collective work in the political, cultural, economic and social fields.

Since the extraordinary session of the Conference of Heads of State and Government held in N’Djamena, Chad in February 2013 whose main purpose was to endorse the restructuring and the revival of the Community, CEN-SAD approved a new Treaty prepared from the revision of the first Treaty that established the Community.

The member States of CEN-SAD are: Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, the Comoros, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, the Sudan, Togo and Tunisia.

The first Treaty, the Treaty Establishing the Community of Sahel-Saharan States, specified the following objectives:

(a) Establishment of a comprehensive Economic Union based on a strategy implemented in accordance with a developmental plan that would be integrated in the national development plans of the member States. It includes investment in the agricultural, industrial, social, cultural and energy fields.

(b) Elimination of all obstacles impeding the unity of its member States through adopting measures that would guarantee the following: facilitating the free movement of individuals, capital, and meeting the interest of member States citizens; freedom of residence, work, ownership and economic activity; freedom of the movement of national goods, merchandise and services; encouragement of foreign trade through drawing up and implementing an investment policy for member States; enhancement and improvement of land, air and sea transportation and telecommunications among member States through the implementation of joint projects; and, the consent of the community member States to give the citizens of member States the same rights and privileges provided for in the constitution of each member State.

(c) Coordination of pedagogical and educational systems at the various educational levels, as well as in the cultural, scientific and technical fields.

These objectives were given a new focus by the revised Treaty that emphasized two areas of deepened cooperation, namely:

Regional security, and
Sustainable development.

The revised Treaty will enter into force, in accordance with article 53, after fifteen ratifications have been completed. To date, thirteen member States have ratified the Treaty[1].

Selected regional indicators for CEN-SAD (2014) [2]
GDP	$1,350.7 billion
GDP per capita	$1,363.8
Area (sq. km)	14.3 million sq. km
Total population	553 million
Total imports	$312.1 billion
Total exports	$244.3 billion

Source: United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, statistical database[1]

The organizational structure of CEN-SAD under the revised Treaty consists of the following organs and Institutions:

The Conference of Heads of State/Government
The Executive Council
The permanent Peace and Security Council
The permanent Council in charge of Sustainable Development
The Committee of Ambassadors and Permanent Representatives
The General Secretariat
The Economic Social and Cultural Council (ESCC)
The Sahel-Sharan Bank for Investment and Trade

CEN-SAD Pillars for Integration

Page Source: www.uneca.org Accessed: April 2020

Trade and Market Integration Macroeconomic Policy Convergence Free Movement of Persons Peace, Security, Stability and Governance Harmonisation of Sectoral Policies

Market integration is at the heart of CEN-SAD objectives for cooperation among its member States. The ordinary sessions of the Conference of Leaders and Heads of State of CEN-SAD suggests acceleration of regional integration and economic development through policy harmonization initiatives, as indicated by the 1991 Abuja Treaty.[1] This includes trade liberalization programmes that deal with non-tariff barriers and other trade promoting activities as a part of the proposed free trade area (FTA)[2]. Yet, the FTA is still waiting to be implemented and is delayed due to technical reasons and the current political instability in the region.

In addition, some political and economic factors have also been identified as the cause of the status-quo. The primary reason being, the overlapping of regional economic community memberships by almost all CEN-SAD member States, where most are members of regional economic communities that have gone considerably further in their trade integration processes, thereby making the political and economic incentives for further CEN-SAD integration low. A practical example is the unwillingness of more than half of the members to pay the required membership contribution to CEN-SAD.[3] Political differences between member States and weakened domestic governance have similarly contributed to the high level of inefficiency in the regional economic community.

[1] Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community.

[2] See the Summit reports for further information regarding projected regional integration and economic development plans. Also see the Report of the sixth ordinary session of the Executive Council, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, 22 – 23 August 2001, where other plans were presented.

[3] Economic Commission for Africa, Assessing Regional Integration in Africa II (2006). Available from http://www.uneca.org/sites/default/files/PublicationFiles/aria2_eng.pdf.

The overall objective of CEN-SAD is to establish an Economic Union with financial and macroeconomic convergence as articulated in article 1 of the Treaty Establishing CEN-SAD. Yet, weak efforts to fulfil the proposed objective have been made in the CEN-SAD configuration insofar as promoting interregional economic community harmonization of macroeconomic and financial policies, and institutional cooperation of such matters. Several member States, however, are advancing in the stated areas of integration because of parallel initiatives outside the regional economic community scheme. The relatively good performance of CEN-SAD on financial and macroeconomic integration is linked to the presence of the West African Economic and Monetary Union and the Central African Economic and Monetary Community member States that share a common currency in the franc zone.[1]

[1] Economic Commission for Africa, Africa Regional Integration Index 2016. Available from http://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Generic-Documents/A….

Based on article 1 of the Treaty Establishing CEN-SAD, free movement of people is a core objective of this regional economic community. It stipulates that the same rights, advantages and obligations granted to a member State’s own citizens should be applied to nationals of the signatory countries, in conformity with the provisions of their respective constitutions. Implementation of the specific objective has been stagnant, but a number of CEN-SAD member States have been increasingly liberalizing their policies and have successfully implemented schemes to foster the intraregional movement of people. The primary reason for the success is overlapping memberships with ECOWAS that are far along in liberalizing cross-border mobility restrictions.

CEN-SAD Community is the region where instability is the most endemic in Africa. In effect, due to its geographical positioning between Western Europe, the Sahel-Saharan space has long been subject to a strong migratory turbulence. In addition to this, it has become the place of most of intra-African conflicts and the sanctuary of all of the continent’s jihadist movements. Thus, peace, security and stability have become essential topics within the Community.

Peace, security and stability in the Sahel-Saharan region is supported by the provisions of the CEN-SAD Security Charter (2000) and the Niamey Declaration[1] that was adopted in May 2003. The maintenance of peace and stability is derived through a process of normalization of relations with countries affected by conflict. In the event of armed conflicts or political instabilities, the convention regulates that a number of procedures are followed: Protocol on Prevention Mechanism, Management and Resolution of Conflicts; Convention on Cooperation on security issues; and the realization of the Security Charter.[2] The procedures are intended to function in cooperation with the United Nations protocols and the Peace and Security Council of the African Union.

There were a number of conflicts where CEN-SAD member States have had difficulties fulfilling the protocols, including conflicts in the Central Africa Republic, South Sudan and the Sudan, post-conflict developments between Eritrea and Ethiopia, and the uprisings and aftermath of the Arab Spring.[3] The latter conflicts have had a direct impact on the implementation of activities and programmes of the regional economic community – thus, hampering operational functions in general, and peace and security matters in particular, causing overall devaluation of CEN-SAD activities.

More recently however, at the fifth CEN-SAD Defence Ministers meeting, held on 25 March 2016, in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt. Delegates from CEN-SAD member States adopted the 2009 Sharm-el-Sheikh Declaration to reinforce cooperation in the field of anti-terrorism and security. It was decided that a regional counter-terrorism centre had to be created for the member States with its headquarters in Egypt. The participants also approved a revised draft for a conflict prevention, management and resolution mechanism of CEN-SAD. A draft protocol for future establishment and operation of the Permanent Peace and Security Council of CEN-SAD was likewise agreed on.[4]

[1] The strong political resolve and determination of CEN-SAD member States in regard to peace was again displayed by the Security Charter of the Community signed on 5 February 2000, in N’djamena, Chad, which reaffirmed the need to promote peace and security. This Charter led to the Niamey Declaration on Conflict Prevention and Peaceful Settlement of Disputes, adopted during the fifth CEN-SAD Summit in Niger (14-15 March 2003).

[2] For an example of a summit engaged in peace talks between Chad and Sudan in 2006, see http://minurcat.unmissions.org/Portals/MINURCAT/Tripoli%20Agreement.pdf.

[3] Abdalla Bujra and Hussein Solomon, Perspectives on the OAU/AU and Conflict Management in Africa Edited (African Centre for Applied Research and Training in Social Development, CEN-SAD and Development Management Policy Forum, 2004, pp. i–9).

[4] Galal Nassar, “CEN-SAD unites against terror”, Al-Ahram Weekly, 31 March 2016. Available from http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/15936/17/CEN-SAD-unites-against-terror.a…

The Treaty Establishing CEN-SAD specifies the harmonization of sectoral policies among member States as part of the overall ambition of establishing an Economic Union. It is expressed in terms of collaboration on political, cultural, economic and social issues, and in the areas of land improvement, air and sea transportation and telecommunications among member States through the implementation of joint projects. Harmonization and coordination of pedagogical and educational systems at the various educational levels in the cultural, scientific and technical fields are likewise stated in the Treaty. Two of its main areas of work are security and environmental management, which include its flagship project to create the Great Green Wall of trees across the Sahel.

In practice, CEN-SAD has fallen behind schedule in implementing the integration stages of the Abuja Treaty and has been stagnant on stage two – eliminating tariff barriers and non-tariff barriers within the regional economic community. The key challenges faced by CEN-SAD include overlapping memberships of its member States to other regional economic communities and regional integration arrangements on the continent, as well as a weakened institutional body caused by political instability and lack of political commitment among its member States.[1]

[1] African Union, Highlights – Status of Integration in Africa V, (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2014). Available from http://au.int/en/sites/default/files/newsevents/workingdocuments/12582-w….

For More Information

The Headquarters of CEN-SAD

Tripoli, Libya.
CEN-SAD Secretariat,
Place d’Algeria, P.O. Box 4041

Fax : +218 21 3346854

Tel: +218 21 3614832, +218 21 3614832

E-mail: censad_sg@yahoo.com

Web: http://www.censad.org.

Resources

CEN-SAD - UNECA

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