About the Africa Regional Integration Index Platform (ARIIP)

Trade Integration

The more a country trades with others in the region, the better integrated it is considered. Trade fosters linkages beyond mere exchanges of goods. It enhances interdependencies and promotes cooperation and stability.

The trade dimension includes the intra-regional exports share and intra-regional imports share as a percentage of GDP. It includes the share of intra-regional goods trade as a percentage of total regional trade. To effectively capture policies that enhance trade openness the level of tariff on imports is added in the dimension.
Specific to the African region, the AfCFTA, a variable capturing whether countries have signed or ratified the trade agreement is also included.

Productive Integration

It refers to the extent to which a country has complementary productive capacities with respect to other countries in the region whereby it can specialize in the production stages where it has a comparative advantage benefitting from scale economies. It entails the country’s involvement in the regional supply and value chains. It is measured in ARII through the imports of of intermediates goods and exports of intermediates goods in the region. The trade complementarity index is also included in this dimension; it measures the extent to which the export profile of a country matches the region import profile.

Macroeconomic Integration

The convergence and stabilisation of macroeconomic policies create a healthy financial climate that attracts cross-border investments and is, therefore, conducive to financial and macroeconomic integration.
It is measured through the variable regional inflation differential which measures the difference between a country’s inflation rate to the target inflation rate set by the region otherwise the minimum positive rate is used. The dimension also includes the regional convertibility of currencies so as to measure the ease with which foreigners and businesses can transact. The number of bilateral investment treaties in force has been used to capture the scope of cross-border capital flows.

Infrastructural Integration

The extent to which a country has adequate Infrastructure that facilitates the workings of regional integration is captured by the infrastructural dimension.
It is assessed through the AfDB Infrastructural Development Index, a composite index that accounts for development in electricity; transport; ICT; and water and sanitation and the proportion of flight connections in the region that captures cross-border connectivity.

Free Movement of People

The ease with which people can move in the region for tourism and social purposes, and to conduct businesses reflect integration on the free movement of people dimension.
It is measured through the number of countries whose citizens are granted visas on arrival by each country in the region is used as a variable. Since many countries still have very rigid borders so that citizens of some countries have to go through the hassle of obtaining a visa before they travel, the variable the number of countries whose citizens strictly require visa is also included to differentiate countries with close and open borders.
Additionally, the dimension is also comprised of a variable that identifies whether countries have adhered to the protocol on the free movement of people, right of residence and right of establishment.