This POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC DICTIONARY OF AFRICA considers the whole of the conlinenl. It is common lo make a distinction between North Africa and Africa south of the Sahara, or sub-Saharan Africa, on the grounds that economically, politically and culturally, the countries and peoples of North Africa are more closely related to and involved with those of the Middle East than those of sub-Saharan Africa. But North Africa has always been linked to the rest of Africa, by the trans-Saharan trade and by cultural, social and political relationships of various kinds. Even today, when state borders are generally better defined, there are vast areas of the Saharan region across which flow people, funds and commodities in a wide variety of different transactions, both legal and illegal, linking the north with the rest of Africa. Also, there have been many initiatives over the last few decades to create pan-African institutions, most of which involve the governments and states of North Africa as well as those of sub-Saharan African, including the Organization of African Unity and its successor the African Union. One of the most recent initiatives for the development of the African continent, the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), includes countries of north and south, east and west, across the continent.