The Economic Community of West AfricanStates (ECOWAS) celebrates 34 years of its founding Thursday. The region's 15-member countries foundedECOWAS on May 28, 1975 in Lagos, Nigeria to coordinate and accelerate economicdevelopment and promote the free movement of its citizens among other goals.
The theme for this year's anniversary celebration is "Fostering RegionalIntegration and Celebrating 30 years of Free Movement in the sub-region."
ECOWAS Executive Secretary Mohamed Ibn Chambas said the sub-region has made progress in the area of integration.
"Imust say at 34 years, our organization is maturing, and every day we see astronger commitment on the part of the region to integration. And this event iscoming at a time when we see each of the leadership of ECOWAS show morecommitment," he said.
Chambassaid ordinary ECOWAS citizens also want to see a deeper integration.
"Theywant to see a borderless West Africa so that the population can move around anddo business, and visit families who often have cut apart by artificialborders," Chambas said.
Hesaid regional integration had been hampered by the sub-region's history of instability,
"Onthe one hand you had the problem of political instability from the mid-60s on ?the coup d'etats and counter coup d'etats, the military interventions led to aperiod of instability. And this culminated in the democratic process of the90s. But then that also unleashed the kind of civil wars that we saw in some ofour countries, particularly in Liberia and Sierra Leone," he said.
Chambassaid West Africa's fragile economies also played a key role in delayingintegration.
"Thesecond drawback has been the fragility of the economies and the pressure of thepopulations to have their immediate concerns addressed by governments haveoften given the false impression to governments that they need to concentrateonly on solving their national problems within national boundaries. But ofcourse experience from around the world indicates that integration andcross-border cooperation and trade?have in fact boosted growth overall both forbig and small countries. And I think this realization is now dawning upon manyof our member states that they cannot by themselves standing alone solve theirproblems," Chambas said.
Chambassaid the West Africa sub-region has also made progress in the area ofdemocratization although there was still fragility.
"Thetruth is that democratization is deepening and spreading across the region, butthere is still fragility in the peace and security environment. And whathappened in Guinea Bissau, what happened in Guinea is a reflection of thisfragility," Chambas said.
Onthe other hand, to show that ECOWAS is maturing, Chambas said citizens in both Guineaand Guinea Bissau put on a uniform regional response condemning coup d'etatsand insisting on a speedy restoration of democratic governance," Chambas said.
Hesaid ECOWAS was pleased with the democratic developments in the Ivory Coastwith the announcement that the long-delayed election would take place onNovember 29 this year.
Chambassaid ECOWAS would work closely with the government of the Ivory Coast by providingelection observers to ensure a credible and transparent election.