Following a recommendation of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) was established in 1958 by the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), to encourage economic cooperation among its member states (the nations of the African continent). The ECA’s mandate is to promote the economic and social development of Africa, alongside its mission to generate ideas and actions for the prosperity of Africa. ECA has five sub-regional Offices (SROs), which enable it to transform its normative work and analysis into operational activities at subregional level. The ECA/SRO-WA Office is based in Niamey, Niger, and covers the fifteen ECOWAS Member States: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Côte d'Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo. The SROs were restructured in 2019, to fit for purpose and better respond to the specific development challenges of their respective sub-regions. In this vein, Demographic Dynamics for Development (DDD) was identified as the area of specialization of Subregional Office for West Africa (SRO-WA), given the important demographic challenges faced by countries of the region.
In furtherance of the regional economic cooperation, the Intergovernmental Committee of Senior Officials and Experts (ICE) of the ECA was created by the UN General Assembly. The ICE across sub-regions, is organized annually by the ECA-Sub regional Offices to discuss national and regional economic and social performances, based on reports prepared by the Sub-Regional Offices.
The SRO-WA’s ICE is made up of Senior Officials and experts from the West Africa’s 15 Member States. It is a statutory framework for Member States to direct and supervise the elaboration and the implementation of the work plan of the Office. In this regard, the ICE ensures alignment of activities carried out by the Office with sub-regional and national priorities, while making suggestions related to the economic and social development in the sub-region. These recommendations are tabled before the ECA Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development for review and decision.
Each year, the ICE brings together high-level decision-makers from Member States to discuss economic and social performances and make recommendations to Member States and other development stakeholders.
The ICE is hosted each year, at its request, by a Member State from the sub-region. This year, the 24th ICE meeting will be hosted by The Gambia, from 10th to 11th, November 2021. The theme for the session is: “Leveraging the AfCFTA Implementation to Building Forward Resilient and Sustainable Economics in West Africa in a Covid-19 Era”. This theme is informed by the recommendations from the 23rd Session of the ICE held in 2020
As usual, this year’s ICE 24 will be preceded by policy dialogue that will take place on 9th November 2021, to discuss (1) the outcome of the forum of West Africa Inter-governmental Organisations (IGO) and private sector platform held in May 2021, (2) the key milestones from the Regional Business Forum – “Empowering the Youth and Women to Spur Africa’s Transformation Agenda organized in September 2021 and the outcome of the National Transfer Account International Conference held in October 2021. This session will be an opportunity to launch the “Made in West Africa” Initiative, a key recommendation from the Regional Forum of IGO and Private Sector.
