During the last quarter-century, global economic growth has
soared, but Africa continued to lose ground. Indeed, the
continent's share of world exports fell from 4.6 percent in 1980
to 1.8 percent in 2000, and its share of world imports declined
from 3.6 percent to 1.6 percent over the same period. Africa's
share of global flows of foreign direct investment (FDI) also
fell, from 1.8 percent in 1986-1990 to 0.8 percent in 1999-2000.
Can regional economic groupings, such as the Common Market for
Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the Southern African
Development Community (SADC), help increase trade and bolster
growth? Overall trade flows in southern Africa fell from
US$131.1 billion in 2002 to US$112.3 billion in 2003, with South
Africa -- one of only three countries in the region that
recorded current-account surpluses -- accounting for 65 percent
of the total. Whereas South Africa's foreign trade almost
doubled between 1994 and 2002, exports from, say, Malawi to
Tanzania or from Mozambique to Zambia re