ECOWAS adopts 3-year plan to monitor & evaluate regional programmes

ECOWAS has agreed on a three-year capacity building plan for the effective participation of National Units and Community institutions in the ECOWAS mechanism to monitor and evaluate (M&E) its regional integration programmes.

The M&E tool is a centralized system for collecting, processing and analyzing information on regional integration activities undertaken by stakeholders in order to gauge effectiveness and promote the judicious use of resources provided by ECOWAS and donors in support of the regional integration project.

The plan was agreed by officials of National Units from ministries responsible for ECOWAS affairs in Member States and other donor partners during a three-day meeting recently held in Lome, Togo.

“The plan is anchored on 11 priority actions to be implemented jointly by the three parties, with the ECOWAS Commission expected to undertake sensitization for relevant officials on the M&E, establish an operational framework for the review of programmes and develop a training programme for relevant officials,” the regional body said in a press release.

The M&E system seeks to develop synergy among stakeholders in the implementation of priority activities encapsulated in the regional strategic plan and inspired by the ECOWAS Vision 2020 project, the Commission says.

By Ekow Quandzie