FOOD INSECURITY AND TRADE BARRIERS IN WEST AFRICA: IMPLICATIONS FOR ECOWAS REGIONAL INTEGRATION

Abstract

Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, was set up in 1975 by fifteen West African member states following the signing of Lagos Treaty by the fifteen member states. The regional body had the aim of integrating West African region through cooperation, which will improve on the lives of its citizens. To discuss and understand better what integration is all about, this paper adopted regional integration theoretical framework of Ernst Haas’s Regional Cooperation of Neo-Functionalism, which focused on spillover and gradual shifting of national loyalty to the supra-national. It also highlighted the concept of food insecurity as well as causes of food insecurity in West Africa. Such causes included: impact of climate change, high cost of food prices, challenges of farmers having little or no access to government agricultural inputs, poverty, conflicts, corruption, and lack of modern infrastructure. Besides, challenges to trade and the threat to regional integration were examined such as, lack of documentation and data on the volume of intra-regional informal trade, harassment and intimidation on trade corridors by security agents, existence of national trade barriers and restrictions, insecurity, smuggling, lack of citizens participation and lack of ECOWAS single currency. More so, Conclusion and recommendations were made in the course of this research work.