The West Africa Quality System Programme (WAQSP) organized, from 19 to 21 November 2018, in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) a regional workshop to validate the Community regulatory framework for consumer protection and a mechanism for the representation of consumers in ECOWAS quality Infrastructure bodies.

The participants (representatives of consumer associations and States consumer protection structures) from the fifteen member States of ECOWAS and Mauritania exchanged and adopted the provisions of this legal text which now harmonizes the activities of associations of consumers in the region. The main objective of this meeting is to strengthen the consumer protection mechanism in West Africa. Also, it is a question of materializing their implication in the initiatives of protection of the consumers within the West African space through their representativity in the ECOWAS quality Infrastructure bodies.

At the opening of the meeting, the UNIDO resident representative in Burkina Faso, Mrs. Ba Safyatou, indicated that the workshop is an approach to anticipate potential quality problems of consumer products that will be generated by the local production and imports from various sources. "It is part of the WAQSP funded by the European Union and implemented by UNIDO", she said. Mr. Mamadou Traore, ECOWAS Commissioner for Industry and Promotion of the Private Sector, said: "The aim is to provide, on the one hand, an environment more adapted to the activities of these independent organizations (consumer associations ) who work for the protection of consumers' rights and regularly initiate actions to inform or protect consumers that we are and on the other hand, a mechanism for consumer associations in the region to be represented in regional quality Infrastructure bodies". "In addition, the regulatory framework will strengthen the existing regional legal framework on quality set up with the contributions of States and technical and financial partners ", he added. Charles Eugene Nabolle, Technical adviser representing the Minister of Trade, Industry and Handicrafts, said that in the current context of globalization marked by the liberalization of trade and the opening of markets, the quality of products and services offered to consumers is an undeniable factor of competitiveness. "From this workshop, it is expected that you will validate the draft Community regulatory framework developed in accordance with the UN Guide for Consumer Protection and the mechanism for the designation of representatives of consumer associations and that you are aware of the platform and be able to use it ", he said to officially open the workshop.

During the three days of the workshop, participants were given presentations on the objectives and partial results of the WAQSP, the provisions of the Community regulatory framework for consumer protection, the mechanism for appointing representatives of consumer associations, and the platform for the exchange of consumer associations created by the Programme to enable interaction between consumer associations in the region. After this phase of internalization, they validated the regulatory framework and choose the logo of the exchange platform. They also made recommendations among which to enable States to organize consumer protection by putting in place appropriate structures; take into account countries that do not have an office or directorate responsible for consumer protection, but a focal point in charge of consumers; Integrate ECOWAS into the domain name of the platform.

At the closing ceremony, Dr. Seydou Sacko (Senior Programme Officer in charge of Trade, Customs and Free Movement in ECOWAS), Vice President of the Presidium who conducted the work, appreciated the quality of the work. He thanked all participants, UNIDO, the European Union and ECOWAS, and hoped that the recommendations would be taken into account.