ECOWAS, Development Partners Agree Road Map for Strengthening Cooperation

25 February 2012
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Economic Community of West African States (Abuja)
press release

Abuja — ECOWAS Commission has agreed a road map with its Development Partners with specific guidelines and indicators to deepen cooperation for their mutual benefits through the strengthening of the Commission's institutional capacity.

This was the conclusion of the two-day 9th Meeting of the Capacity Building Thematic Group, which ended at the Commission's Abuja headquarters on Thursday, 23rd February 2012. The Commission's Vice-President, Dr. Toga McIntosh, who chaired the meeting on behalf of the President, His Excellency James Victor Gbeho, expressed the organization's appreciation to the countries and that constitute the development partners for their unwavering commitment and support to ECOWAS.

The meeting discussed, among other issues, the ECOWAS Capacity Building Plan, the Implementation Status of the Road Map for the New Joint Financial Agreement (JFA), and the Pool Fund Reports. Opening the meeting, Dr. McIntosh had assured the partners that the ECOWAS Commission's management placed a high premium on capacity building as this will facilitate the realization of the objectives of the new Vision 2020 for a citizen-oriented regional integration.

In this regard, he expressed the hope that the difficulty encountered by the various departments of the Commission as a result of the recruitment freeze which had an impact on the effective implementation of the JFA, would soon be resolved. The importance of partnership, the Vice-President noted: "borders on working together, moving in the same direction towards achieving mutually agreeable objectives." He recalled that some of the key principles that guided the establishment of the new JFA included "standardization of programmes, complementarity of support, recognition of ownership, and ensuring sustainability."

Speaking on behalf of the Pool Fund Partners and other donors, Mr. David Ross of the Canadian International Development Agency, described the Capacity Building Thematic Group "as one of the most fruitful fora for dialogue available to discuss innovative and transformative measures which will lead to renewed impetus for ECOWAS." He affirmed that donor partners "take their commitment to ECOWAS capacity building very seriously. We make institutional strengthening a priority, as we believe in its potential to help fulfil ECOWAS' mandate," Mr. Ross added.

He urged ECOWAS and its development partners to "look with satisfaction at many achievements over the years" and see challenges before them as "opportunities to deepen our relationship and to find new and more effective ways of working together."

Read the original article on Ecowas.

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