World Bank backs regional integration plans with US $ 4.9 Billion

The World Bank has committed $4.9 bn in funding for projects in West Africa. The pledge came at a meeting in Accra on Saturday. Nine West African Presidents and other senior representatives from across the region joined World Bank officials in the Ghanaian capital for a one-day, special summit of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). A key part of the meeting's agenda was to draw up a short-term ‘Plan of Action’, using trade, infrastructural development and improvements in the energy and telecommunications sectors to accelerate regional integration. Strong emphasis was also placed on security measures to accelerate regional integration. “This summit has been very specific and encouraging,” World Bank President James Wolfensohn told reporters after the meeting. Wolfensohn explained that $1.7 billion out of a regional commitment of $4.5 billion had been earmarked for infrastructural projects. “Another 450 million dollars, which was not originally included in the national financings, has been added for regional projects,” said Wolfensohn. World Bank spending in the region has increased in recent years. For example, in 1999, total Bank spending in West Africa was $2 billion. Also up for discussion were plans to implement commitments made under the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD), which has been championed by several African heads of state as offering a blue print for kick-starting economic growth and development on the world’s poorest continent. Ghana’s Finance Minister, Yaw Osafo-Maafo told IRIN on Saturday that the summit was important for the African nations as the Bank is the main coordinator of all the development partners working in their countries. “This is a positive development because the World Bank is the coordinator of all our development partners. The summit gives us a platform to voice out our difficulties, our frustrations and well as our successes,” said Osafo-Maafo. ECOWAS is to be used as a trial for further regional project work on the continent. “The World Bank is using ECOWAS as a sample regional grouping for the integration process. If it works out, the process will be replicated for other regional groupings in Africa,” Osafo-Maafo added. However, the Summit also highlighted significant failings in the West African regional integration process. These were blamed on fragmented and unviable national economies and a series of political and socio-economic crises, all holding back the region. The World Bank expressed regret at the disappointing progress made in regional integration under ECOWAS and called for bold actions to be implemented in key priority areas if the region was to make good its development goals. ECOWAS member states have made a commitment to trade liberalisation, even developing plans to establish a regional currency called the ‘Eco’ amongst it 16 members. But progress towards the adoption of a regional currency has been slow. Despite the set-backs in West Africa, the summit's participants applauded the regional peacekeeping efforts underway in previously war-ravaged countries. The Summit coincided with meetings of the ECOWAS Mediation and Security Council, which resolved to strengthen the regional bloc’s early warning systems and conflict prevention strategies. One important security initiative is the creation of an Observation and Monitoring System (OMS). This comprises a centre at the Ecowas secretariat in Abuja, with four zonal bureaus based in Benin, Burkina Faso, Liberia and Sierra Leone, each mandated to collect and report data on early signs of conflict in the region. Each bureau covers four countries. The Summit's host, current Ecowas Chairman and President of Ghana, John Kufour, had a positive message at the end of the meeting. “ECOWAS is ready", Kufuour promised. "Investors of the World should take a closer look at West Africa". “Our priorities now are to network our countries to open up substantial markets, develop our human resources and fine tune the financial framework for business,” Kufuor added.