Coming Up on 30th Edition: >> Talking points around Ecowas@40(1)

30th Edition:  

Talking points around Ecowas@40(1)

We want to use the thirtieth edition of the Africa in Focus show to commence talking points around ECOWAS as it heads towards the celebration of its 40th anniversary

We will therefore be speaking to people who can help us offer a serious reflection on what Ecowas Community citizens ought to be thinking about as they equally reflect on how far ECOWAS has come.

To that end, we will speak to TWN-Africa’s Sylvester Bagooro who will speak to the issue of economic integration. That organisation’s efforts to stop Ghana signing the Economic Partnership Agreements may have fallen on deaf ears to the ECOWAS Chair, but efforts to stop its ratification are underway. As ECOWAS Member States enter 2015 with optimism that the Common External Tariff will inure to the benefit of the sub-region’s attempt at a Common Market, what are some of the challenges and red herrings the sub-region needs to look out for? 

As the AU’s Peace and Security Council endorsed a deal to support the Lake Chad Basin Commission countries of Cameroon; Chad; Nigeria; Niger and Benin to form a Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) to rout and combat Boko Haram, we will be speaking to WANEP’s Alimou Diallo on the actual composition of the force, and what the sub-region should expect to see around ECOWAS’ peace and security efforts in 2015.

We shall thereafter speak to a retired ECOWAS Official Frank Ofei, instrumental for the revision of 1993 ECOWAS Treaty, to give us his expert views on what we really need to look out for around ECOWAS’s integration efforts – beyond peace and security. What are its successes, it failures; its potential to help uplift the sub-region to a prosperous West Africa?

Finally, we will speak to AU Commission Official Komla Bissi to offer us an insight into what is considered one of the AU’s most successful programmes – the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme, which enjoins Member States dedicate 10 percent of their budget to agriculture. What are NEPAD Planning Commission Agency & the AU’s next steps for CAADP’s implementation?

Join us if you can at 1pm on 3 February, 2015.

Guests in the studio: 

Sylvester Bagooro, Programme Officer, Political Economy Unit, Third World Network-Africa

On the line:

Frank Ofei, retired Ecowas Official @13h20 

Alimou Diallo, West Africa Network on Peacebuilding(WANEP) @13h40

Komla Bissi, Senior Adviser, Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme(CAADP), African Union Commission @14h15

Kobby Blay, EbolaWatch @14h40