VZCZCXRO0518
PP RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHUJA #2560/01 3470619
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 130619Z DEC 07
FM AMEMBASSY ABUJA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1645
INFO RUEHOS/AMCONSUL LAGOS PRIORITY 8413
RUEHAR/AMEMBASSY ACCRA 0901
RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ABUJA 002560 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR AF/W AND AF/RSA 
USAID FOR JBORNS, NFREEMAN, MBROWN, MOTT, CGARRATT, 
EMBASSY ACCRA FOR GAIL SPENCE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECIN ETRD EINV EAID PREL NI ECOWAS
SUBJECT: 2007 ECOWAS DONORS' MEETING 
 
 
¶1.  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.  The central vision of the 
ECOWAS Commission was transforming ECOWAS into an "ECOWAS of the 
People."  While peace and security issues remain central to ECOWAS's 
work, implementing the ECOWAS Commission medium term work plan, 
building institutional capacity, expanding participation in the 
ECOWAS Donors Pool Fund and deepening regional integration were 
areas the ECOWAS Commission identified as priorities during this 
year's donors' meeting.  Overall, the donors seemed satisfied with 
ECOWAS's progress in its restructuring, but as the ECOWAS Commission 
leadership acknowledged, more remains to be done.  Donors agreed to 
push the Commission to circulate a preliminary version of the ECOWAS 
Commission President's Annual Report and the Financial Controller's 
Annual Report prior to next year's ECOWAS Donors Meeting.  The USG 
continues to play an important role in facilitating the 
organization's progress in promoting regional integration and peace 
and security efforts progress; more can be done with committed and 
long-term support for its reform and economic integration agenda. 
End Summary. 
. 
President's Vision for ECOWAS 
---------------------------- 
. 
¶2.  The meeting was opened by the ECOWAS Commission President, Dr. 
Mohammed Ibn Chambas, with addresses from the Ambassador of 
Portugal, as representative of the European Union Presidency, and 
the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Nigeria.  This was the 
first donors meeting held under the new ECOWAS Commission.  The 
ECOWAS Commission President Chambas declared that the focus of this 
year's meeting was to share the key strategic plan of an "ECOWAS of 
the People" with development partners.  He said the strategic 
documents presented are to guide and drive all ECOWAS's 
interactions, planning, program implementation, and interface with 
development partners. 
 
¶3.  Dr. Chambas said a key priority was the operationalizing of the 
new vision of transforming ECOWAS from a focus on states to creating 
a borderless region of peoples as a vehicle for growth and 
prosperity took center stage.  On June 15 ECOWAS Heads of State had 
adopted the ECOWAS Strategic Vision, which seeks to convert West 
Africa into a borderless region where citizens can create and avail 
themselves of opportunities for sustainable production by harnessing 
West Africa's enormous resources.  The vision foresees the creation 
of a region-wide space for people to transact business, reduce 
poverty, and live in dignity and peace under the rule of law and 
good governance. 
 
¶4.  Dr. Chambas explained that in the Commission's efforts in 
equipping itself for regional integration, it has strengthened its 
capacity for financial management, established a department of 
external relations to help coordinate all partner supports, 
established a department of monitoring and evaluation and 
established a strategic planning unit.  Accelerating the recruitment 
process was identified as a key challenge facing the Commission and 
the newly established Human Resources Department. 
. 
ECOWAS Presentations 
-------------------- 
. 
¶5.  The meeting provided a platform for interaction, a review of the 
ECOWAS strategic plans, capacity building strategic framework, and 
review of areas of development cooperation.  The Commission 
circulated documents which provided basic information on its key 
strategic plans.  These were the ECOWAS Strategic Vision Document 
and Commission structure, the Medium Term Work Plan, the Capacity 
Building Strategic framework, the ECOWAS accounting and financial 
systems transformation, and the Civil Society interface with 
ECOWAS. 
 
¶6.  The Commission President updated development partners on the 
progress made since the institutional transformation.  He presented 
the ECOWAS strategic vision for 2020 which focuses on sustainable 
development, poverty eradication and regional peace and security. 
ECOWAS Vice-President, Jean de Dieu Somda, presented the ECOWAS 
Medium Term Plan (MTP) 2008-2010 which detailed how the Commission 
will actualize the ECOWAS Vision 2020 of a borderless region of 
peoples.  The Financial Controller, Adaoha C. Okuosa, later made her 
presentation on the implications of the transformation for the 
accounting and financial system of ECOWAS.  Dr. Chambas said ECOWAS 
made some progress over the last year - strengthening its capacity 
for financial management, ongoing recruitment process, creation of a 
external relations department to coordinate partner support, and a 
unit for strategic planning. 
. 
Economic Partnership Agreement with EU 
-------------------------------------- 
 
ABUJA 00002560  002 OF 003 
 
 
. 
¶7.  Dr. Chambas briefed donors on the activities being undertaken by 
ECOWAS on the negotiation of the Economic Partnership Agreement 
(EPA) with the European Union (EU) for a free trade area between the 
two regions.  He disclosed that the negotiation was threatening to 
divide countries of the ECOWAS region into blocs of LDCs and 
non-LDCs, and threatened the regional integration and common customs 
union.  The ECOWAS Commission pointed to the Euro-Africa Summit in 
Lisbon in December 8-9, 2007 as demonstrating whether there would be 
progress in negotiating the EPA.  Following the Summit, ECOWAS 
expected to focus on development and regional integration in the EPA 
negotiations. 
. 
Donor Comments 
-------------- 
. 
¶8.  Portugal gave the donor keynote addresses on behalf of donors 
during the conference.  Other donors represented included Canada, 
China, the Netherlands, Denmark, European Commission, France, 
Portugal, Germany, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Japan, the UK, 
the U.S. and the World Bank. The Portuguese, represented by the 
Portuguese ambassador to Nigeria, Maria de Fatima Perestrello, spoke 
on behalf of donors and praised ECOWAS for its various initiatives, 
particularly in the promotion of regional peace and security. 
Ambassador Perestrello noted that despite these achievements, a lot 
needed to be done for timely achievement of the principal objectives 
of regional integration into a common market under a single 
currency, with a monetary union.  She noted that ECOWAS should do 
more to implement regional common policies, accompanied by adoption 
of internal changes by member states. 
 
¶9.  Donors congratulated ECOWAS for returning to the original vision 
of regional economic integration.  The Resident Coordinator of the 
United Nations, Alberic Kacou, praised ECOWAS for its success so far 
and challenged the ECOWAS Commission to develop strategies to ensure 
its strategic participation in the global trading system as a 
regional body.  He called on the commission to establish clear goals 
for all stakeholders and closely engage each member state goals in 
the new vision of an ECOWAS of people.  He further urged development 
partners to cooperate with ECOWAS for greater coordination and 
effectiveness. 
 
¶10.  The DFID Regional Economic Advisor, Peter Poulsen, said that 
since donors were not provided with advance copies of the 
presentations for pre-meeting review it would be difficult to 
comment on their contents or raise points of discussion during the 
conference.  The Canadian representative, Reid Cooper, made the 
suggestion that ECOWAS be more active on health, HIV/AIDS, and 
employment issues.  Donors also noted the need to improve 
collaboration and cost reduction. 
. 
Donor Feedback 
-------------- 
. 
¶11.  In a postmortem donors only meeting, participants were 
encouraged with ECOWAS progress over the last year, and indicated 
their willingness to continue supporting ECOWAS and its programs. 
Donors wanted more detailed reporting on achievements than agreed 
objectives and targets to judge if progress was made.  For next 
year, the Donors agreed to push the Commission to circulate a 
preliminary version of the ECOWAS Commission President's Annual 
report and the Financial Controller's Annual Report prior to next 
year's ECOWAS Donors Meeting. 
 
¶12.  The donors also stressed the need for Pool Fund reports to 
include quarterly progress updates on NEPAD consultants work plans; 
that the ECOWAS 2008 budget show donor contribution to all major 
ECOWAS activities, and a breakdown of how the community levy and 
donor contribution are allocated to all ECOWAS institutions.  The 
Finnish Ambassador made the point that ECOWAS needs to move faster 
in addressing food security, desertification and trade 
competitiveness issues.  The representative from Sweden highlighted 
the need for ECOWAS to identify areas where donors could be of 
assistance to accelerate the ongoing recruitment exercise.  The 
Canadian representative pointed out the need for advocacy from 
donors on regional integration within those countries where they 
have a diplomatic presence.  The French Ambassador stressed that 
integration ultimately would have to be implemented by member 
states. 
 
¶13.  The World Bank representative suggested that ECOWAS 
presentations should have covered more of their key achievements 
especially in agriculture and transportation.  The WB recommended 
that the donors work with ECOWAS on developing an agreed upon 
format, agenda, and timing for future meetings with greater emphasis 
on thematic sessions and more substantive discussion on the progress 
of ECOWAS programs.  He asked donors to encourage their country 
 
ABUJA 00002560  003 OF 003 
 
 
directors and representatives in ECOWAS member states to encourage 
country support for regional integration.  He emphasized the point 
that most poverty reduction strategy programs of ECOWAS member 
states don't address or include discussion on regional integration. 
He strongly encouraged donor country teams in ECOWAS member states 
indicate how they will contribute to regional integration and make 
sure that this topic is included in the bilateral country dialogue. 
 
 
¶14. The Ambassador from Denmark stated that ECOWAS member states 
have a different role with ECOWAS than the donors have with ECOWAS. 
The Ambassador suggested that donors should be asking what kind of 
tripod relationship do donors want to have with ECOWAS and member 
states.  The Danish Ambassador agreed with the WB representative 
that donors should do a study on the bottlenecks in implementing or 
achieving key ECOWAS priorities. 
. 
Moving Forward 
-------------- 
. 
¶15.  Donors agreed that ECOWAS needs to give more attention to 
implementing its capacity building programs and finalizing its 
Medium Term Plan so donors can move from ad hoc contributions to an 
improved coordinated approach with expanded funding.  Donors also 
agreed that ECOWAS needs to clarify the linkages between external 
initiatives such as the Millennium Development Goals, NEPAD, the 
ECOWAS Vision 2020 plan, the Medium Term Plan and their Capacity 
Building Program. 
 
¶16.  Other areas identified by donors needing immediate attention 
from the ECOWAS Commission include: 
-- completing the ECOWAS Communication Strategy by June 30, 2008; 
-- completing the ECOWAS Tender Code revision by March 30, 2008; 
-- recognizing and planning for the role of member states in the 
design and implementation of ECOWAS programs; 
-- professionalizing ECOWAS staff through adequate capacity 
building; 
-- increasing the use and effectiveness of thematic groups by 
nominating an ECOWAS focal point for each group to animate meetings 
. 
Comment 
------- 
. 
¶17.  The success of ECOWAS in achieving its vision of full regional 
integration depends on the political will of member states to adopt 
and implement agreed upon ECOWAS supported policy reforms and policy 
frameworks to advance economic integration and free trade.  Progress 
from the Commission has been slowed by inadequate staffing and 
limited capacity to address technical issues related to economic 
integration.  For future meetings, donors should encourage ECOWAS to 
provide more documentation to measure clearly program achievements 
and results and to better identify donor contribution and assistance 
to relevant programs and projects. 
 
PIASCIK