ISODEC calls on ECOWAS to open up to the masses

Accra March 2, GNA - Dr Yakubu Zakaria, Director of Programmes at the Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC) on Wednesday said the time had come to transform ECOWAS from its present technocrat nature into an ECOWAS of the masses.

He said very little knowledge was known by the people in the West African sub-region about ECOWAS, and especially what representatives of ECOWAS were doing to ensure the smooth integration of the sub-region.

Dr Zakaria said this at a media briefing on ISODEC's capacity building project of Non-State Actors towards the realisation of a customs union and common market in West Africa. The six month project is aimed at mobilising large populations towards regional integration, commitment of more resources into the integration process, as well as concentrating more on economic issues. The project which began in January 2011 is expected to end in June 2011. Some of the programmes include, Zonal Capacity Building workshop, launch of a sustained nationwide media sensitisation, creation of sustained project associates through international durbars and evaluation of the project.

Dr Zakaria said after five years o f integration not much progress had been achieved citing lack of political will, inadequate resources, lack of adequate institutional mechanisms and capacity for the management of regionalism.

Incessant conflicts and the concentration on political rather than economic problems, reliance on primary products and supply side constraints, poor choice of personnel, conflicting and overlapping integration schemes of member countries and the lack of regional level monitoring were also some of the barriers to progress. Dr Zakaria also noted that unlike the European Union, no institution in West Africa existed to train people for integration with the exception of Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration and the Legon Centre for International Affairs. He suggested that in order to have an ECOWAS of the people, there needed to be the involvement of Community based organisations, faith based organisations, private sector, trade unions, farmers' cooperatives and the media. Dr Zakaria noted that the project would therefore focus on mobilising people including traditional rulers to know more about regional integration in order for the masses to hold the representatives at ECOWAS accountable. He said 17 countries including, Mali, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Cote d'Iviore in the sub-region had been approved to take part in the programme and that Ghana was represented by four organisations including ISODEC.

Dr Zakaria said that an amount of 5 million Euros had been provided by the European Union to fund the project. He said this was because the rationale for regionalism was to overcome small sizes of countries and domestic markets over the problem of balkanisation, to reap the advantage of larger economies in production and to attain specialisation, increased scope for diversification to reduce economic dependence and enhance capacity to meet challenges posed by globalisation. 2 March 11