This paper debates Africa's regional integration and the challenges of development in the context of globalisation. It situates Africa's development paradox, as manifest by its “poverty of plenty”. It also examines the continent's new regionalism, epitomised by the transition from the Organisation for African Unity to the African Union and argues that while the effort has enabled Africa to respond to the challenges of globalisation and development, the instrumentality of NEPAD is in a state of vacillation. African leaders must revisit the concept of partnership to bridge the ever-widening gap of inequality between the rich North and the poor South through a democratically designed development pact. This in turn requires the institutionalisation of good governance.
