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| Steering Committee of the West Africa Institute (IAO) on Regional Integration |
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Members of the Steering Committee of the West Africa Institute (WAI) will meet on 9 and 10 March in Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire), at the Ivotel Hotel in the presence of Mr. Amadou Koné, Minister of African Integration of Côte d’Ivoire, Mr. José Brito, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cape Verde, Mr. Abdou Aziz Sow, Minister of Information, Relations with Institutions and NEPAD of the Republic of Senegal, and Mr. Pierre Sané, Assistant Director-General of UNESCO for Social and Human Sciences.
Established on 29 February 2008 in Lagos (Nigeria), the Steering Committee will discuss the status of the proposed creation of the WAI, and will establish its legal framework, statutes, budget, and plan of action for 2009-2010.
Approved unanimously on 18 January 2008, at the Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), the WAI responds to the needs that have been expressed through many seminars organized between 2005 and 2008 by the 15 ECOWAS countries under the aegis of UNESCO’s Management of Social Transformations (MOST) Programme.
The Institute will open its doors in the first quarter 2010 in Praia, capital of the Republic of Cape Verde. Among other missions, the Institute will consolidate the various multidisciplinary research teams and networks on regional integration so as to foster a mutual understanding between the countries of the sub-region and to help them better measure and identify the obstacles to their integration in ECOWAS.
In collaboration with ECOWAS, as well as with other organizations including Ecobank, Trust Africa and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Institute aims to assist decision-makers in making strategic choices that will foster economic growth, the protection of human rights and human security, through evidence and analysis produced by eminent specialists.
Research, training and documentation, as well as advocacy, will inform policy-makers and economic decision-makers as well as civil society and academics on the various scenarios, challenges and dimensions of regional integration.
Amadou KONÉ will give a press conference at the end of the meeting on Tuesday 10 March 2009.
For more information, please contact:
Nfaly “Vieux” Savané, tel: +33 (0)6 83 63 98 50, n.savane@unesco.org
See also
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