The Regional Strategy: Context and Prospect

1. The Regional Strategy: Context and Prospect Essien Abel Essien Director, Strategic Planning

2. Content • Background • Basic Strategic Framework for Regional Integration • The Short/Medium to Long Term Strategy • Regional Strategic Goals • Main Challenges and Key Opportunities • Current Responses and Initiatives

3. Objectives of the Presentation • Underscore the importance of a vision and strategy to regional economic integration in West Africa • Present the long term strategic priorities of the region as encapsulated in the ECOWAS Vision 2020 • Highlight the short to medium term strategic goals derived from this Vision • Indicate the major challenges to the implementation of the regional strategic plan • Highlight current responses and initiatives

4. Background (1 of 3) • Founded in 1975 and is a regional grouping of 15 countries • Recorded success albeit miniscule • Several challenges have bedeviled the integration process in recent times. • Socio-Economic Bottlenecks • Human Insecurity • Gender Inequality and Vulnerability of some Segments of the Population • Poor Quality of Social Services • Population Pressures on Scarce Resources • Slow Process of Economic Integration • Infrastructure Inadequacy • High cost of Doing Business • Nascent and Weak Private Sector Capacity and Institutions • Over-dependence on Commodity Exports

5. Background (2 of 3) • Political Challenges • Fragile Political Fusions: Across the sub-region • Political Commitment to Deepen Regional Integration • Adverse External Factors • Climate Change and Environmental Degradation • Intra-regional Challenges

6. Background (3 of 3) • Response • ECOWAS Secretariat transformed into a Commission in order to sustain and step-up the momentum of integration in West Africa • There are now several institutions driving the process of integration with competent and efficient manpower, and full support of developing partners • ECOWAS is currently refocusing its activities to align with the Vision set by the Authority of Heads of State and Government to create an ECOWAS of People

7. Basic Strategic Framework

8. KEYWORDS ENABLERS • Borderless • Peace • Prosperity • Cohesion • Good governance • Access • Harnessing • Creation of opportunities OBJECTIVES • Sustainable development • Environmental preservation The Long-term Strategy of ECOWAS • The Vision Statement • To create a borderless, peaceful, prosperous and cohesive region, built on good governance and where people have the capacity to access and harness its enormous resources through the creation of opportunities for sustainable development and environmental preservation

9. Building Blocks of the ECOWAS Vision

10. The Short to Medium Term Strategy: Purpose • Provides an opportunity for the citizens to participate in the process and take a genuine interest in their future, thereby increasing morale • Promotes a common sense of purpose and cohesion • Indicates a “road map” for development and service delivery in the near and distant future • Raises their collective awareness on current and future issues and operations • Facilitates a reconciliation between past ways of doing things versus modern ideas and the projection of future service demand • Sets the stage for the Community’s institutions to operate at a new, purposeful, and efficient level

11. Regional Strategic Goals

12. Goal 1 Promote good governance , justice and upgrade the conflict prevention, management and resolution mechanism Challenges • The need to mainstream conflict prevention into stabilization and post conflict interventions • The need to improve the regional management systems and human resources to be able to better manage multiple tasks efficiently and effectively • The need to improve the structural and operational architecture, e.g. social infrastructure, diplomacy, humanitarian issues etc. • Strategy • Mobilize the resources and enhance the strategies required to fulfill the region’s mission of maintaining peace, stability and security in the region, within the context of good governance, as a basis for sustainable development

13. Goal 2 • Promote Infrastructural development and a Competitive Business Environment • Challenges • Provision of basic economic and technological infrastructure • Education and skill development • Entrepreneurship and enterprise development • Innovation and creativity • Strategy • Provide the necessary policy input that would ensure regional and national competitiveness as well as a conducive business environment for the development of the private sector and build capacity to support a regional investment framework

14. Goal 3 Sustained development and cooperation in the region Challenges • Lack of adequate social and physical infrastructure for the establishment of a strong and viable private sector • Absence of political will to implement the various protocols that would engender cross-border transactions, particularly those related to free movement of persons, goods, services, capital, etc. • Lack of capacity to manage the development process • Lack of coherence and consistency in collective bargaining and negotiation • Lack of an industrial policy harmonization agenda that would promote the orderly development of the industrial sector and facilitate cost reduction in the productive sectors of the regional economies • Strategy • Support and encourage all initiatives that would facilitate compliance with existing policies and protocols, and provide the enabling environment for sustained development in the region

15. Goal 4 • Deepen economic and monetary integration • Challenges • Absence of common economic policies and legal, accounting and statistical frameworks • Lack of coherence and synergy in the multilateral surveillance mechanism of the various ECOWAS institutions responsible for implementing the ECOWAS Monetary Cooperation Program (EMCP) • Paucity of research on socio-economic development issues to aid the preparation of position statements and policy briefs to evaluate the status and depth of regional integration • Non-achievement of primary and secondary convergence criteria on a sustainable basis by member countries • Non-operationalisation of the relevant institutions (WACB, WAFSA, and WAMZ Secretariat) necessary for the establishment of the second monetary zone (WAMZ), the introduction of the ECO currency and ultimate single currency for the region • Strategy • Promote economic policy harmonization and monetary co-operation as a means of achieving macro economic convergence and eventual attainment of single currency within the region

16. Goal 5 • Reinforce Institutional Capacity • Challenges • Low investments in human capital development • Lack of organizational culture, dearth of tools and unfriendly work environment • Inefficient organizational structures and poor management system that do not conform to modern and best standards of global practices • The region suffers grossly from low ICT penetration, knowledge, accessibility, availability and applicability • Strategy • To develop an efficient and functional work environment for enhanced productivity and the coordination of activities that are necessary for the timely realization of the Vision of the region

17. Goal 6 • Strengthen the mechanism for integration into the global market • Challenges • The institution of a strategic planning and programming system that would not only be forward looking, but key into the vision of the region and mirror the expectation of the international development partners • Lack of effective mechanism for an integrated approach to trade promotion • Low value addition and poor quality of products emanating from the region that would make them competitive in the international market • Poor state of infrastructure in the region, which remains regrettable, disastrous and production-reductive • The current global crisis, global meltdown contagion (GMDC) and their likely effects on aids and foreign direct investments flow • Strategy • Implementation of the ECOWAS Vision 2020, Strategic Plans of ECOWAS Institutions and the creation of a favourable environment for effective integration into the global market

18. Main Challenges and Key Opportunities:Pyramid of Success How are we going to achieve this?...What plan should we follow?...How do we know when we have met our goals?...How do we keep on track? How do we do this? The methods and tools necessary to achieve our mission. It involves preparing the best way to respond to the circumstances of the organization's environment, whether or not these circumstances are known in advance. STRATEGY CAPABILITIES ARCHITECTURE How should we structure our capabilities to realize value and work efficiently as an organization? Processes Technology Organization Good Governance Institutions Facilities Funding Culture People

19. Current Responses and Initiatives (1 of 2)

20. Current Responses and Initiatives (1 of 2)

21. Concluding Remarks • The region has come along way in evolving into a viable economic and monetary block • All hands must be on deck as it is apparent that the process is irreversible THANK YOU MERCI OBRIGADO