ECOWAS Commission President seeks greater collaboration with Ecobank, ECOWAS Parliament
ECOWAS re-affirms Commitment to Implement Regional Action Plan on Illicit Drug Trafficking, Organized Crimes and Drug Abuse in West Africa
Abuja, 25th, April 2016
ECOWAS Member States at the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on the World Drug Problem on the 19th April, 2016 in New York re-affirmed their commitment to the implementation of the ECOWAS Political Declaration and Regional Action Plan to address illicit drug trafficking, organized crimes and drug abuse in West Africa, and highlighted their efforts in the areas of drug prevention and treatment while calling for strengthened international cooperation. They also aligned themselves to the statements made on behalf of the African Union States and the African States by South Africa and Sudan respectively. The UN Member States adopted an outcome document titled “Our Joint Commitment to Effectively Addressing and Countering the World Drug Problem” at the opening of the Thirtieth special session. The ECOWAS Commission’s delegation was led by Ambassador TANOUKONE Léon, Permanent Representative of ECOWAS to the United Nations, including Dr. SintikiTarfaUgbe, Director, Gender, Youth and Drug Control and other staff of the Drug Unit participated in the general debate to review progress in the implementation of the Political Declaration and the Plan of Action, including on assessment of the achievements and challenges in countering the world drug problem, within the framework of the three International Drug Control Conventions and other relevant United Nations instruments. UN Member states at the session commended the Commission for Narcotic Drugs (CND) for the comprehensive and inclusive process undertaken to produce the UNGASS outcome document. In addition, the UN Member states welcomed the adoption of the outcome document and reiterated their commitment to implement the measures elaborated based on effective balance between supply and demand reduction, and to address the key causes and consequences of the world drug problem, including those in the health, social, human rights, economic, justice and security fields, in line with the principles of common and shared responsibility. ECOWAS delegation also participated in interactive, multi-stakeholder round table discussions and used the opportunity to engage partners to explore areas of cooperation. The outcome document adopted will be used by ECOWAS Commission to strengthen actions with Member states and will be integrated into the Draft ECOWAS 2016 – 2020 Drug Action Plan to be validated and adopted in third quarter of 2016. |
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ECOWAS Develops New Statutes to Reposition ‘Council of the Wise’
Abuja, 19th May 2016
A meeting on the draft Statute of the ECOWAS Council of the Wise was organized by The ECOWAS Directorate of Mediation and Facilitation in a move to reposition the ECOWAS Council of the Wise organised a two day meeting of Experts from Member States in Abuja, Nigeria from the 4th to 5th May, 2016 with support from the German International Development Agency (GIZ) to draft a new statue. The ECOWAS Council of the Wise, as defined by Article 20 of the 1999 Protocol Relating to the Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution, Peace-keeping and Security, otherwise known as the Mechanism, is one of the mediation organs of the ECOWAS Commission. The Council of the Wise was operationalized following the adoption of the Mechanism with the appointment of Members of the Council by the President of the Commission, who would, on behalf of the President of the Commission, use their good offices and experience to play the role of mediators, conciliators and facilitators for the purposes of preventive diplomacy and conflict resolution in the region. Members of the Council of the Wise have over the years, been engaged in various preventive diplomacy capacities such as Special Envoys, Mediators, Heads and members of pre-electoral facts finding and election observation missions among other assignments. In line with the new impetus to reposition the Council of the Wise, a draft Statute detailing the mandate, function and administrative framework to guide the work of the Council was developed by the ECOWAS Directorate of Mediation and Facilitation which was debated during the meeting in Abuja. Mrs. Halima Ahmed, the ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security represented by Mrs. Florence Iheme, Ag. Director, Mediation and Facilitation in her welcome remarks welcomed participants and commended them for accepting to be part of the workshop. She also underlined the major role played by the Council of the Wise in maintaining peace and stability in the ECOWAS region. After exhaustive deliberations, inputs, comments and observations during the two-day session, the necessary amendments were made to the draft Statute which was adopted at the end of the meeting. |
ECOWAS, UNESCO Support African Mathematical Scientists
ECOWAS, GPEN, COE host Cybercrimes training
ECOWAS in collaboration with the Global Prosecutors E-crime Network (GPEN) of the International Association of Prosecutors (IAP) and the Council of Europe (COE) is hosting a three-day training programme for Member States between the 24th and 26th May 2016 in Abuja, Nigeria.
The training for prosecutors and investigators in the region will strengthen the fight against cybercrime in the region by focusing on tackling common challenges inhibiting the detection, investigations and prosecutions of cybercrime and other crimes that generate electronic evidence in Member States. |
Get to know ECOWAS training programme holds in abuja
ECOWAS moves for continuous support from Nigeria
Even though ECOWAS enjoys fraternal relations with Nigeria, it nevertheless wants a renewal of the partnership that currently exists given the preeminence of Nigeria among the nations within the fold of the Economic Community of West African States.
To this end, the President of the ECOWAS Commission Alain de Souza on Thursday 26th of May 2016 met with the Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari to discuss matters of regional importance as well as to solicit the continuous support of Nigeria towards ensuring that the regional group fulfill its integration mandate.
President de Souza who was accompanied by the full compliments of senior officials of the ECOWAS Commission had earlier visited the Nigerian ministry of Foreign Affairs where he conferred with the Minister of State Hajia Khadija Bukar Ibrahim before proceeding to the Presidential Villa to meet with the Nigerian President. Both presidents discussed in an atmosphere of utmost cordiality.
Discussions during the meetings centered on matters of urgent regional importance, collective security, finances, Common External Tariffs (CET), the Economic Partnership agreement (EPA), intra-community trade as well as reforms and adjustments at ECOWAS.
President Souza who said he was desirous of consolidating the age-long collaboration between the regional group and Nigeria and to strengthen the existing framework of cooperation noted that, Nigeria alone constitute 200 million of the 320 million people in West Africa “We refer rightly to Nigeria as the locomotive engine of West Africa and problems cannot be solved without the locomotive being involved. So there is a leadership role Nigeria has to play” President Souza added.
Emphasizing Nigeria’s unparalleled leadership role in West Africa, President de Souza recalled the country’s outstanding sacrifices in the past in trying to ensure greater stability and integration of the region with examples abounding its peacekeeping missions in Sierra Leone and Liberia.
He commended President Buhari for Nigeria’s recent successes in the war against terrorism and insurgency.
Responding, the Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari formally welcomed de Souza to Nigeria and stressed that he would do what is best to make the mandate of the ECOWAS Commission president and his team realisable.
Earlier, the Nigerian Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Ibrahim disclosed that Nigeria accords great importance to ECOWAS stressing that the background and wealth of experience of President de Souza as a banker and finance manager would come handing in resolving some of the old issues on ground before his resumption of office.
The President of the ECOWAS Commission was accompanied on the visits by Vice President Edward Singhatey, the ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs Peace and Security (PAPS) Halima Ahmed as well as the Commissioner for finance and his Administration and Conference counterpart Messrs. Allieu Sesay and Stephen Nartey
Happy ECOWAS Day!
Happy ECOWAS Day!
Bonne celebration de la journee de la CEDEAO!
Feliz dia da CEDEAO!
ECOWAS, F.E.S. emphasize role of the media in west African integration
The role of the media in bringing the positive impact of the integration activities of ECOWAS to the doorsteps of citizens of West Africa is of more importance today than ever before. This position was strongly echoed at the “Get to Know ECOWAS” Training for journalists which began on the 30th of May 2016 in Abuja.
The study tour and training programme is organized by the Communication Directorate of the ECOWAS Commission in collaboration with the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES). The idea is to create a pool of well-informed media practitioners who would act as catalysts to bridge the information and awareness gap between ECOWAS and the citizens of West Africa while leveraging on the strategic importance of the media to ensure that milestones of ECOWAS are brought closer to the people.
Welcoming journalists from the West African region to the programme on behalf of His Excellency Marcel Alain de Souza, the President of the ECOWAS Commission, the ECOWAS Director of Communication Mrs. Sandra Oulate Fattoh Elleingand stressed the imperativeness of having a crop of better informed journalists about ECOWAS and its institution towards the envisaged greater integration of the area, with an ECOWAS of the people in sight by 2020
Speaking on The Role of Communication Directorate in Creating Awareness Amongst the Citizens of The ECOWAS Community Mrs. Fattoh Elleigand said the Abuja study tour and training programme presents an ample opportunity to discuss mutual interest of the practitioners, ECOWAS Commission and the people of West Africa in general.
She said that it is gratifying that the agenda covers a wide range of interesting items having to do with the operations and programmes of ECOWAS and as they relate to the specific needs of the people of the region.
The Resident Representative, FES Nigeria Madam Seija Sturies maintained that the FES which has been involved in the development process in Nigeria since 1976, is now actively engaged in the promotion of participatory democracy. The focus she said, has become necessary because “without information this will just be a façade”
Madam Sturies further disclosed that the collaboration with ECOWAS also stems from the fact that FES is a German organization that is committed to the values of social democracy and is collaborating in Nigeria with different stakeholders such as human rights and civil society organisations, the Parliament, as well as Trade Unions
The citizens of West Africa, she continued, deserve to know about the policies and programmes of those that are at the helm of affairs just as they deserve to contribute if need be to the decisions that directly affect them “and the onus is on the media to bring information to citizens”
Making reference to several ECOWAS integration programmes and provisions such as the one on Free Movement of Goods, Persons and Services, she noted that it has become necessary to find out how many of traders in the region are aware of the provisions as they operate across the border whereas, making such information available at the community level can help change some of the practices, and then facilitates and accelerate regional integration and development.
The German ambassador to Nigeria Michael Zenner maintained that the collaborative effort at bringing about greater awareness of the ECOWAS achievements and prospects stems from the recognition that trans-national problems cannot be solved by one nation alone just as the commitment of ECOWAS to integration, stability and collective security can help to foster public trust among member nations.
Stressing that the task at hand was to sensitise journalists on their role in the actualisation of ECOWAS vision, he said the huge expectations after the study tour is for the journalists to explain the ECOWAS Community programmes to the people, how it works and who it works for knowing that it is only by working together that Ambassador Zenner added that we can build a west African house strong enough to withstand the storms of the future.
During the Get to Know ECOWAS Opening-Day session, a fifteen-minute documentary also featured as well as power point presentations on The History of ECOWAS and Role of ECOWAS in Ensuring Peace and Stability in West Africa.
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Signing of a Headquarters Agreement between the Republic of The Gambia and the ECOWAS
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of The Gambia Yam Bamba Njie Keita, and His Excellency Marcel A. de Souza, president of the ECOWAS Commission, signed the headquarters Agreement for the Regional Competition Authority during the ECOWAS Heads of State Summit on the 4th of June in Dakar, Senegal. By Decision A / DEC.3 / 05/2015, the location of the Authority complex is assigned to the Republic of Gambia.