{"id":127353,"date":"2026-03-12T17:13:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T17:13:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/?p=127353"},"modified":"2026-03-12T17:15:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T17:15:29","slug":"experts-from-ecowas-member-states-meet-on-the-operationalisation-of-ecowas-ecosocc-in-accra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/?p=127353","title":{"rendered":"EXPERTS FROM ECOWAS MEMBER STATES MEET ON THE \u00a0OPERATIONALISATION OF ECOWAS-ECOSOCC IN ACCRA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission, through its Department of Pollical Affairs, Peace and Security, has convened a meeting of experts from Member States, today, March 11, 2026, ahead of the Ministerial Meeting on the validation and operationalisation of the ECOWAS Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOWAS-ECOSOCC) .<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) is provided for under Article 14 of the ECOWAS Re-vised 1993 Treaty as a key institutional mechanism for ensuring inclusive regional governance. In line with this provision, the ECOWAS Commission initiated a phased approach to operationalizing the ECOWAS Economic and Social Council (ECOWAS-ECOSOC), envisioned as a consultative and advocacy platform that engages non-state actors, civil society, women, youth and the private sector in the regional integration process.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Experts meeting will validate the draft operational framework which comprises, the general modalities of the Council including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The structure, mandate, and functions<\/li>\n<li>An indicative 3-year work Programme with the associated budget<\/li>\n<li>Initial staffing needs and rationalization of staff recruitment<\/li>\n<li>Membership size and allocation criteria<\/li>\n<li>The Supplementary Act and the Rules of Procedures and the roadmap leading to the interim General Assembly for the effective and sustainable establishment of ECOWAS-ECOSOCC as a Community Institution.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Delivering the welcome remarks on behalf of Ms. Nelly Mireku, Director of the Research Division at the Ministry of Finance Ghana, Mr. Philip Amo-Kofie encouraged experts to review and validate the proposed framework and institutional arrangements for ECOSOC. He noted that the meeting \u201crepresents an important milestone in the ongoing efforts to operationalise this institution and to further strengthen participatory governance within the ECOWAS framework.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Ambassador Dr. Abdel-Fatau Musah, Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security of the ECOWAS Commission, welcomed participants to Accra for the all-important Meeting. He emphasised that the meeting represents a strategic and timely step in advancing regional integration by enabling structured engagement with civil society, the private sector, youth and women\u2019s networks, and community leaders.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Highlighting the importance of inclusive and participatory governance, he stated that the initiative \u201cgives real meaning to the vision of an \u2018ECOWAS of the People\u2019\u201d. He encouraged experts to review and validate the proposed institutional and legal framework, roadmap, and budget, noting that their recommendations would guide the Commission in presenting a complete proposal to ECOWAS decision-making bodies for approval.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In his opening remarks, Mr. Edison Alie Kamara, Ag. Director, Policy, Planning and Research of the Ministry of Social Welfare of the Republic of Sierra Leone and Chairman of the Experts meeting, highlighted the importance of citizen engagement in regional governance.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>He noted that ECOSOCC \u201chas the potential to play a similar role at the regional level by providing a structured platform for dialogue between regional institutions and the diverse communities and stakeholders across West Africa.\u201d He urged participants to help shape an inclusive, people-centred framework to strengthen regional integration, democratic governance, and solidarity across ECOWAS.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The report and recommendations from the two-day experts meeting will be presented to the Ministerial Meeting scheduled to hold on March 13, 2026, in Accra, Ghana for validation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission, through its Department of Pollical Affairs, Peace and Security, has convened a meeting of experts from Member States, today, March 11, 2026, ahead of the Ministerial Meeting on the validation and operationalisation of the ECOWAS Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOWAS-ECOSOCC) . &nbsp; The Economic and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":127354,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[300,480,12,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-news","category-info-cedeao-2","category-news","category-press-releases"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=127353"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":127357,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127353\/revisions\/127357"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/127354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=127353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=127353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=127353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}