Experts Call for Integrated Sustainable Development Approach in West Africa (ECOWAS)

28 September 2011
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Economic Community of West African States (Abuja)
press release

Accra - Ghana — Experts that reviewed the Draft Report of Progress on Sustainable Development in West Africa have called on countries in the region to integrate environmental, socio-economic and political sustainability in their national policies as a way of reinvigorating regional commitment to sustainable development.

After a two-day consultative meeting which ended in Accra, Ghana on Wednesday, 28th September, 2011, the experts from ECOWAS Member States emphasized the need for the integration of the three pillars of sustainable development into national policy formulation. The 62-page Report noted that while Benin, Ghana, The Gambia, Nigeria and Senegal had indicated the integration of the three pillars, other countries concentrated on different pillars with little room for integration, adding that this would create a challenge to the entire process.

The Report also highlighted the advantage of using Sustainable Development Committees (SDCs) instead of Cross-Sectoral Planning Groups (CSPGs), which would limit efforts at examining the overlaps and consistency of development programmes with greater impacts. To close the identified gap, the Report proposes the training of CSPGs in integration strategies to sustainable development.

It also addressed priority issues in development, trends and inter-linkages, as well as the institutional framework for sustainable development in the region, concrete actions taken highlighting the best practices, progress made, achievements, challenges and constraints.

Furthermore, the Report considered ongoing attempts to transit towards a green economy within the context of poverty reduction and sustainable development in the region, as well as new and emerging issues and proposals on the way forward. The ECOWAS Commission commissioned the review of the Report to the University of Ghana's Daniel Kwabena Twerefou Consultancy, with the support of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the African Development Bank (AfDB).

Issues raised in the Report will help ensure that the position of ECOWAS Member States are adequately reflected at the forthcoming Regional preparatory meeting n Addis Abba, Ethiopia ahead of the 2012 Rio (Brazil) United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development.

Read the original article on Ecowas.

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