ECA/SRO-WA AND UEMOA COOPERATION

The Director of the Sub-Regional Office for West Africa of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA/SRO-WA), Mrs. Fatoumata Ba Sy, led an official delegation on a mission to the headquarters of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) at Ouagadougou from June 13th to 14th, 2011.

UEMOA is made up of eight countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte-d’Ivoire, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Niger, Togo and Senegal) that are equally members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), an organization with an overall membership of fifteen countries, all of which fall within the SRO-WA’s scope of activities.

The main purpose of the mission, which equally included Mr. Joseph Foumbi and Mrs. Selamawit Abebe of SRO-WA, was to officialize cooperation ties between the two organizations. During the visit, the SRO-WA delegation presented a number of papers to their UEMOA counterparts on the following topics:

• ECA and its mandate;
• SRO-WA’s work program for the current (2010-2011) biennium ;
• The 2011-2012 work program;
• The areas of cooperation to be explored, which areas may fall in line with the UEMOA’s program

On their part, UEMOA’s technical divisions presented an overview of their work program together with their 2011-2012 Strategic Plan.

At the end of deliberations, a matrix of cooperation areas proposed by ECA was reviewed and adopted. A host of priority areas were thus proposed, including agriculture and food security. In this regard, both parties envisaged setting up a Sub-Regional Exchange for staple foodstuffs, a project that ought to be sustained through a partnership whereby ECA and UEMOA will team up with CILSS, ECOWAS, FAO, ACDI as well as other financial and technical partners. ECA/SRO-WA is expected to contribute by helping to mobilize both resources and expertise. Along the same lines, there are plans to make operational the Union's Agricultural Policy (or PAU). ECA is expected to contribute to the financing of expertise. UNCTAD and the World Bank, working alongside ECA and UEMOA, will equally provide support. Still in the priority areas of farming and food security, another activity has equally been added, namely adaptation to climate change, particularly by encouraging the development of renewable energies (solar and wind) and underground dams to support small-scale irrigation. On the latter activity, ECA/SRO-WA is expected to concretize its action by providing direct technical assistance and/or mobilizing the needed expertise.

It is worthwhile indicating that in presenting the Guidelines for cooperation between the Office and UEMOA, the ECA/SRO-WA pointed out that over the period 2012-2013 and thereafter, it will equally embark on two large projects not mentioned in its plan, namely a project entitled “Integrating climate change in agricultural policies to achieve food security and reduce poverty in West Africa” and the other entitled “Building the capacities of African countries to foster the use of renewable energies with a view to achieving sustainable development and reducing poverty”.

As far as priority areas of infrastructural development are concerned, ECA and UEMOA are contemplating a partnership that will not only make operational, but equally ensure synergy amongst policies on infrastructure and network interconnection. ECA/SRO-WA is expected to step in by providing assistance in mobilizing both resources and expertise.

Other priority areas have equally been proposed by the two parties, such as knowledge generation, management and dissemination, capacity building and enhancement of coordination. ECA/SRO-WA’s contribution in these areas will either take the form of direct technical assistance or a mobilization of expertise in tandem with UEMOA.

As far as knowledge generation, management and dissemination are concerned, ECA/SRO-WA and UEMOA have chosen to set up a platform for the management and dissemination of knowledge (the knowledge management platform). Concerning capacity building, the two parties have opted to strengthen ECOWAS’s EPAU (Economic Policy Analysis Unit) and UEMOA’s UPS (Strategic Programming Unit) involved in the management of research and continuous training of senior staff.

Finally, with regard to reinforcement of coordination, both delegations agreed to make operational a consultation framework for West African Intergovernmental Organizations (WAIGO) and the United Nations’ Sub-Regional Coordination Mechanism (RSCM). A workshop on this mechanism is scheduled to take place in Dakar in September 2011. Jointly organized by the West African and Central African sub-regional offices, the workshop will dwell on the adoption of a Sub-Regional Coordination Mechanism (SRCM) for UN agencies in a bid to coordinate the UN’s assistance to the RECs (regional economic communities) and IGOs (intergovernmental organizations) of Central and West Africa.