Economic Community
of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission’s Vice President, Jean de
Dieu Somda, has identified the tripod upon which West Africa’s
integration stands.
These are: The
harmonisation of the policies of member states, reinforcement of
capacity and the promotion of regional peace and security through
various instruments that seek to entrench a culture of democracy and
good governance.
Mr Somda told
visiting delegation of the Canada-Africa Parliamentary Association that
ECOWAS was founded on the principle of promoting unhindered
intra-Community movement of its 230 million citizens to enable them
avail themselves of the region’s rich resources to contribute to its
development; create jobs and improve citizens’ welfare, as well as
ensure the insertion of the region into the global economy.
“Ensuring policy
coherence will enable the region optimise its capacity and ensure that
development percolates to the citizens, the ultimate beneficiaries of
ECOWAS integration”, he explained. He added that the policy coherence
has manifested in various programmes in the areas of youth development,
agriculture through the region’s Common Agricultural Policy, the
environment, education and women empowerment.
On the crisis in
Cote d’Ivoire, the Vice President recalled that the region has had to
contend with similar situations in the past, pointing out that the
crisis was the subject of two extraordinary summits of regional leaders
where they unanimously supported the victory of Alhassane Ouattara as
President on the basis of the 28th November 2010 run-off election.
Mr Somda commended
Canada for its support for ECOWAS, which has contributed to its success
with its various programmes, saying that the 2007 transformation of the
defunct Executive Secretariat into a nine-member Commission has
invested ECOWAS with additional responsibilities.
Co-chair of the Association, Mauril Belanger, said the visit is to
enable the delegation understand ECOWAS as well as establish how it is
dealing with the various challenges in the region so that it could help
influence Canada’s policies to provide additional support.
