ECOWAS Commission Reassures Member States On an Inclusive ECOWAS Aid for Trade Strategy

16 October 2012
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Economic Community of West African States (Abuja)
press release

Abuja - Nigeria — The ECOWAS Commission has assured representatives of the ECOWAS Member States of its commitment to engage in wide consultations during the formulation process of the ECOWAS Aid for Trade (AfT) Strategy.

Mr. Kola Sofola, Principal Programme Officer in the Directorate of Trade made the commitment while representing Dr. Gbenga Obideyi, Acting Director of the Department during a three-day meeting of the ECOWAS Working Group on AfT held between 9th and 11th October 2012 which considered the draft background paper on the ECOWAS AfT Strategy with Member States and Partners.

During the meeting, the first in a series of consultations to finalize and adopt the regional AfT strategy, participants deliberated on the Global AfT initiative, the Enhanced Integrated Framework, as well as the preparation and operationalisation of the ECOWAS AfT Strategy.

Participants, among others, agreed that the strategy should be concise and focused with an emphasis on regional initiatives. They proposed that the AfT strategy, which aims to maximize the opportunities of the Aid for Trade initiative by strengthening instruments for its effective implementation, should have the capacity to provide guidance for future actions, assist in coordinating trade related programmes, as well as provide a basis for resource mobilization.

In his remark, the World Trade Organization (WTO) representative, Mr. Michel Roberts, highlighted the general positive trend of AfT flows and informed participants of the upcoming 4th Global AfT Review scheduled for July 2013 in Geneva, which will focus on international, regional and South-South value chains, regional integration and the impact of aid.

The Aid for Trade (AfT) initiative started in the framework of the Doha Round of World Trade Organization (WTO) talks, in particular with the 2005 Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration and is intended to help developing countries, in particular the least developed, to build the trade capacity and infrastructure they need to benefit from trade opening. It is part of overall Official Development Assistance (ODA) grants and concessional loans targeted at trade- related programmes and projects.

Also represented at the meeting were, Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Germany’s technical assistance agency, the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM), the EU delegation in Abuja, the Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF), the UN Economic Commissioner for Africa (UNECA), and SAANA Consulting.

Read the original article on Ecowas.

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