As part of its contribution to the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, the West Africa Competitiveness and Quality Infrastructure Project (WACQIP), the regional component of the West Africa Competitiveness Programme (WACOMP), implemented by UNIDO and financed by the European Union (EU), proposed a contingency plan focusing on the necessity of ensuring the quality of products used in the context of barrier measures. One of the priorities of this plan is the development of standards and a Conformity Assessment Scheme on protective masks and hydro-alcoholic gels. This plan has been presented during the last Technical Steering Committee Meeting in April 2020 and approved and appreciated by the EU and ECOWAS.

Within this framework, the WACQIP organized on 24 April 2020 an online meeting with a view to proposing the elaboration of key standards on the requirements, methods of testing, making and use of non-sanitary masks and the specifications and method of testing of hydro alcoholic products. As a result of this meeting, the Technical Management Committee (TMC) of the ECOWAS mechanism for the Harmonization of Standards (ECOSHAM) has established a working group on Textile & Garment (WG-T&G), taking charge of the drafting of the ECOWAS standard (called ECOSTAND) standard on barrier masks for non-sanitary use, while the one on hydro alcoholic products was entrusted to the Technical Harmonization Committee on Chemistry (THC3).

As per instruction of the TMC, five technical meetings of GT-T&G and THC3 respectively were organized on 28 April, 4 and 5 May 2020.  Despite the challenging circumstances such as stability of internet connection and simultaneous interpretation in English and French, a hundred participants and stakeholders from the different working groups fruitfully took part of these online technical exchanges as well as the TMC meeting on 24 April. The results of the public inquiry on the two draft standards, launched in the Member States as part of an emergency procedure, have been validated and are being consolidated. Afterwards, the two final harmonized ECOSTAND draft standards will be submitted to the vote by the 15 national standards bodies of the Member States in the upcoming days.

In line with these recent activities, WACQIP will further support the conceptualization and implementation of complementary measures such as accreditation of conformity assessment bodies, development of certification, testing and inspection schemes at regional as well as country level through those WACOMP projects being implemented by UNIDO, in particular Ghana, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Guinea Bissau and The Gambia. Furthermore, the involvement of Consumer Associations and the Private Sector will be enhanced.

For more information, please contact: Bernard Bau: (B.Bau@unido.org ) or Aka Jean Joseph Kouassi (A.Kouassi@unido.org)