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Building on its
agenda to advance and deepen regional integration and strengthen its
institutional capacities, the Economic Community of West African States
(ECOWAS) Commission has granted about €1.2 million (about
N227.4million) to 17 regional non-state actor (NSA) member-states.

The 17 recipients,
which include: five of the 62 private sector organisations that
responded to a previous call for proposals from the NSAs issued by the
two ECOWAS and UEMOA Commissions in 2008, are drawn from Liberia,
Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Togo and Niger
Republic.

ECOWAS was created
with the primary objective of promoting cooperation and integration in
the region, leading to the establishment of an economic union to raise
the living standards of its people; maintain and enhance economic
stability; foster relations among member-states, and contribute to the
progress and development of the African continent.

Integration policy

The grants, which
will be presented to the benefitting states on Wednesday in Abuja,
would help the beneficiaries play their roles, particularly to enhance
their capacity to participate in the formulation of policies,
strategies and plans related to the integration process.

Besides, the
support would help in popularizing regional integration issues as well
as rights issues among the West African population as well as
facilitate the creation of a network of NSAs working on regional issues
pertaining to the people concerned.

Director,
Gender/Child Development, Youth/Sports Civil society, Employment and
Drugs Control, Siritiki Tarfa Ugbe, said at the orientation workshop
and contract award for successful grants applicants that direct support
to NSAs with regional agenda at the grassroots, national or regional
levels remains largely limited despite the enormous potential of NSAs
in assisting the people embrace regional integration.

The lack of
support, she said, is responsible for the inability of the NSAs to
mobilize and coordinate their constituencies; establish a vibrant
regional network to voice their opinions and to constructive engage
with regional organizations, as well as access information that would
enable them be relevant in the integration process.

To broaden the
support and participation of NSAs, it was gathered that the European
Union Commission (EUC) and ECOWAS Commission launched a the Regional
Integration Programme (RIP) two years ago to facilitate the creation of
linkages on issues concerning women/child rights protection, free
movement of people and investment promotion as well as cultural respect.

Advancing development

Under the
programme, about 67 NSAs were identified following the evaluation of
the proposals and validation of their eligibility in line with
stipulated guidelines, while 17 applicants were recommended for the
grants.

The Regional NSAs
are non-governmental organisations from the 15 ECOWAS member States who
are advancing development, promoting change and helping in building
sustainable development in the region. As members of the civil society,
they focus on the defence of the interest of social groups To ensure
that the grants are properly put to use to promote the objectives, Mrs
Ugbe said a monitoring and evaluation mechanism has been put in place
to facilitate the implementation of specific actions in line with
approved work plans for the benefits of the communities.

“The success of
this pilot scheme would strengthen further proposals by the ECOWAS
Commission as a strong commitment to strengthen the engagement of civil
society organizations in the regional integration process in line with
the ECOWAS vision 2020,” she said.