Sustainable development in West Africa - Experts from ECOWAS member states have called on countries in the region to integrate environmental, socio-economic and political sustainability in their national policies, as a way of reinvigorating regional commitment to sustainable development. They made the call after reviewing the Draft Report of Progress on Sustainable Development in West Africa at a two-day consultative meeting which ended in Accra, Ghana on Wednesday, the ECOWAS Commission said in a statement obtained by PANA here.

The experts emphasised the need for the integration of the three pillars of sustainable development into national policy formulation.

The 62-page Report noted that while Benin, Ghana, The Gambia, Nigeria and Senegal had indicated the integration of the three pillars, other countries concentrated on different pillars with little room for integration, adding that this would create a challenge to the entire process.

The Report also highlighted the advantage of using Sustainable Development Committees (SDCs) instead of Cross-Sectoral Planning Groups (CSPGs), which would limit efforts at examining the overlaps and consistency of development programmes with greater impacts.

To close the identified gap, the Report proposes the training of CSPGs in integration strategies to sustainable development.

It also addressed priority issues in development, trends and inter-linkages, as well as the institutional framework for sustainable development in the region, concrete actions taken highlighting the best practices, progress made, achievements, challenges and constraints.

The ECOWAS Commission contracted the review of the Report to the University of Ghana’s Daniel Kwabena Twerefou Consultancy, with the support of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the African Development Bank (AfDB).

Issues raised in the Report will help ensure that the position of ECOWAS member states are adequately reflected at the forthcoming Regional preparatory meeting in Addis Abba, Ethiopia, ahead of the 2012 Rio (Brazil) United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development.

Pana 06/10/2011