Multinational Cooperation for Development in West Africa discusses the obstacles and prospects of organizations that were formed to facilitate considerable cooperation in the developing countries of West Africa. The book describes and analyzes the cooperation movement and the United Nations system and role in fostering the process of cooperation in West Africa. A brief overview of West African characteristics; trends and analysis of development; history of the cooperation movement; issues regarding cooperation in West Africa; potentialities of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS); and the impact of the United Nations on the growth of cooperation in the subregion are elucidated in the text. Students of international studies, researchers, economists, sociologists, political leaders of the West African region, and the staff of United Nations agencies will find this book invaluable.

Africa’s Development Dynamics uses lessons learned in the continent’s five regions – Central, East, North, Southern and West Africa – to develop policy recommendations and share good practices. Drawing on the most recent statistics, this analysis of development dynamics attempts to help African leaders reach the targets of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 at all levels: continental, regional, national and local.

This publication explores current global security issues, their development in West Africa and their potential impact on regional stability. It takes a close look at issues such as terrorism and trafficking, climate change, and the links between security and development.

" Assessing the potential benefits and risks of a currency union Leaders of the fifteen-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have set a goal of achieving a monetary and currency union by late 2020. Although some progress has been made toward achieving this ambitious goal, major challenges remain if the region is to realize the necessary macroeconomic convergence and establish the required institutional framework in a relatively short period of time. The proposed union offers many potential benefits, especially for countries with historically high inflation rates and weak central banks. But, as implementation of the euro over the past two decades has shown, folding multiple currencies, representing disparate economies, into a common union comes with significant costs, along with operational challenges and transitional risks. All these potential negatives must be considered carefully by ECOWAS leaders seeking tomeet a self-imposed deadline. This book, by two leading experts on economics and Africa, makes a significant analytical contribution to the debates now under way about how ECOWAS could achieve and manage its currency union, andthe ramifications for the African continent. "

Explaining the determinants of China and India’s development cooperation in Africa cannot be achieved in simple terms. After collecting over 1000 development cooperation projects by China and India in Africa using AidData, this book applies the method of qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to understand the motives behind their development cooperation. Mthembu posits that neither China nor India were solely motivated by one causal factor, whether strategic, economic or humanitarian interests or the size of their diaspora in Africa. China and India are driven by multiple and conjunctural factors in providing more development cooperation to some countries than others on the African continent. Only when some of these respective causal factors are combined is it evident that both countries disbursed high levels of development cooperation to some African countries.

This book investigates the relationship that Multinational Corporations form with Local Authorities and governments in West Africa. It argues that informal partnerships at the local level can provide significant socioeconomic benefits to communities and overcome shortfalls in state provision of infrastructure and collective goods and services. Drawing on in-depth case studies in Niger, Ghana and Liberia, the book demonstrates that Decentralized Partnerships benefit from lower transaction costs while maintaining profitability and investment protection, whereas in formal relationships between multinationals and local government, asset specificity and uncertainty are high. By complying with informal rules, which are in many ways just as restrictive as formal rules, Multinational Corporations can adapt and acculturate themselves, become actors of territorial authorities and can get around the incompleteness of the contract that binds them to the state. Reflecting on a range of local projects (educational, infrastructural, health, micro-financial, entrepreneurial), this book provides a rich and detailed assessment of the interactions between Local Authorities and Multinational Firms. The book will be useful to upper-level students and researchers across the fields of economics, business, sociology, anthropology and African studies as well as to development practitioners and regional and international organizations with interest in the functioning of Multinational Corporations in local environments.

This atlas describes the West African region, its population, settlement, territories, its economy and its vulnerabilities. It analyses the developments and the ways in which West Africa is conforming to a constantly changing global environment.