The West Africa Quality System Program (WAQSP) organized from 25 to 26 January 2016 at Hotel Belle Côte,Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire), a major workshop involving representatives of ECOWAS countries and Mauritania, UEMOA and ECOWAS Commissions and ECOWAS regional employers’ organizations. This workshop aimed at definingand validating the harmonized criteria for both the National and the ECOWAS Quality Awards. The principle of the establishment of a Regional Quality Award was enacted under Regulation C/REG.17/12/13 adopting the rules for the organization of the ECOWAS Quality Award. The meeting participants were required to analyse and adopt or amend the report of Ms. EdwigeDe Souza, international expert recruited by the WAQSP to draft the criteria for both the National and ECOWAS Quality Awards. Mr. Emmanuel Tra bi Irie, representing the Minister of Industry and Mines of Côte d’Ivoire, participated in the opening ceremony together with other high ranking officials including Mr. Mensan LawsonHechelli, Director of Industry of the ECOWAS Commission, Mr. IssoufOuattara, representative of UNIDO Côte d’Ivoire, and Mr. Aka Jean Joseph Kouassi, Chief Technical Advisor of the WAQSP.

The UEMOA Commission was represented at the workshop by Mr. Salifou Issoufou, Head of the Technical Secretariat of the UEMOA Quality Award.Officials supported this initiative at the heart of the quality promotion agenda in West Africa. In particular, they requested that efforts of all institutional actors and the private sector, including through their active participation in the promotion of the ECOWAS Quality Award, help improve the quality of products and services from the West African region. Following two intense days of work led by the representative of the country presiding the ECOWAS Commission, Senegal, participants concluded that the National as well as the ECOWAS Quality Awards should endorse ISO 9001 (2015 version) and ISO 9004 (2009 version) criteria. However, the inclusion of the ECOWAS integration criteriais also foreseen. These should help consolidate the regional approach of the Award.At country level, 4 levels of awards will be granted. Inaddition, two designation proposals for the awards were selected for each level, the final choice being left to the discretion of States (Commitment to quality, Mastery of quality, Encouragement for excellence, Excellence” or “Bronze-Silver-Gold-Diamond”). Only national companies admitted to Level 4 in their respective countries will be able to compete for the Regional Award. Regarding the regional level, 5 awards are foreseen: the ECOWAS Quality Award and 4 special awards with the following labels: «Leadership, Product development, Resources Management and Stakeholders Orientation». A capacity building programme will assist the organization of these awards, specifically in countries with no similar prior experience.The relevance of the ECOWAS Quality Award is evidenced by the emergence of a real concern for quality in countries where the practice of a National Quality Award is long established. Thus, Benin and Côte d’Ivoire indicated that their National Awards witnessed an increase in the number of certified companies in their respective countries. This confirms that despite financial impediments in their organization, these Awards do generate a significant enthusiasm by companies in the region for quality. A roadmap was established to support the implementation of the Awards with the objective of launching the first edition of the ECOWAS Quality Award during the first quarter of 2017. The roadmap includes capacity building of all stakeholders, in particular in terms of organization and management of Awards.Initiated in September 2014 for its current third phase,the West Africa Quality System Programme (WAQSP) is an ECOWAS programme financed by a European Union’s grant of 12 million Euros. It receives technical support from UNIDO. The WAQSP aims to establish a framework for the development and operation of appropriate and efficient quality infrastructure in order to facilitate intraregionaland international trade