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After managing to cope with challenges of insecurity and political instability in member states in the last 38 years, ECOWAS is now set to focus on economic integration and development

|  By Maureen Chigbo  |  Jul. 22, 2013 @ 01:00 GMT

THE popular saying that maturity comes with age and experience applies to the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, which is proving itself an adept at confronting the unending security challenges in a politically restive and culturally diverse region that is also in dire need of rapid economic development. Calibrating the delivery on this daunting mandate has not been easy. But even as the organization prepares for its landmark 40th anniversary in 2015, its total commitment to the overarching agenda of economic integration has never been in doubt.

This much was reflected in the message of Kadré Désiré Ouedraogo, President of ECOWAS Commission in his latest annual report for 2012. In the report, Ouedraogo said emphatically that the Commission plans to focus more on economic development agenda, its primary mandate, and move away from its preoccupation of the last decade or so when it had to respond to the dynamics of the region’s political crises. To this end, he outlined the major thrust of work to be done into four key areas. These are  consolidation of peace, security, democracy and human rights, acceleration of regional integration in all areas of economic and social life; promotion of economic prosperity by establishing a viable regional environment that enhances investment and entrepreneurship; and building of relationships and mutually beneficial partnerships with all other parts of Africa and the world to address the challenges of globalization.

“To support actions to be undertaken within the context of these four priority areas, our community needs strong and efficient institutions led by qualified and dedicated people. Hence, there is a need for further institutional reforms to involve all stakeholders in the integration and development efforts,” the president affirmed.

In a world where individual or national interests seem to prevail over any other form of interest and where desperation seems to take over hope, the President said that it is their duty as leaders of institutions in the community to work toward strengthening a sense of belonging and solidarity between the people of our community. The West African people aspire to live in a peaceful, stable and democratic region, free of the scourges of poverty, ignorance and disease; in other words, a region of prosperity. ECOWAS Institutions are, therefore, considered by member states as appropriate instruments for meeting the expectations and hopes of the people of West Africa.

In line with its agenda of transforming from an ECOWAS of States to an ECOWAS of People under its Vision 2020, the Commission is on the home run towards meeting the economic expectations and aspirations of the community citizens as can be seen from the latest annual report. The year 2012 confirmed the renewed dynamism experienced by the West African economy with a growth rate of 6.4 percent compared to 5.9 percent in 2011. This remarkable increase is mainly attributable to the discovery of oil and solid mineral resources in some ECOWAS member states. Thus, the region has the potential of being financially-resourced to address the challenges hampering its economic and social development.

Closely linked to economic development is the determination to improve trade, mainly intra community trade which is struggling to achieve its potentials.   With the level of such trade ECOWAS has embarked on a number of initiatives aimed at improving and growing the volume of intra-community trade. Among the measures is the annual ECOWAS Trade Fair, the installation of a Business Information System, Ecobiz, at trade events organized in member states, formulation of the ECOWAS Common Trade Policy and the establishment of ECOWAS Regional Competition Authority, RCA, to share regional, national and international experiences.

Trade negotiations remain a knotty issue but the ECOWAS leadership has revived the Economic Partnership Negotiations (EPA) with the EU to reconcile both parties’ positions. Differences are mainly related to the opening of the West African market to European products and the financing of the development dimension of the EPA.

ECOWAS and the West African Monetary and Economic Union, UEMOA, Commissions are working assiduously for a consensus agreement that protects the region’s best interests, especially its young industries from developed countries’ imports and at the same time in line with the ECOWAS Common External Tariff, CET, objectives.

In addition, the ECOWAS Policy Framework for Private Sector Development and Enterprise Promotion has been drafted and consultative meetings have also been  held with experts from the region, while the Commission continues to promote cross-border trade relations by seeking to de-emphasize the colonial legacy of artificial borders among border communities that for years divided a people with the same heritage.

Development in telecommunication has been more robust. The terrestrial inter-states fibre optic connections have been completed to link four countries Burkina Faso-Niger, Burkina Faso-Ghana, and Ghana-Togo. All the coastal member states except Guinea Bissau have been connected to submarine cables with at least one new landing station. With the new terrestrial connections and landing station, the three landlocked countries (Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger) now have at least two routes for access to the submarine cables thereby securing their access to submarine cables.

Energy too is receiving special attention under the “Sustainable Energy for All by 2030” initiative which has three key objectives – universal access to modern energy services; doubling the overall energy efficiency improvement rate and doubling the region’s share of renewable energy in the global energy mix. Going further, the first forum on regional gas market, which held in Accra, was organised by the World Bank, in conjunction with the ECOWAS Commission, the West African Gas Pipeline Company, and the West African Gas Pipeline Authority, WAGPA. This meeting brought together stakeholders in the gas sector to discuss the problems and prospects of the pipeline, particularly gas supply and possible extension of the pipeline.

With the 2012 report under the theme: “Political Stability and Economic Integration in West Africa,” ECOWAS seeks to remove the potential barriers to the community’s integration process, often caused by frequent crises in the region. In this regard, according to Ouedraogo, “we would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the concerted efforts of our Authorities for actions taken to resolve these conflicts. Undoubtedly, efforts made by ECOWAS have contributed to addressing the security and political crises and in promoting a free and crisis-free political space in our member states.”

One recent example of the resolution of the crisis in the region is in Mali where ECOWAS collaborated with the international community and other partners to end the crisis there. This has paved the way for the transformation of the African-led International Support Mission into the UN led mission on July 1. With this, the stage is now set for elections in Mali, July 28, to prepare the ground for ECOWAS support to the country’s economic recovery and regional integration. The Mali example further proves ECOWAS’ commitment to productive collaboration and cooperation with development partners to realise the objectives of its conflict prevention initiatives. Thus, the organization has called for strong support for the operationalisation of its conflict prevention framework, as a major tool for addressing the proximate and structural causes of violent conflicts and the promotion of human security and peace building in the region.

The framework adopted in 2008, “is a product of a critical analysis of multifarious perspectives of conflict dynamics in the region, consistent cross-cutting of ideas and wide-ranging consultations among experts, academics, practitioners, civil society and governmental actors within ECOWAS member states,” according to Salamatu Hussaini Suleiman, ECOWAS commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security. Suleiman reaffirmed ECOWAS’ commitment at a retreat organised for focal persons on Natural Resource Governance and Enabling Mechanism Components of the ECOWAS Conflict Prevention Framework, ECPF, in Lagos.

That notwithstanding, ECOWAS, over the years, has recorded achievements in acting as a catalyst for infrastructural development in the region, including the planned construction of a highway from Lagos to Abidjan. The Abidjan-Lagos corridor covers a total distance of 1,028 kilometres and the conduit for more than 75 per cent intra-community trade. The corridor connects Lagos, Accra, Cotonou, Lome and Abidjan, considered among the largest and economically most dynamic cities in Africa. It will also provide vital links to vibrant sea ports for Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger – the three landlocked countries in the region.

Motivated by a desire to tap into private financing to plug the infrastructure deficit in the region, the Community is trying to mobilise private sector support behind this initiative.  Recently ECOWAS and General Electric agreed to explore “areas of collaboration in the development of the energy and infrastructure of the region to boost regional trade and integration.”  The existing programmes and activities of the Cape Verde-based ECOWAS Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency, ECREE, and other non-carbon-based energy projects including hydro and solar could serve as the entry point for this collaboration.

For effectiveness, regional infrastructure development should align with those of the continental objectives and projects. To this end, ECOWAS ministers and experts from the infrastructure sector recently met in Yamoussoukro, Cote d’Ivoire, to discuss the objectives of PIDA, (Progamme for Infrastructure Development in Africa), and how it aligns with the continental strategic programming as well as sensitise member states on West Africa’s component of the PIDA Priority Action Plan, PIDA-PAP. The meeting also examined regional development plans to help drive the domestication of PIDA projects in national plans and budgetary provisions.

Meanwhile, ECOWAS and its development partners have reached an agreement on a three-tier mechanism for coordinating their joint activities for greater effectiveness. Under the agreement reached at the end of the ninth annual ECOWAS-Development Partners’ coordination conference which ended on April 10 in Abuja, both parties agreed to institute thematic group meetings at the initial level of the operation to be followed at the intermediate level by bi-annual meetings while the third and strategic level will be done through annual coordination meetings.

ECOWAS is equally working to find a lasting solution to the thorny issue of youth unemployment in the region. It convened a workshop recently on youth employment in the region, where participants called on member states to operationalise their plans where they exist and undertake a study on the phenomenon of jobless growth in the region. The participants also urged ECOWAS member states to establish a mechanism for monitoring and evaluating the efficacy of their National Youth Employment Plans in responding to the youth employment challenges facing the region.

Another area of concern in the region is the girl-child and education of vulnerable groups. A document to be used for advocacy, sensitisation and resource mobilisation on this subject was developed at a regional meeting of education experts in Banjul, The Gambia on April 19. The document will be used within the framework of Millennium Development Goals, MDG, and Education for All, EFA, goals and the African Union plan of action for the second decade of education 2006-2015.

The Banjul meeting was convened under the auspices of the ECOWAS Girls’ education programme, which is part of ECOWAS’ efforts to promote universal access to quality education and training opportunities as well as harmonise admission criteria into educational and training institutes in member states. The ECOWAS Girls’ education programme is designed to strengthen the operational capacities of national structures for the promotion of girls’ education by improving access, retention and completion. The Banjul forum also proposed a mechanism for enhancing the inclusion of children, who account for more than half of the population of school age children, into formal education for the timely realisation of EFA and the MDG goals.

ECOWAS is also working to improve its ability to rehabilitate displaced people from crisis-torn member countries. Marion Sawyer, a Liberian refugee and beneficiary of the ECOWAS rehabilitation programme, testified to this when she campaigned for the sustainability of the Support for ECOWAS Peace and Development Project, PADEP, being implemented by ECOWAS, in collaboration with the African Development Bank, AfDB.  The US$15-million project funded by AfDB, which ended in June, has provided humanitarian support to thousands of displaced persons  in four post-conflict countries – Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Guinea Bissau. Two of PADEP’s three pillars support the ECOWAS Volunteer Programme and the development of the reference manual on the culture of peace.

There has also been a positive movement in agricultural development under the ECOWAS Agricultural Polic, ECOWAP, adopted in 2005 as an instrument for the coordination of the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme CAADP, the agricultural component of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, NEPAD. This policy has a vision for “a modern and sustainable agriculture, based on the effectiveness and efficiency of family farms and the promotion of agricultural enterprises through the involvement of the private sector.” It seeks to promote productivity and competitiveness in the intra-Community and International markets, to ensure food security and remunerative incomes to workers. ECOWAS/CAADP implementation is based on the implementation of various investment programmes at the national and regional levels.

ECOWAS interventions in animal health have also led to disease identification and the need to prepare two regional reference documents on harmonised laboratory procedures and harmonisation of disease monitoring systems within the region. The goal is to appraise accreditation agencies for veterinary medicines in seven countries which will lead to the establishment of the Regional Veterinary Medicine Committee for the entire region. In the fisheries sector, the Regional Committee on Coherence in Fisheries Policy in West Africa has been established following discussions with national and regional partners.

The ECOWAS Malaria Elimination Campaign through the strengthening of the vector control intervention strategy is also proving a global benchmark in the war against the scourge that costs Africa more than US$ 12 billion annually and kills more people than all the wars put together in the continent.

The anti-malaria war is being prosecuted through strong international collaboration and partnership including a Tripartite Agreement between ECOWAS, Cuba and Venezuela, with the two south American countries providing financial and technological support for the construction of three factories in Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana and Port Harcourt, Nigeria, for the production biolarvicides, a safe drug against malaria vectors  – mosquitoes. The foundation stone for the factories have already been laid in Cote d’Ivoire and Port Harcourt with Ghana next in line, as ECOWAS and partners move to free the region from the scourge of malaria.

Despite these achievements recorded by ECOWAS, the community still faces enormous political and socio-economic challenges. But as Ouedraogo put it: “We shall, as a matter of duty to our Community, continue to work relentlessly to promote the culture of democracy in our community. People deserve respect for their Constitution and the right to choose their leaders freely. In this regard, we wish to reaffirm ECOWAS’ strong commitment to the Protocol on the Mechanism for Conflicts Prevention and Resolution and the Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance.

“We are confident that all these efforts will prove fruitful in order to allow our Community to focus on the implementation of economic programmes and build a prosperous region. While political instability has the potential to hamper economic development and wealth creation, it is equally true that poverty and unemployment are fertile grounds for insecurity and instability. Hence, we are determined to continue to promote and accelerate the establishment of a conducive environment for economic development through the regional integration process.

“It is my wish also to acknowledge the outstanding contributions made by all management and other staff of all ECOWAS institutions to the success achieved over the years in fostering regional integration and economic development. I wish to encourage them, within the framework of collegiality principle, to pursue with rigour and honesty the noble ideals of the founders of our Community,” he said.

As ECOWAS moves inexorably towards its 40th anniversary, these achievements and challenges will continue to provide a portent reminder of the benefits of cohesion and the prospects as the region continues its relentless march to a future where the citizens are empowered to harness its resources for their development and welfare.

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