Experts Endorse Joint Border Posts

(Press Release)—Participants at a two-day workshop which ended late on Tuesday, 3rd June 2008 in Ouagadougou have validated the report on the functionality study for the construction of joint border posts in West Africa, a project whose architectural components are estimated at 66 million Euros.

The participants who were treated to various presentations on the functionality study of the joint border posts, considered the concept of joint border posts from the perspective of procedures and functionality, the configuration of joint border posts and elements of the architectural programme and the pre-conditions
necessary for the success of the joint border posts.

They therefore urged ECOWAS and the Economic and Monetary Union of West Africa (UEMOA), a sub-regional organization of eight francophone countries, to take
steps necessary to ensure the realization of the joint border posts. In addition, they called for the accelerated implementation of the provisions of relevant legal texts, including the 29th May 1982 ECOWAS Inter-State Road
Transit (ISRT) Convention which aims to facilitate the movement of freight at the borders, among others.

Seven existing border posts - three in hinterland countries and four on the Lagos-Abidjan corridor - were selected for the study, which sought to define procedures to be implemented in the joint border posts and an architectural
brief of the infrastructure that will be needed for the project. More specifically, the study was commissioned to help examine and understand the current procedures in the various services involved in transit formalities, identify and propose procedures for an optimal management of traffic flows in the planned joint border posts as well as prepare an outline plan for the installation of the various services of the neighbouring countries at the posts. The joint border posts, which are expected to facilitate crossings at the borders by speeding up the formalities and which would help enable conditions for a borderless region, are part of the regional transport facilitation programme being implemented by ECOWAS and UEMOA.

Funded by the European Union, the transport facilitation programme includes components such as institutional support in terms of capacity building of ECOWAS
and UEMOA for the definition, development, analysis of policy and strategy,coordination, monitoring and evaluation of regional programmes. Other components include the rail, maritime, air and road sectors, all of which are intended to increase intra-Community trade, help transit West Africa into the global economy and promote regional integration in more practical ways.

The functionality study was preceded by a study (also called the PADECO study) to assess the environmental, social and economic impact and the definition of the institutional and operational mechanisms necessary for the creation of joint inspection border posts. The PADECO study included preparing a resettlement and compensation policy plan, applicable to joint inspection border posts, by defining the principles and objectives which guide the preparation and implementation of the resettlement
and compensation of the displaced persons who would suffer losses, including their sources of income.

At the opening of the workshop on Monday, 2nd June 2008, the ECOWAS Commissioner for Infrastructure, Mr. Comla Kadje, his UEMOA counterpart, Mr. Ibrahim Tampone
and the Head of the European Union Delegation, ambassador Ticali, in their addresses, reiterated the importance of the transport facilitation programme,
particularly the joint border posts project. While expressing gratitude to the European union for its technical and financial support to West Africa, the ECOWAS and UEMOA commissioners decried the tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade and stressed the importance of inter-state
transit of goods as well as the need for urgent implementation of the ISRT Convention.

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