Director's Editorial - February 2009

 by Mr. Normand Lauzon, SWAC Director

While most of the attention is focused on the impacts of the global economic crisis on Africa, the recent political events in Guinea and Guinea-Bissau just add to a long list of “sources of concern”. Mediation efforts led by ECOWAS prove the existence of a regional peacekeeping system, but are these efforts sufficient to find a solution to these crises?

Beyond the analysis of current events and trends, we need to continue to address the root causes that are underlying these structural vulnerabilities. It is also imperative to help people living in these countries to escape from the vicious cycle in which they have already been held up for so long! It would be a serious error not to consider West Africa as one regional area favouring all kinds of trafficking which feeds into criminal networks and weakens the power of states. It is indeed important to set up national programmes for fragile states; but it is equally important to help West Africa combat its regional scourges.

However, we should not exclusively focus on political and security problems. There are more than 320 million people living in West Africa. The large majority make a living through their own hard work on a day-to-day basis. Livestock breeders and other livestock professionals met within the framework of the Regional Livestock Forum, organised by the SWAC Secretariat and the ECOWAS Commission in Niamey (Niger) from 29 January to 4 February 2009. They expressed their concerns and made proposals which were then discussed with government representatives. Guidelines for a regional roadmap emerged from these discussions and were approved at the ministerial level. The new challenge is now to translate these recommendations into practice. 

Dr. Ibrahima Aliou, APESS Secretary General, highlights in our interview the need to set-up a regional network of livestock professional organisations. The SWAC Secretariat is willing to facilitate the emergence of this regional network as it already helped establish the network of agricultural producers (ROPPA) at the end of the 90s. We hope that the international community will also pay attention to and encourage positive initiatives such as the Niamey Forum.

Within this issue, you will also find information on the outcomes of the first “Regional Cocoa Initiative Task Force meeting” and a project on the possible security implications of climate change in the Sahel zone. We also have the pleasure to announce that the complete version of the first West Africa Report on “Resources for Development” is available on the SWAC’s website at: www.oecd.org/swac/westafricareport.