Cross-Border Paradiplomacy and Regional Integration in Southern Africa

The project is generously funded by grants from South Africa’s National Research Foundation (NRF) through its Competitive Programme for Rated Researchers, and the University of Johannesburg’s Research Committee (URC)

Brief context and overview of the project

Since 1994, developmental regional integration has been a key strategic objective in South Africa's foreign policy, owing to the realization that the country's security and welfare is inextricably linked to socio-economic and political conditions in its immediate neighbourhood and the rest of the African continent. In this regard, successive post-apartheid administrations have invested, albeit in varying degrees, in promoting a number of regional integration schemes, particularly in the Southern African region. These include the Maputo Development Corridor, the Lubombo Spatial Development Initiative, the MOSASWA Malaria Initiative, as well as a host of transfrontier conversation parks. These initiatives, which generally align with the broader regional integration drive under the auspices of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), are intended to provide an institutionalised framework for collaboration, policy harmonization, and joint action among participating countries, with a view to unlock and maximise shared opportunities for investment, employment, and sustainable development. From this perspective, even though these regional integration schemes have generally been designed and have evolved as multi-stakeholder cross-border initiatives, consistent with the notion of regionalism from below, the role of local communities and authorities along the borders of the countries involved becomes critical in the realization of the stated developmental objectives.

The project thus aims to study the cross-border relations and partnerships of South African subnational governments (provinces and municipalities) within the framework of regional integration efforts championed by Pretoria and SADC. It seeks to understand how provincial and local governments located on South Africa’s international borders engage with their counterparts across the border, and what these cross-border activities mean for the socio-economic development of these subnational entities as well as SADC’s regional integration agenda.

In the context of the growing tension between globalizing and localizing forces, the foreign relations and partnerships of subnational governments, otherwise referred to as paradiplomacy, hold significant prospects for localizing regional integration schemes and bridging the divide between economic growth and sustainable development. While extensive research has been conducted on South Africa’s regional integration efforts in Southern Africa, including the on the contribution of these initiatives to local socio-economic development (see for example Söderbaum, 2001), there is yet to be any systematic and focused study on the interface between the cross-border relations of South African subnational governments, see as a form of regionalism from below, and this thrust of South Africa’s regional policy and the broader regionalism of SADC. The study thus seeks to fill this knowledge gap by bridging the literatures on paradiplomacy, spatial development initiatives, and regional integration, from a Southern African perspective.

Aim of the project 

The overarching aim of the research project is three-fold:

• First, the project seeks to contribute to scholarly debates on cross-border paradiplomacy and regionalism from below by analysing and comparing the southern African experience with the global experience.

• Second, the project intends to provide a critical knowledge base for enhanced policy and action on the conduct of cross-border relations by South African subnational governments, with a focus on the contribution of this practice to local socio-economic development and developmental regionalism.

• Third, the project aims to develop the research capacity of postgraduate students and postdoctoral research fellows, while forging and strengthening local and international partnerships on the study of paradiplomacy in Africa.

Implementation plan

The project will be implemented in three phases corresponding to specific research objectives as follows:

Phase one (2023)

• Conduct empirical research and analysis on the nature and dynamics of the cross-border relations and partnerships of provinces and municipalities located on South Africa's international borders.

• Interrogate the significance of these relations and partnerships for local socio-economic development as well as South Africa's regional integration drive in the Southern African region.

Phase two (2024)

• Conduct empirical research and analysis on how subnational governments and other relevant actors in countries that share border with South Africa experience and interpret their relations and partnerships with their South African counterparts.

• Interrogate the significance of these cross-border paradiplomatic relations for SADC's regional integration efforts.

Phase three (2025)

• Bring in a comparative African and global perspective into the analysis of the nexus between cross-border paradiplomacy and regional integration in southern Africa.