Abuja - Nigeria — The President of the ECOWAS Commission, His Excellency James Victor Gbeho on Thursday, 2nd June 2011 said the Institution's relations with development partners should not be judged solely in financial terms, but as a holistic and mutually beneficial partnership. "We view our relations as a necessity in a globalized world of interdependence", he affirmed at the opening of the 8th Annual Coordination Meeting of ECOWAS and Development Partners.
"We see you as technical partners; a sounding board; and key advocates of the ECOWAS brand in the wider world". While highlighting some positive results of the partnerships and challenges to be addressed, the President said the Commission would always cherish and nurture its friendship and bonds with the development partners.
"Together, we can build a peaceful, competitive, and prosperous West Africa as trusted and reliable Community in Africa and the rest of international community", Ambassador Gbeho added. Since its founding 36 years ago, ECOWAS has continued to earn and enjoy the respect and cooperation of numerous international partners, who meet annually with senior officials of the Community to review the progress of the ECOWAS regional integration project.
"In order to maintain our cooperation on a sound footing," Ambassador Gbeho said, "there is the need for frank, open and dispassionate dialogue between ECOWAS and its partners on the progress that we have made; on our strengths and weaknesses; as well as on the opportunities that exist to maximize outputs and minimize the shortcomings". He said the Commission was addressing some of the concerns raised by development partners, including weak internal capacity and low absorption rate; ineffective coordination mechanisms resulting in poor information flow and reporting; slow pace of developing plans of action to provide a clear road map in the design and the implementation of bankable projects under the Strategic Plan and the ECOWAS Conflict Prevention Framework.
The President called for flexibility on both sides in pushing for progress on programmatic issues, especially with respect to the conclusion of agreements. In his address, the United Nations Resident Coordinator, Daouda Toure, described "ECOWAS as a partner to reckon with (and) a force for governance, peace and stability in the West African region". Beyond peace and security, he said "ECOWAS' key role in promoting the economic development of the region is widely acknowledged," noting that without peace, there could be no development and without development there would be no lasting peace. Mr. Toure said "a strong and expanding ECOWAS mandate and outreach absolutely requires a strong organizational and operational culture with the requisite structures, lines of command, division of labour, financial and other systems".
Expressing the UN's willingness to continue to work with other development partners "in support of well-articulated strategy plan of ECOWAS," the UN official also called for "a more robust cooperation with the UN system in unleashing the development potential on the West African region, building on the many comparative advantages of its member countries".
Ambassador David MacRae, Head of Delegation of the European Union to Nigeria, commended the "good cooperation between ECOWAS and the international community and the increasing important role played by the ECOWAS Parliament, Court of Justice and civil society in the recent crises", in the region. "We as development partners have a particular interest in the economic area and would encourage ECOWAS to go further so as to achieve more significant positive results in terms of economic growth, human development and poverty reduction", said the EU delegation head. He said that "proper strategic programming would help ECOWAS to focus on a limited number of results and objectives in peace and security and growth areas that would articulate, in concrete and achievable terms, the ECOWAS 2020 Vision. Ambassador MacRae also called for possible joint measures to reduce the impact of the Commission's "limited available capacity" and the "low absorption", adding that the issue of administrative rules and financial procedures should also be addressed.
Concerning agreements with development partners, he said the EU placed emphasis on respect to financial and activity reporting and respect for procedures; as well as on transparency and rapid conclusion of the process of improved donor coordination which was initiated last year. In his address, Prof Ndongo Oumar, Secretary General of the West African Civil Society Organization (WACSO), commended the irreplaceable leadership role of ECOWAS Commission in driving the regional integration agenda and called on development partners to broaden the scope and strengthen the level of cooperation to Community Member States.
He cited the positive efforts by the Commission and its partners in stabilizing the region and working work good governance and democratic culture to take root. Prof Oumar pledged the continued support of the civil society organization to the ideals, mission and goal of ECOWAS, adding that the organization would continue to alert the relevant institutions about impending socio-economic and political dangers.
The two-day coordination meeting would review major developments in the ECOWAS- driven regional integration project, including achievements and challenges, with a view to optimizing the benefits of partner contributions and support.
