Dakar - Senegal — More than 130 economists were trained on the tools for prioritization, modeling and planning during a 12-day workshop which opened on 7 February 2011 in Dakar (Senegal).
Seasoned executives and officials from the Ministries of Economy and Finance, Budget and Planning of the 15 ECOWAS Member States of the Community participated in a working session with representatives of various directorates of the ECOWAS Commission and delegates from organizations and institutions of integration and development present in West Africa during the workshop on the tools tagged T21.
The T21 also offers the possibility to perform simulations of policies, projects and programmes and generates a long term dynamics, enabling economists and other experts to be better equipped to contribute to the proper formulation and implementation of public policies The ECOWAS Commissioner for Macroeconomic Policy, Prof. N'Galadjo Lambert Bamba, said the workshop "session on prioritization, prospective analysis and modeling falls within the framework of the final phase of formulation of the ECOWAS Community Development Programme (CDP)" The workshop which focused on planning and modeling in systems dynamics with the threshold Model - T21 - (T21 model) is intended to make the CDP more responsive to the interests of the citizens of the region.
The CDP initiative was launched during the ECOWAS Heads of State Summit in June 2007, as a mechanism for achieving the Vision 2020 and the sustainable development of the West African Region by 2020. In this regard, the ECOWAS Commission launched an extensive regional capacity building programme in planning and modeling using the T21 model, in close collaboration with the Millennium Institute in Washington, whose experts conducted the training with the support of the CDP's macroeconomic experts with the Commission. Through this programme some regional experts and economists were trained on how to use the tool, while 15 national and two regional T21 models were established in order to strengthen the consistency and cohesion of programmes, projects and development policies within the ECOWAS Region.
The programme also enabled the participants, which included the Commissioner to discuss capacity building initiatives and challenge of the implementation of the programme in Member States. The session also provided an opportunity for the participants to discuss the basic concepts of prospective analysis and share the experiences of member countries in this regard. "The ECOWAS CDP, as a regional programme for the development of West Africa, also envisages being an instrument of coordination of all Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs) interventions in West Africa" the Commissioner added.
This training also aimed at strengthening the identification of priorities in regional policies for economic growth and resource needs in West Africa and facilitate engagement and coordination with various stakeholders in order to promote citizen ownership of the ECOWAS 2020 Vision. It was also intended to strengthen the implementation of the CDP and improve the consistency and harmonization of its programmes between those by Member States and the others undertaken by development partners. The CDP formulation process comprises four main phases, notably the sensitization of actors and capacity building, the inventory/stocktaking of national and regional projects, programmes, and policies within ECOWAS region, their prioritization, planning and impacts, while the fourth phase will be the donors' round table.
The CDP was launched by the ECOWAS Commission in order to provide a regional response to the concrete and pragmatic challenge faced with the implementation of the Vision 2020 whose main objective is to accelerate and deepen the regional economic integration by moving from an ECOWAS of States to an ECOWAS of peoples. At the end of the training, a tool for analysis was made available, taking into account the dynamics and socio-economic realities of the Region.
