|
SWAC Mission to Canada and the USA
|
Ottawa (Canada) and Washington (USA), 12-20 February 2008
The SWAC’s January 2008 Strategy and Policy Group Meeting highlighted the importance of improving communications with SWAC donors and being more responsive to funding countries’ specific needs and requests. During a two week mission to Canada and the USA, the SWAC Director, Mr. Normand Lauzon, met with various Representatives of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the US State Department. He presented and explained the SWAC’s new work orientations, its specificity and value-added to the West African development process at the local, national and regional levels.
> learn more |
2007 Electoral Year in West Africa
|
Discussion Panel on New Challenges for Democracy
SWAC Headquarters, 11 February 2008
In order to draw up an analytical appraisal of this electoral year and highlight the achievements and challenges for democratic change in West Africa, the SWAC organised a panel discussion which was led by four contributing experts of the region. > learn more
|
 |
Resources for Development
|
Workshop - Review of the West Africa Report
Cotonou (Benin), 4-5 February 2008
The ECOWAS/SWAC workshop was co-chaired by Mr. Lambert N’Galadjo Bamba, ECOWAS Commissioner responsible for macro-economic policies, and Mr. Raymond Weber of the SWAC. Participants discussed in a multidisciplinary approach the draft texts of the 2007-2008 West Africa Report. Over the two days, intense exchanges of views highlighted West African perspectives on the main challenges facing the region. > learn more
|
> images
|
Governance Assessment & Aid Effectiveness
|
London, 20-21 February 2008
The OECD DAC GOVNET Conference on Governance Assessments and Aid Effectiveness provided an overview of current situations (Governance Assessments, Domestic Accountability, the Paris Declaration and Beyond) as well as new issues related to donor approaches to governance assessments. The debates focused on three major issues: (1) the importance of assessment in aid effectiveness; (2) the usefulness of indicators in anticipating crises; and (3) the relationship between governance and economic performance. Among numerous case studies and thematic assessments carried out within the framework of break-out groups, two West African countries, Mauritania and Cameroon, were examined. Approximately one hundred governance experts, civil society representatives, researchers of northern and southern countries participated in this Conference. This Conference was an important step towards the 3rd High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness to be held in Accra (Ghana) from 2 to 4 September 2008. The SWAC was represented by Mr. Massaër Diallo.
> learn more |
Building the Community Radio Sector in Nigeria
|
Abuja (Nigeria), 19-20 February 2008
At the invitation of the Institute for Media and Society (Nigeria) and the PANOS Institute West Africa, the SWAC participated in the “Building the Community Radio Sector in Nigeria” Seminar. The SWAC presented two cross-border radio networks (Retrarc and Kurumba) that were set-up in the cross-border areas “Sénégambie méridionale” (the Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal) and Sikasso-Bobo-Dioulasso (Mali, Burkina Faso) within the ECOWAS Cross-border Initiatives Programme (CIP). The presentation highlighted how cross-border radio networks can contribute significantly to promoting cross-border co-operation and strengthening cultural and economic integration in border areas. This experience also proves that local private and public border actors can play just as an important role as West African integration actors in the regional integration process. At the political level, ECOWAS can use this new communications tool to reach out to border communities who are directly concerned with its work but so far are rarely involved.
> download the presentation |
ECOLOC after five years
|
The ECOLOC Programme (Reviving Local Economies in West Africa) was launched in 1997 at the initiative of the SWAC and the Municipal Development Partnership (MDP) as the direct extension of the West Africa Long-Term Perspectives Study (WALTPS). For five years the SWAC actively supported and developed this programme until it was full transferred to the MDP in 2002. The last joint SWAC-MDP activity was, in the summer of 2002, to develop an ambitious project to operationally apply the ECOLOC approach in Burkina Faso: the Reviving Local Economies Programme (REEL). Based on a participative and informed approach, the programme’s overall objectives were to define a development vision of local communities concerned and identify concrete actions to revive economic activities and improve the tax system. In October 2007, the MDP carried out an assessment of the implementation of the REEL Programme and the Local Economic Development Programme Plans (PPDEL).
> download the MDP Report |
|
