The President of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), His. Excellency Mr Kadré Desiré Ouédraogo and his counterpart of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) His Excellency Mr Cheikhe Hadjibou Soumaré met Friday, Dec. 13, 2013 for an update on the progress of the convergence process in the region.
This 11th meeting, in line with the cooperation agreement signed between the two Commissions in Abuja on the 5th of May 2004, is aimed at lending a hand to the two regional leaders to create the conditions for a better coordination of the programs driven by the two institutions.
In his opening speech, the President of the ECOWAS Commission called for deeper regional integration and strengthening the coordination mechanism around the effective implementation of the CET, the EPA and the monetary cooperation.
As for President Soumaré, he welcomed the regularity of meetings. Then he talked about the major issues relating to peace, regional security, and the programming of the RIP 11th EDF. During his speech, the President of the WAEMU Commission has placed particular emphasis on the ECOWAS CET which, he said, is one of the finest achievements of the past 20 years in terms of economic integration in West Africa.
During the meeting, Presidents Soumaré and Ouédraogo reviewed common projects related to the implementation of macroeconomic and sectoral policies such as infrastructure, energy, agriculture, regional food security, free movement of persons, ECOWAS Common External Tariff (CET), regional cooperation with Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), as well as resource mobilization especially with the World Bank, Japan and the European Union.
Discussions also focussed on support to the Regional Economic Integration and Trade programme, the platform for collaborative convergence between the ECOWAS Community Development Programme (CDP) and the Regional Economic Programme (REP) of WAEMU, as well as the support to Guinea Bissau, the implementation of the Regional Indicative Programme (RIP), the 10th European Development Fund (EDF) and, lastly, the prospects of the RIP 11th EDF.
The two Presidents raised several other important issues such as negotiations of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), the implication of Mauritania to the process, transport facility in the region, implementation of joint border posts, youth, education, and the shift of TV beams from analogy to digital.
At the end of their meeting, the two Heads of Institution issued relevant guidance for the construction of new synergies and new complementarities between the two regional organizations.
It is worth recalling that two technical preparatory meetings preceded the meeting of the Heads of Institution, the first by the experts of the WAEMU-ECOWAS Joint Technical Secretariat (JTS) and the second, by the Commissioners in charge of Convergence issues.