body-container-line-1
27.04.2011 Egypt

ECOWAS begins fresh move to check poverty

By The Guardian/Nigeria
President of the ECOWAS Commission, Amb. James Victor GbehoPresident of the ECOWAS Commission, Amb. James Victor Gbeho
27.04.2011 LISTEN


With the launch at the weekend of the Regional Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (RPRSP), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) now hopes that the entire sub-region would finally move towards attaining the seven per cent growth rate in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for its peoples.

Addressing drivers of the RPRSP process, officials of the African Development Bank (ADB), the Monetary Union of West Africa (UEMOA) and development partners, the president of the ECOWAS Commission, Amb. James Victor Gbeho, noted that the attainment of the seven per cent GDP growth rate was critical to meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The regional strategy against poverty was adopted during the heads of state's summit in Ouagadougou in 2008, as a bulwark against the threat posed by poverty, which was said then to be affecting more than one billion people globally especially in West Africa. The 204-page document was consequently presented in January last year in Accra, Ghana and validated in May 2010 with a road map.

In rolling out its internationalisation strategy in Dakar, Senegal, the ECOWAS Commission said in Abuja at the weekend that the drive would assist the region, which lags behind in critical barometers of development, and address existing gaps in the areas of education, health, access to drinking water and infrastructure.

The West African region is ranked among the poorest in the world where more than 60 per cent of its 230 million citizens live on less than a dollar a day.

In his presentation, which also dwelt on the imperative of an effective communications strategy, Gbeho said, “regional integration is not an end in

itself but a definitive means of ensuring poverty eradication as well as the wellbeing, peace and human security of our peoples.”

Although adopted in partnership with the UEMOA through the joint technical secretariat with the support of the ADB and the World Bank, Gbeho stressed that together with the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) “we are developing a resource mobilisation strategy and financial plan that will ensure that funds are available for financing the programmes.”

Conservative estimates put the cost of the programme under the RPRSP at about $15 billon, with only about $3.7 billion so far secured. Closing the financial gap is therefore expected to be the main objective of the resource mobilisation strategy.

Apparently realising this, Gbeho's speech was also more of a charge to the ECOWAS commissioners directly involved as well as stakeholders of the process. “Today, it (GDP) is less than five per cent. We need a growth rate of about seven per cent to meet the MDGs ...

"My parents sent me to school because they were afraid that I was going to be a farmer. That should no longer be the same. We cannot afford to live agriculture in the hands of the poor. We need to ensure that agriculture succeeds. We need to set up agro industries.

“We are not generating enough jobs. We have to make agriculture successful so that its multiplier effect can reach everybody. Today we are trying to encourage the vertical development of roads south to north) in addition to the trans-coastal highway that we are trying to develop. There needs to be employment opportunities. Government cannot do everything. We have to encourage and entice the private sector to come in. Governments have already shown the strain in this regard.”

The ECOWAS Commissioner for Macroeconomic Policy, Prof. Bamba N'galajo Lambert, who presented the RPRSP had highlighted the challenges confronting the sub-region that necessitated an unwavering implementation of the strategy to include a sluggish economic growth, high demographic growth with its corresponding effects, such as conflicts.






body-container-line