4th Meeting of RIP Steering Committee in Dakar

23 May 2011
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Economic Community of West African States (Abuja)
press release

Dakar - Senegal — The steering committee for the Regional Indicative Programme under the 9th European Development Fund (EDF) has called for a transition programme to take care of the period between the termination of the 9th EDF and the beginning of the successor 10th EDF.

At the end of the fourth meeting of the committee in Dakar on 20 May 2011 which discusssed the seventh report on the implementation of the European Union-funded 9th EDF, the members blamed 'prejudicial delays along with endogenous and exegenous factors' for the low level of implementation of projects under the fund. The report showed that programme implementation stood at 48.8 per cent at the end of December 2010.

In order to address this shortcoming, the Committee proposed the creation of EDF cells within regional organizations to reinforce implementation, monitoring of activities and ownership of the EDF procedures while the ECOWAS and UEMOA Commissions should improve on the coordination of Projects and Programmes. In the area of transport facilitation, the Committee recommended the recruitment of two engineers to strengthen the capacities of the Commissions in monitoring the construction of joint border posts which are being funded by the EU to facilitate border formalities and promote the intra-Community movement of persons and goods.

It also called for the strengthening of the human and material capacities of the region in the areas of conflict prevention and peace keeping. At the opening of the meeting, the EU representative, Mr. Manuel Iglesias Roa, who is the Head of Division for Regional Cooperation in the EU Delegation in Nigeria, complained about the lack of human resources and the delay in the execution of projects. He advised that the parties learn lessons from the 9th EDF in order to improve on the perfomance of the impending 10th EDF.

The ECOWAS Commissioner for Macroeconomic Policy, Professor Lambert Bamba stressed the need for better coordination of PIR at the regional and NIP (National Indicative Programme) nationally. He also expressed concern at the low level of integration of the PIR units within the Directorates of regional organizations responsible for RIP programmes.

"The units of RIP are seen as disruptive," the Commissioner said in his speech in which he also expressed the need for a harmonious working relationship among the units in regional organisations responsible for the programme. He warned that coordination related issues would continue to hobble project implementation except this was resolved. This fourth meeting of the Steering Committee was jointly organized by ECOWAS and UEMOA with the financial and technical support from the European Union.

Some sixty members compriising officials of the ECOWAS and UEMOA Commissions, project managers, inter governmental organizations, the Commission of the European Union (EU), delegations of the EU in Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Senegal.

Read the original article on Ecowas.

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