Supporting Policy Making

This chapter analyzes the agency of external actors in the areas of trade and customs. The chapter provides empirical evidence for the third phase of the investigated causal mechanism. In the area of trade and customs, a small number of external actors provide support to ECOWAS that is largely aimed at strengthening the agency of the ECOWAS Commission vis-à-vis the member states, a phenomenon termed capacity building support. To understand the impact of external agency on policy making, this chapter analyzes the dynamics of ECOWAS’s external relations both from the perspective of the Commission, as well as the external actors. The properties of ECOWAS’s external environment, specifically the number and diversity of external actors, as well as the types of support available, are considered. The strategies employed by ECOWAS to manage its organizational counterparts are also investigated. To analyze the actual influence of external agency, the policy cycle is again used as a heuristic and instances of external actor agency identified. Institutional support tends to be based on the resource constraints experienced by the Commission.