“The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was more successful than the Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC).” Discuss.

The question requires that candidates offer a considered and balanced review of the statement that ECOWAS was more successful than SADCC. Successes or failures may extend beyond the timeframe but must be clearly linked to the issue raised in the question. Candidates may offer equal coverage of ECOWAS and SADCC, or they may prioritize discussion of either. However, both will be a feature of the response. Candidates may refer to the success of ECOWAS in achieving economic integration, or to its military interventions in civil wars which promoted regional stability. They may also address rivalries and divisions among its members, problems that also beset SADCC. Candidates may refer to SADCC’s contribution to the achievement of majority rule in South Africa, or to South African intervention in civil wars in Angola and Mozambique prior to 1994, a factor that weakened its members and undermined its effectiveness as an organization.