Intergovernmental Committee of Experts meeting of SRO-WA

27 - 29 March 2006
Lome (Togo)

Recommendations

1. Concerning the Activity Report of the ECA Office for West Africa

  • The Committee expressed satisfaction at the excellent cooperation relations between the ECA and the two major regional economic communities, ECOWAS and UEMOA and urged the two institutions to continue to nurture the cooperation between them.

  • The Committee was pleased that attention was being given to issues surrounding the recurrence of humanitarian crises in the sub-region and supported the idea of a regional conference on the implications of climate change on production systems in West Africa. The committee called on the ECA to work together with the RECs and the competent regional and international institutions on preparations for the conference.

2. Concerning the Report on Economic and Social Conditions in West Africa

2.1 On economic conditions

  • Regarding the increase in the pump price of petrol, participants felt that the tax system that the countries apply to petroleum products was also to blame. Consequently, whenever oil prices spiralled, governments could reduce taxes on petroleum products to reduce the adverse effects of higher oil prices on the economy.

  • In view of the small number of irrigation schemes in the sub-region, participants regretted that governments continued to give inadequate attention to water issues. They urged policy makers to take action in this regard in order to develop the rural area where the majority of the workforces earn their living.

2.2 Concerning Economic and Social Conditions in West Africa - Policies for transition from the informal to the formal sector

  • Explore and apply all means necessary to make the informal sector batter known, by the formal sector and by the others involved in managing the economy.

  • There is a pressing need to move from analysis to taking concrete action

  • The data in the table on procedures for establishing a company should sour the authorities to seek to improve the business environment.

Concerning women on the informal sector

3. Concerning the Report on macroeconomic convergence in West Africa

  • The generality of opinion was that a good dose of political will is all that is needed to achieve a single currency in the second monetary zone (WAMZ). Since the countries at warrying levels of convergence

  • The original economic communities particularly ECOWAS and WAEMU requested that the latest convergence criteria figures in ECOWAS West African Monetary Institute (WAMI) and WAEMU should be included in the report. Certain statistics that are projection and not actual figures should be corrected

4. Report on Global ECA Initiatives

  • The participants suggested that the ECA consider

  • These studies should make concrete proposals for a better operationalization of programmes and priorities

  • The meeting recommended that the regional economic communities should work in conjunction with the Joint ADB/ECA Secretariat should be more involved in designing and elaborating medium and long term strategies.

5. African Information Society Initiative - Decade Review

  • There is need to understand the limiting factors for the implementation of national policies and plans and the RECs could play a role in this.

  • ICTs diffusion and utilisation should be geared towards the informal sectors of West Africa as examples were given on the evolution of mobile commerce (m-commerce) as opposed to e-commerce that offers the informal sector such opportunities.

  • Capacity building, which is ECA's comparative advantage in ICT utilization, should be reinforced.

  • Need to pay particular attention to how ICTs can be mainstreamed in various sectors and the need to increase public participation in ICT policy-making.

6. Presentation and launching of recent major ECA reports and publications and briefing session on forthcoming ECA events

1. Elaboration of mechanisms for monitoring employment creation and labour market conditions

This will provide a means of measuring the performance of countries in terms of employment creation and elaborating strategies to increase employment. Policy makers would also be able to gauge the impact of both macroeconomic and microeconomic policies and reforms that are introduced. By systematically collecting information on market conditions, it will be possible to study the linkages between employment and poverty reduction.

2. Enhance the capacities of existing institutions to effectively cater to the needs of both workers and job seekers

Often, such institutions do in fact exist but the citizens are unaware and have no information about the services that such institutions offer. The challenge therefore is to provide them with adequate human, financial and technical resources and evolve systems that can be used to disseminate information about the services they provide.

3. Guarantee safety of investors and their investments

This involves ensuring the physical safety of investors and the security of their property rights, particularly protection from expropriation.

4. Recommendation on Governance

  • ECA/DPMD should take stock of the decentralization practices in the sub-region and come up with the best practices that can be adapted by other countries.

  • ECA should investigate individual and property security for the purposes of attracting investments to the region. This is crucial to private sector development in the sub-region.