The Financial Group of West African States (ECOWAS) was established in 1975 to advertise financial integration within the area. Forty-nine years later, the regional bloc has made vital achievements in integration, peace and safety, and good governance, however it additionally faces some challenges.
ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Safety, Ambassador Abdel-Fataou Moussa, participated in a high-level occasion held on the United Nations Headquarters in New York in June 2024, specializing in regional solidarity, peace and safety in West Africa.
Talking on behalf of ECOWAS in an interview with Kingsley Igbor after the occasion, Ambassador Moussa highlighted the achievements and challenges of the group and its ongoing efforts to strengthen integration. These are excerpts from the interview.
ECOWAS’s 49 years of accomplishment will be summed up in a single key level: we have now moved from creating organizations to constructing communities.
ECOWAS was created on the peak of the Chilly Battle. The one attainable space the place individuals can come collectively and discover frequent floor is financial integration, not politics or ideology.
The Protocol on the Free Motion of Individuals, Items and Providers (1976), which permits residents the precise of residence in any member state, has been a calling card of ECOWAS for a few years. Folks in West Africa don’t want to think about visas when crossing borders within the area, which is a significant achievement.
The scenario in Africa was turbulent after the Chilly Battle. With out ECOWAS, the whole area could possibly be engulfed in internecine wars. For those who keep in mind, a conflict broke out in Liberia in late 1989 and continued all through the Nineteen Nineties, spreading to Sierra Leone and affecting Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire.
The area has a lot to be happy with – ECOWAS is now a trademark and is a pioneer in regional integration on the continent.
A: ECOWAS, by way of its multilateral armed pressure, the Financial Group of West African States Ceasefire Monitoring Group, intervened to stabilize the scenario, finally offering a smooth touchdown for the following intervention of United Nations peacekeepers.
What about financial integration?
By way of financial integration, we are able to speak about many achievements. This isn’t simply concerning the free motion of individuals; It additionally goals to create a typical marketplace for the area. It goals to assist international locations develop infrastructure – vitality, connectivity and construct highway networks throughout areas.
That is ongoing. Nevertheless, having discovered from the tragic occasions of the Nineteen Nineties that have been characterised by civil conflict and state collapse, ECOWAS had no selection however to show to safety points and good governance.
At this time, the values of democracy and human rights are deeply embedded in West African tradition, and ECOWAS is a crucial a part of this course of. Regardless of the excessive exercise of violent extremist teams, West Africa is the one area in Africa with out open, high-intensity battle.
The area has a lot to be happy with – ECOWAS is now a trademark and is a pioneer in regional integration on the continent. It supplies most of the foundations for the framework of the African Union.
ECOWAS remodeled from an financial bloc into an financial and political union. Is it right?
Sure.
Some ECOWAS members have expressed their intention to withdraw from the group. Are there efforts to make sure their continued existence?
ECOWAS is a neighborhood. We’re united. We could encounter challenges or disagreements, however quitting is just not the reply. Nations planning to withdraw speak rather a lot about Pan-African ambitions, and so forth., however the foundation of Pan-Africanism is integration. Provided that disintegration is not going to promote Pan-Africanism, we’re doing every thing we are able to to maintain them inside our ambit.
However it’s value noting {that a} nation can not resolve to withdraw from ECOWAS in in the future. Underneath Article 91 of the ECOWAS Treaty, there are particular procedures that must be adopted.
Some diplomacy is going down behind the scenes to reunite the ECOWAS bloc.
What offers you hope that these efforts will succeed?
What offers us hope is that ECOWAS held a particular summit in February 2024, which lifted extreme sanctions on Nigeria, and we additional encourage them to return to the neighborhood. We hope they perceive that the advantages of being collectively far outweigh the disadvantages.
Talking of benefits, what additional incentives do you supply these international locations to encourage them to keep up their membership?
I spoke earlier concerning the free motion of individuals, items and providers in ECOWAS. Roughly 10 million residents of those international locations are unfold throughout the area. As we communicate, 4.5 million residents of Burkina Faso stay in Côte d’Ivoire alone. In the event that they withdraw from ECOWAS, the standing of their residents will change dramatically. They need to legalize their keep, and people who can not legalize might want to return to their house international locations.
We speak about commerce liberalization. Intra-African commerce solely accounts for about 15%. Within the ECOWAS area, these three international locations account for not more than 17% of exports to the remainder of West Africa. What ECOWAS will get from them is meat, greens, and so forth. And so they get vitality and plenty of manufactured items from different international locations with nearly no tariffs hooked up.
The values of democracy and human rights are deeply embedded in West African tradition, and ECOWAS is a crucial a part of this course of.
Don’t overlook that every one three international locations are landlocked. They want entry to the ocean, which is being supplied immediately underneath very favorable situations throughout the framework of regional integration. In the event that they withdraw, they must discover various exports or pay larger delivery prices and duties. It can take a variety of time and sources to do that.
We additionally give attention to neighborhood unity, one thing individuals take as a right. In truth, these three international locations collectively devour greater than 52% of ECOWAS strategic meals reserves, roughly 15,000 tons of meals. Landlocked international locations or these affected by periodic droughts want such assist.
In the end, the best solution to counter violent extremism is thru intelligence sharing and transnational army cooperation. How can they successfully fight violent extremists if they’re separated from us? We want them again as households and I hope they reverse their determination.
Will their withdrawal have an effect on ECOWAS’s repute?
Withdrawal wouldn’t be useful to them nor to ECOWAS as a result of in immediately’s worldwide diplomacy, power lies in numbers. If we have been nonetheless 15 member states, our affect in worldwide diplomacy can be better. In the event that they go away, ECOWAS can be weakened. That is one thing we have now to think about.
Bear in mind, ECOWAS is a united group. If you’re searching for a place with a global group such because the United Nations, ECOWAS comes collectively and helps candidates. With a purpose to unite, we’ll assist these inside our neighborhood.
So from a diplomatic, safety and political perspective, this isn’t good for either side. However general, it’s extremely dangerous for them.
supply: Africa Renaissance is a United Nations digital journal masking financial, social and political developments in Africa, in addition to the challenges going through the continent and Africans’ personal options to those issues, together with with the assist of the United Nations and the worldwide neighborhood.
IPS ONE Workplace
Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
Observe IPS Information United Nations Bureau on Instagram
© Inter Press Service (2024) — All rights reservedAuthentic supply: Inter Press Service
