Abuja - Nigeria — West Africa's integration is premised on the principle of promoting the unhindered intra-Community movement of its 230 million citizens so that they can avail themselves of the rich resources of the region to contribute to its development, create jobs, improve citizen welfare and ensure the insertion of the region into the global economy, the Vice President of the Commission, Mr. Jean de Dieu Somda, said on 18th January 2011.

He told a visiting delegation of the Canada-Africa Parliamentary Association that ECOWAS was founded on the three pillars of the harmonization 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.

"Ensuring policy coherence will enable the region optimize its capacity and ensure that development percolates to the citizens, the ultimate beneficiaries of ECOWAS integration", he told the delegation which was at the Commission as part of a visit to West Africa that will also take them to Ghana and Togo. He said that policy coherence has manifested in various programmes in the areas of youth development, agriculture through the ECOWAS Common Agricultural Policy, the environment, education and women empowerment.

Responding to a question about the regional response to the situation in Cote d'Ivoire, the Vice President recalled that the region has had to contend with various crises and described the crisis in that country as one of the major issues which was the subject of two extraordinary summits of regional leaders where they unanimously supported the victory of Alhassane Ouattara as President following the 28th November 2010 run-off election. He told the delegation that the region has remained engaged with the crisis and exploring its peaceful resolution while the option of the use of legitimate force was still on the table. In this regard, he said that the ECOWAS Committee of Chiefs of Defence Staff was working on the options for the deployment of such a force, in compliance with the decision of regional leaders.

Mr. Somda used the opportunity to commend 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.

Earlier, the co-chair of the Association, Honorable Mauril Belanger, said the visit was to enable the delegation understand ECOWAS and how it is dealing with the various challenges in the region so that it could help influence Canada's policies to provide additional support. Senator Raynell Andreychuk, the second co-chair of the association, was also part of the eight-member delegation.