#EVENT: Three-Day Workshop on ECOWAS’ Free Movement & Regional Mechanism Opens in Accra

Three-Day Workshop on ECOWAS' Free Movement & Regional Mechanism Opens in Accra

By E.K.Bensah Jr

Not many people know this, but apart from Nigeria hosting the ECOWAS Commission, Parliament; and Community Court of Justice, other member States of ECOWAS host other institutions. In fact, relatively well-distributed is the hosting that almost every member State of Ecowas hosts an Ecowas institution.

Cote d'Ivoire is home to the ECOWAS Regional Monitoring Mechanism for the Free Movement of Inter-State Passenger Vehicles, Persons and Goods within ECOWAS. Established in conformity with the 1993 Revised Treaty of ECOWAS; the 1979 Protocol on Free Movement of Persons, Right of Residence and Establishment; 1985 Protocol of the Code of Conduct for the Implementation of the 1979 Protocol; 1985 Decision of Heads of State and Government instituting a travel document and the 45th Ordinary Session of Heads of State and Government held in 2014 adopting the Biometric ID Card, the Mechanism has the onerous task of rationalising and sanitising the ever-expanding regional space that has become busier than ever.

Free movement in ECOWAS has always meant that an increasing number of people would want to take advantage of the visa-regime in the region to explore other countries for tourism, or establish businesses in other ECOWAS Member States that are not their own. This movement does not happen on its own, but in cars, vehicles, buses, motorbikes, and airlines. While airlines have their own protocols, free movement on the road needs a lot of hard work. One way of sanitising has been with the ECOWAS Brown Card, a regional insurance system, that compensates third parties in the event of accidents. This, obviously, cannot be enough.

Therefore, the Abidjan-based Mechanism has concerned itself with models that work well to help make monitoring a whole lot easier. In this instance, the Mechanism has drawn extensively from a model that already works well in Cote d'Ivoire: it is a public-private partnership that brings together relevant government institutions, the transporters and transport workers' unions in each Member State, within the structure of the National Steering Committee. This has been organised so as to operationalise the Mechanism at the national level.

The Mechanism started off with just two countries, but between 2015 and 2018, six additional National Steering Committees were launched bringing the total number of Member States involved in the Mechanism to eight. These countries are Benin; Burkina Faso; Cote d'Ivoire; Ghana; Mali; Niger; Nigeria; and Togo. In July 2017, the Regional Steering Committee and the Regional Coordination Bureau were launched in Abidjan.

This 2015 elaboration by ECOWAS was in recognition of the need to deepen integration through a coherent and harmonised approach for the removal of barriers to free mobility within the region.

So as to ensure a holistic approach for implementation is adopted, ECOWAS commissioned a study to assess a number of aspects of the Mechanism, including the financial sustainability of the National Steering Committees and the Regional Coordination Bureau of the Regional Monitoring Mechanism.

Another aspect included the review of existing control documents used by the Security Forces in the Member States (Immigration; Police; Gendarmerie; Customs and Eaux et Forêts); as well as the proposal of a data governance framework to collect, share, manage, use, maintain, protect information across National Steering Committees' databases and the Regional Coordination Bureau.

In this context, a three-day meeting has opened in Accra to validate the Report on the Assessment of the ECOWAS Regional Monitoring Mechanism for the Free Movement of Inter-State Passenger Vehicles, Persons and Goods within ECOWAS.

The overall objective of the meeting is to provide a platform for engagement between all stakeholders in the implementation of the Regional Mechanism. This is with the aim of discussing and validating the draft assessment report, including the recommendations; prepare the National Steering Committees to take necessary actions to operationalise the Mechanism in their respective countries. Finally, one key objective is to strengthen the coordination between the National Steering Committees.

When the meeting ends on 9 August, participants and organizers alike will be expecting a five-fold outcome, key among which will be an assessment report presented and validated by the eight participating countries that include Ghana; raised awareness of the Regional Mechanism, including the practicality of its implementation through the National Steering Committees at national level; and an enhanced understanding of the ECOWAS Brown Card scheme.

The meeting is facilitated by ECOWAS Directorate of Free Movement & Tourism and the International Centre for Migration Policy Development.

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