The National Platform for the ECOWAS Cross-Border Cooperation Support Programme 2023 – 2027 Launched in Cabo Verde

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission has on Monday 10^th June 2024, launched the National Platform for the ECOWAS Cross-Border Cooperation Support Programme 2023 – 2027 In Praia, Cabo Verde.

Speaking at the launch, the Director of Free Movement of Persons and Migration, Mr. Albert Siaw-Boateng, on behalf of the Commissioner for Economic Affairs and Agriculture, Mrs Massandje Toure-Litse, first extended warm greetings from the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Dr Omar Alieu Touray to participants.

“The ECOWAS Cross-border Cooperation support programme is not for a few of the Member States, but it’s for all the Member States”, Mr Siaw-Boateng stressed, adding that the programme actually started all the way back from 2006 and has had several phases with the last phase being from 2023 to 2027.

He went further to explain that the programme started with nine (9) Member States namely Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo, and each received a grant of $100,000 to implement projects they had identified.  “The programme is now extended it to Cabo Verde, Liberia and Sierra Leone”, the Director of Free Movement, gladly informed. The programme, he said is to enable countries with contiguous borders to be able to have concrete projects that touch the lives of ‘our community citizens’, in line with the new vision of ECOWAS which is to move from ECOWAS of States to ECOWAS of people.

The launch of the national platform brought together representatives of very important stakeholders such as Immigration, the Ministry of Family, Inclusion and Social Development, and the Ministry of Finance / ECOWAS Administration and Finance Committee. Others included the Directorate General for Consular Affairs and Migration, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, the Ministry of Territorial Cohesion and the platform of Civil Society Organisations.

The Director of Free Movement, Mr Siaw-Boateng assured members of the newly launched national platform of ECOWAS commitment to see to the implementation of their identified project. “The project you have identified during this period is for the grant of a hundred thousand US Dollars, which the President of the ECOWAS Commission has approved for implementation”, Mr Siaw-Boateng revealed, before adding that a follow-up visit would later happen for an assessment “to see these results for visibility, not only of ECOWAS, but also for Cabo Verde”.

The Coordinator of the ECOWAS National Unit, Dr Isa Morais, on her part, stated that the meeting was of singular importance, constituting a great milestone in their journey towards greater regional integration and multilateral cooperation in West Africa.

“For Small Island Developing States (SIDS) like Cabo Verde, which often faces challenges in adapting and implementing community initiatives, this platform emerges not only as an instrument of cooperation between ECOWAS States, but also as an eloquent symbol of our collective commitment to entire nation to the promotion of peace, stability and prosperity in our community, leaving no one behind”, Dr Morais eloquently stated.

For her, Cabo Verde joining the Cross-Border Cooperation programme would enable the implementation of the project “Strengthening Opportunities and Fostering Integration: Regular Stay, Economic Activity and Social Participation of Immigrants from ECOWAS Countries in Cape Verde”, which she argued that offers the opportunity to improve the living conditions of ECOWAS nationals in Cabo Verde.

She echoed that one of the fundamental objectives of implementing the National Platform was to provide the country with the capacity to identify, in the future, concrete projects that will have a significant positive impact on the lives of the citizens of our community in Cabo Verde; and as such they are of the belief that the platform will not only provide the necessary means to design and implement effective development projects but will also allow for a continuous assessment of emerging needs and opportunities for improvement, and ensuring that projects are dynamically adapted to the realities of the country.

She expressed her enthusiasm in involving different sectors which she believed would ensure an inclusive approach, fundamental to success and sustainability of the initiatives.

The Coordinator of the ECOWAS National Unit, on behalf of Cabo Verde, expressed her deep gratitude to the ECOWAS Commission and the commitment of all stakeholders, present ‘to share strategic ideas that will shape the future of our region’. “May this meeting be more than just a forum for debate, but also an inspiring platform for the creation of practical solutions that positively impact the lives of our citizens”, she concluded.