Ghana in Search of Regional Integration Agenda 145 regional integration initiatives that gave birth to the OAU as far back as 1963, with Ghana playing an active role. ECOWAS as a regional economic bloc was created by the Authority of Heads of States and Governments of West Africa on 28 May 1975 in Lagos, again with Ghana playing an active role. Originally comprising 16 West African States, it has since 2000 been left with fifteen, following the withdrawal of Mauritania's membership. 154 With a total population of about 250million covering an area of 6.1million km ² and comprising fifteen(15) countries, the main objective of ECOWAS is to promote integration of the national economies and accelerate the development of their States. Notwithstanding the avowed commitment to regional integration in West Africa, successful implementation has been slow. Reasons given for the slow pace of implementation include political instability, weak democratic culture and governance and lack of political will. Associated to the political range of reasons are manifold cleavages that tend to work against integration:- ethnic violence that sometimes spills over into neighbouring countries; divisions arising from contesting positions in relation to changes in government; historically-determined Francophone, Anglophone and Lusophone linguistic and cultural heritage; the relatively older and stronger tradition of Francophone – Anglophone divide, in which the former have a relatively advanced integration project in the form of the West African Economic and Monetary Union(WAEMU). 155 Beyond the cold war divisions, there have been the Lome Conventions and now the Cotonou Agreement which have definitely emphasised trade with the former colonial masters and diverted due attention from intra regional trade. 156 Some argue that part of the weakness and ineffectiveness of ECOWAS prior to the revision of the Treaty was due to a rather legalistic approach to regional integration. 157 Meanwhile there is the thinking that a big obstacle is the challenge of developing credible institutions that equitably share the gains of economic development, and establish compensatory mechanisms for losers. Ghana indeed has been active in the Regional and sub-regional integration efforts, with various actors in the Ghanaian polity playing roles to push forward this integration agenda. Organised labour is one of those actors that have in more recent times demonstrated its interest in the African regional integration efforts. 154 The fifteen members of ECOWAS are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cote d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo; eight are Francophone, five Anglophone and two Lusophone. 155 It is also known as UEMOA from its name in French 156 Mangeni, F.: Obstacles to Economic Integration in Africa,(Nairobi, Action Aid International,. 2004) 157 Jebuni, C.,“The Role of ECOWAS in the Trade Liberalisation”, in Zqbal and M.S and M.S. Khan(eds), Trade Reform and Regional Integration in West Africa ,(Washington: IMF, 1998).