Meeting relating to the harmonization of standards on the four regional value chains

February 26, 2021 - The ECOWAS Commission is supported by the European Union through the technical support of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) as part of the West Africa Competitiveness Programme (WACOMP) . This programme aims to promote trade facilitation and better access to regional and international markets in the four regional value chains: cassava and derivatives, mango, textiles & garment, and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) which serve as a transversal value chain for the other three regional value chains. The West Africa Competitiveness and Quality Infrastructure Project (WACQIP), which is a sub-component of WACOMP, carried out a study to identify the needs for strengthening quality infrastructure in support of the four regional value chains. The study identified several needs for standards, 64 among them were selected according to factual criteria for their harmonization by TMC / ECOSHAM. To this end, the Department of Industry and the Promotion of the Private Sector of ECOWAS and UNIDO organized, on December 14, 2020, a virtual workshop of TMC / ECOSHAM on the harmonization of standards relating to the four regional value chains. The list of 64 selected standards covering the 04 regional value chains was adopted and a new technical committee (THC9) was set up to deal with issues relating to the harmonization of standards in the field of ICT. During this meeting, TMC / ECOSHAM also directed the following committees THC2, THC8 and THC9 to examine the proposed list of standards and to propose the draft required standards.

The official opening remarks of the workshop was adressed by Mr. Bernard BAU, the Project Manager at UNIDO and Dr Ajoku KEMJI, representing the ECOWAS Commission.

 

Mr. Bernard BAU, Project Manager encouraged the harmonization of standards in the region and raised the importance of this meeting which will give more visibility in terms of modalities of the WACOMP / WACQIP support to the technical  harmonization committees and to national standardization bodies (NSBs). While insisting on the programme's expectations regarding the availability of the identified standards within the required deadlines, Mr. Bau indicated that the work of the harmonization committees is not only important for the continuation of the activities of the program but it will enable regional integration. and will also contribute to free trade between ECOWAS member states. While thanking ECOWAS Commission, he ended his speech by wishing the participants a smooth running of the workshop.

Dr Ajoku  Kemji, Representative of the ECOWAS Commission, thanked all the participants and the European Union for its constant support to the ECOWAS Commission. He indicated that there are 4 value chains for which standards will be developed in specific areas that are important in order to strengthen regional integration and intra-regional trade. He also recalled the context of this technical meeting, which will accelerate the work of the three (3) concerned committees. He declared the meeting opened by chairing it.

In order to better support the demand of the department of industry and promotion of the private sector through WACOMP / WACQIP, this framing workshop is organized, at the request of the programme, with the presidents and technical secretaries of these involved THCs in the harmonization of the required standards.

This workshop was held in one session. The THC / ECOSHAM members who attended this meeting are coming from the following countries:

  • Republic of Burkina Faso,
  • Republic of Mali,
  • Republic of Ghana
  • Republic of Niger,
  • Republic of Senegal,

Also the representatives of the ECOWAS Commission, the representatives of the UEMOA Commission, The RTCU team of WACOMP/WACQIP, the coordination team of the WACOMP / WACQIP Project in the ECOWAS Commission

During the meeting, the following recommendations were expressed:

On the findings of the study on the needs in Quality Infrastructure of the four value chains in the field of standardization.

THCs should examine the list of standards, reformulate the titles and associate, if necessary, THC1 and THC3 in the harmonization of the standards which concern the related committees.

On the modalities of WACQIP support to THCs and TMC / ECOSHAM (technical, logistical and financial support)

  1. WACOMP/WACQIP should set up a platform available to stakeholders to enable them to have harmonized standards and monitor their development.
  2. WACOMP should help countries (if possible) to set up at national level ICT mirror committees by involving stakeholders in order to facilitate the validation of regional ICT standards.

Identification of the support expertise necessary for the development of draft standards, definition of profiles and methods of selection & recruitment.

THCs should analyze the expert profile according to their need, finalize and share it with UNIDO.

Deadlines required for the adoption of standards taking into account the constraints of the WACQIP (duration and resources) as well as the work schedule.

The THCs will update the timeline taking into account the implementation of the platform to support the process of developing and managing standards and the intermediate stages before the standards validation.

 

Wednesday, March 3, 2021 - 00:15

This program is funded by the European Union with the technical support of UNIDO, the implementing Agency

The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of the Commision of the European Union

Copyright - 2019 - ECOWAS AGENCY FOR QUALITY

Meeting relating to the harmonization of standards on the four regional value chains | ECOWAQ

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