End of the high-level joint AfDB-ECOWAS review mission on the Inte-gration Strategy Paper 2020-2025
18 Sep, 2023The ECOWAS Commission and the African Development Bank (AfDB) successfully concluded a series of joint consultation meetings from Tuesday, September 5th, to Friday, September 15th, 2023, focusing on the mid-term and portfolio performance reviews of the Regional Integration Strategy Paper (RISP) for West Africa for 2020-2025.
These consultations aimed to assess the progress and performance of the RISP and discuss the necessary interventions to promote regional integration and development. Various departments were visited during the two-week consultations, including economic affairs and agricul-ture, human development and social affairs, infrastructure, energy and digitalization, political affairs, peace and security.
The consultations provided a platform for stakeholders to exchange ideas, share experiences, and propose strategies to advance regional integration in West Africa.
During this wrap up session, the main conclusions, and recommendations of the African Devel-opment Bank’s engagement with the ECOWAS Commission were presented. This presentation outlined the next steps to be taken to ensure effective implementation of the RISP and achieve its objectives.
This wrap up session noted the participation of eminent personalities in particular the President of ECOWAS Commission, H.E. Dr. Omar Alieu Touray, and the Director General of the Afri-can Development Bank, Lamine G. Barrow.
The President of ECOWAS and the Director of the AfDB have jointly decided to continue ongo-ing development actions and also to strengthen investment in sectors such as Human Development, access to education, economic infrastructure, health, security etc.
The African Development Bank and ECOWAS are collaborating on several projects including the Abidjan-Lagos Corridor project which is a flagship project of the Program for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA). This road of 1028 km, currently under construction, will connect the cities of Abidjan, Accra, Cotonou, Lagos and Lomé. With a total population of over 35 mil-lion, these cities are considered the largest and, from an economic point of view, the most dynamic in West Africa.
