Kaduna - Nigeria — ECOWAS has finalised its road map for the proper programing of activities to benefit from the 597 million euros Regional Indicative Programme (RIP) to be funded by the European Union over a five-year period under its 10th European Development Fund (EDF).
The road map was validated during a three-day retreat hosted by the Commission in Kaduna from 18th May 2010 Participants at the retreat agreed to include elements of the 9th EDF to be continued under the successor 10th EDF and called for a better distribution of the fund, cognisant of the identified programmes and the role of ECOWAS and the Economic and Monetary Union of West Africa, the two regional organisations involved with the implementation of the RIP. Furthemore, they suggeted the establishment of a mechanism for effective monitoring of the various recommendations and proposed measures to address issues raised by the audit report of the Court of Auditors of the EU.
These relate to the reduction of allocations under the Fund and the abolition of the use of the Contribution Agreement. In addition, the participatns suggested that departments incorporate the dimensions of cross-border cooperation and gender in the formulation of their projects under the Fund. The retreat afforded the participants an opportunity to review the report of the multi-annual programming of the priority actions of the Commission under the Fund, discuss the elements of prioritization, costs and instances of implementation of programs related to the sharing of responsibilities between ECOWAS and UEMOA.
Reports were also presented on the outcome of the third meeting of the Steering Committee of the 9th EDF RIP held in Abidjan in April 2010, developments with the Programme for Economic Partnership Agreements Development (PAPED) and the conclusions of the report of the performance audit conducted by the Court of Auditors of the EU presented which was presented by a representative of the Delegation of the European Commission in Nigeria. The retreat was presided over by Prof. Lambert N'Galadjo Bamba, Commissioner for Macro Economic Policy of the ECOWAS Commission with the support of the representative of the European Union Delegation to Nigeria, Mr. Manuel Iglesias