As part of the coordination and monitoring of the Regional Indicative Program 11th EDF (RIP), a retreat of the ECOWAS Commission’s focal points was held from 28 to 30 November 2016 in Keffi (Nigeria).
The aim of this retreat was to review the implementation of the guidelines and recommendations of the Strategic Orientation Committee held on 23 June 2016 and to monitor the progress achieved in the in the area of identification and formulation of the Regional Indicative Programme projects. The purpose of the retreat was also to propose modalities for the implementation of these projects and programs and to identify the steps to be taken to accelerate their start-up.
According to this review, among the 24 projects and programs of the RIP 11th EDF, 3 were approved by the EDF Committee, the funding agreements will be signed at the beginning of 2017, 16 projects are in the identification and formulation phase and 5 are in the pre-identification stage.
The meeting reviewed the projects and programs of the three priority areas of the 11th EDF by highlighting the main stages (identification, formulation and submission to the EDF Committee) as well as the difficulties encountered and the actions to be taken to finalize the process.
Participants discussed challenges to be addressed, including access to information from external implementing agencies and ECOWAS project management structures.
At the end of the meeting, the participants recommended to set up a protocol to spread information between the various actors, to initiate a website and organize periodic missions to WAEMU Commission in Burkina Faso. They also called for the establishment of the Regional Authorizing Officer’s Support Unit within ECOWAS as soon as possible. To this end, they examined and improved the draft Regulations executed by the Directorate of External Relations.
They stressed the need to ensure the implementation of the financing agreements between EU and ECOWAS Commission into the Technical and Administrative Provisions (DTA), such as the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between ECOWAS and any delegated entity benefiting from the resources of the RIP 11th EDF and taking into account the strengthening of the human resources capacity of the ECOWAS Commission.
Previously, the meeting reviewed the implementation of the RIP 10th EDF projects by drawing lessons for the implementation of the 11th EDF projects. The review shows that implementation of most of the 10th EDF projects has lagged behind, with an implementation rate of around 27% at mid-term. The meeting noted the disadvantages of the delegation system, which did not favor the appropriation and capacity building of the ECOWAS Commission.
Representatives of the Directorate of External Relations and the focal points of the economic integration / trade sector and the resilience, food security and nutrition sector participated in the retreat. The experts from the Public Finance Reform Support Project (PFMR) in charge of supporting the coordination and monitoring of the RIP projects also took part in the meeting which lasted 3 days.