VZCZCXRO8059
PP RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHUJA #3130/01 3401617
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 061617Z DEC 06
FM AMEMBASSY ABUJA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7972
INFO RUEHOS/AMCONSUL LAGOS 5674
RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ABUJA 003130 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR AF/W AND AF/RSA 
DEPARMENT PASS TO USTR (AGAMA) 
TREASURY FOR DAN PETERS 
USDOC FOR 3317/ITA/OA/KBURRESS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECIN ETRD EINV EAID PREL NI ECOWAS
SUBJECT: ECOWAS DONORS' MEETING HIGHTLIGHTS PROGRESS 
 
REF:  2005 ABUJA 2496 
 
¶1. (U) Summary: Development partners of the Economic Community of 
West African States (ECOWAS) met November 20-21 in Abuja for a 
progress report on the organization's initiatives.  While peace and 
security issues remain central to ECOWAS's work, transforming the 
ECOWAS Secretariat into a Commission, building institutional 
capacity, expanding participation in the ECOWAS Donors Pool Fund and 
deepening regional integration were areas the ECOWAS Secretariat 
identified as priorities during this year's donors' meeting. 
Overall, the donors seemed pleased with ECOWAS's progress to date, 
but as the ECOWAS Secretariat leadership acknowledged, more remains 
to be done.  The USG continues to play an important role in 
facilitating the organization's progress; more can be done with 
committed and long-term support for its reform and economic 
integration agenda.  End Summary. 
 
-------------------------- 
Donors' Meeting Highlights 
-------------------------- 
 
¶2. (U) Transformation of the ECOWAS Secretariat into a Commission 
was center stage at this year's annual ECOWAS Donors' Coordination 
Meeting held in Abuja November 20-21.  In its January 2006 Heads of 
State meeting, ECOWAS approved the transformation, creating new 
positions of president, vice-president and seven commissioners to 
deepen and accelerate regional integration.  Executive Secretary 
Mohammed Ibn Chambas told donors the commissioner selection process 
was well underway and candidates had already been identified in a 
"very competitive process." 
 
¶3. (U) An objective of this transformation is to build ECOWAS's 
capacity, a central theme at the donors' meeting.  This effort, 
which will be implemented through the Program in Support of ECOWAS 
Capacity Building (PARECIS), will focus on changing ECOWAS's 
management culture to include developing a capacity-building 
strategic framework, and focusing on human resource development and 
financial management.  Chambas appealed to the donor community to 
join a pool fund established by the French, Canadians and British to 
strengthen the organization's capacity and consolidate capacity 
building programs.  (Comment: The advantage to the Pool Fund is that 
it would significantly reduce the ECOWAS' administrative burden as a 
single accountability report on funds is issued, rather than a 
report for each donor.  End Comment.) 
 
¶4. (U) With leadership responsibilities more evenly spread among the 
new commissioners and enhanced capacity, ECOWAS envisions 
reenergizing its institutions to accomplish its numerous goals. 
Principal among these is to deepen regional integration.  The 
organization has a draft roadmap to developing a Regional Strategic 
Plan that seeks to achieve integration in West Africa by 2015. 
Elements of achieving this goal include transforming regional and 
national sectoral structures to create a single regional economic 
community, an effective common market, a single currency and 
monetary union, a community governance system, and a common conflict 
prevention, defense and security system. 
 
¶5. (U) ECOWAS highlighted the West Africa Gas Pipeline project, 
which is almost complete according to the ECOWAS Secretariat, and 
the West Africa Power Pool as successful integration projects. 
ECOWAS noted the need to build the capacity of ECOWAS member state 
"National Units" as a crucial component of its integration program. 
 
¶6. (U) Peace and security issues were a highlight of the meeting 
with both General Toure and Colonel Mbaye of the ECOWAS Political 
Affairs, Defense and Security unit giving presentations that 
underscored efforts to develop the ECOWAS Stand-by Force (ESF) in 
accordance with the African Union mandate.  General Toure emphasized 
that ECOWAS was a leader in peace support operations on the 
continent, but capability gaps remained in the force generation of 
the ESF.  ECOWAS is in the process of conducting assessments in each 
member country to identify gaps in pledged units.  Partner 
assistance is needed to generate a deployable logistics capability 
to support the force.  Toure noted that ECOWAS needed to build its 
peace support operations doctrinal base to more clearly define force 
tactics, techniques and procedures, training and evaluation, and 
standard operating procedures. 
 
-------------- 
Donor Feedback 
-------------- 
 
¶7. (U) Canada and the EU gave the donor keynote addresses during the 
conference.  Other donors represented included China, Denmark, 
 
ABUJA 00003130  002 OF 002 
 
 
Portugal, The Netherlands, Finland, Norway, the UK, France, Japan, 
Spain, Hungary, Sweden and the U.S.  In a postmortem of the 
conference, donors met on November 22 to share their impressions of 
ECOWAS's progress to date and to chart the way forward on ECOWAS 
engagement.  Overall, donors held positive, yet realistic, views 
about ECOWAS's capacity building efforts and peace and security 
program.  Some cautioned that given the organization's upcoming 
structural transformation, it might need additional support as new 
commissioners and directors come on board.  Donors called for 
harmonization of capacity building programs to avoid overwhelming 
ECOWAS with too many projects.  The Canadians pointed out the need 
for advocacy from donors on regional integration within those 
countries where they have a diplomatic presence, with the French 
emphasizing that integration ultimately would have to be implemented 
by member states. 
 
¶8. (U) The EU representative pointed out that China and India are 
playing a greater role in Africa and that the Chinese have greatly 
increased spending on infrastructure and investment in ECOWAS.  The 
UK Liaison Officer to ECOWAS said there is a level of satisfaction 
among the donors on the Standby Force.  The Spanish underscored the 
need for the ECOWAS Secretariat to define an implementation strategy 
and arrange priorities, thus improving efficiency.  The Dutch 
complained that Nigeria's commitment to ECOWAS is opaque and that 
Nigeria should lead by example.  The World Bank reported assisting 
ECOWAS on a regional poverty reduction strategy.  Some donors 
questioned why West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) 
secretariat representatives were not in attendance. (Comment: A 
 
SIPDIS 
major integration challenge not discussed at this donors' meeting 
but raised in UEMOA's roll out of its own six country Regional 
Development Plan in Dakar Nov 2-3, 2006, is how ECOWAS will work 
with UEMOA to integrate activities on sensitive issues such as a 
common monetary and fiscal regime.  End Comment.) 
 
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Comment 
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¶9. (SBU) ECOWAS's agenda is ambitious for a fragile institution. 
While it was heartening to hear of its progress on various fronts 
and its ultimate vision and efforts towards West African 
integration, the organization has a lot on its plate.  Even as 
donors observed that ECOWAS was spreading itself thin, they were 
also recommending new action areas such as immigration, gender and 
environment, making it harder for ECOWAS to set its priorities. 
Nevertheless, economic integration is clearly identified as a 
priority, in line with the proposed USG strategy for refocusing 
engagement with ECOWAS. 
 
¶10. (SBU) The USG can facilitate the organization's progress with 
committed and long-term support for its reform and economic 
integration agenda.  Helping the ECOWAS leadership remain focused on 
economic integration and core competencies will be important. 
However, more important will be engaging member states to set 
economic integration as national priorities -- the far more 
difficult task ahead for donors committed to helping ECOWAS fulfill 
its original mandate. 
CAMPBELL