INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT IN THE INTER-GOVERNMENTAL AUTHORITY ON DEVELOPMENT (IGAD) REGION: BOTTLENECKS AND PROSPECTS FOR REGIONAL INTEGRATION

Abstract

IGAD was established as a practical approach to address the socio-economic

constraints of the region. Those challenges include poverty, drought, civil war and foreign dependency. IGAD has strongly recognised the development and expansion of the regional market as the cornerstone of its comprehensive development strategy. As clearly demonstrated in the preamble of the Agreement Establishing IGAD, it pursues comprehensive cooperation on the basis of equality and mutual benefit with the view to achieve regional integration. In the preamble of Article 7(b) of the Agreement establishing IGAD the organisation sought to cap its efforts by attaining a complete economic union through the harmonisation of agricultural, industrial, transport and communication, energy and infrastructural development as well as common economic and monetary policies between member states. This study dealt the role of infrastructure in the IGAD region as basic factor of regional integration in the Horn of Africa. The study analyses IGAD and its

performance in relation to the development of infrastructure. The study, therefore, articulates the emerging role of IGAD in the development of infrastructures search for the attainment of regional integration. This paper, thus, will look at the challenges associated with infrastructure development in the IGAD region and pinpoint policy recommendations on mechanisms to enhance infrastructure constraints.