Part 3: “Let us think continental but act regionally”, Mohamed Ibn Chambas

26 octobre 2017Contributions Organisations régionales

EXCERPT FROM THE INTERVIEW

Moving towards common currency, a step to regional integration

At the same time that we work to achieve this convergence criteria that will lead to a common currency, a bigger challenge remains, just creating those conditions that will scale up trading among ourselves.

That would mean that more goods and services are being produced but importantly it means that more jobs are there for people. And of course it means that we would have made investments for the infrastructure, which will facilitate the movement of these goods and services across the region.

The debate on a common currency is important, but it should be pursued alongside really scaling up the volume of trade between and among West African countries

The debate on a common currency is important, we should continue to pursue it, but it should be pursued alongside really scaling up the volume of trade between and among West African countries.

AU and the Regional Economic Communities: « too much overlap »

The relation between the AU and the RECs (The Regional Economic Communities) has always been frankly problematic. We all acknowledge the principles of subsidiarity, complementarity and division of labor, but in practice, there is too much overlap, and in my humble view probably too much of an overreach by the African Union.

There should be a good coordination and one of the recommendations (of the Kagame report on the institutional reform of the AU), which I will strongly endorse, is the one that says, we will have two summits a year, one summit for all member states, but the second summit should be of the AU commission and the chairs of the RECs. This will lead to a more focused discussion of what the RECs are doing and how can the AU be of added value, so that there is greater synergy, and just to really, not eliminate, but reduce to a minimum the duplication. Let’s strengthen the RECs to be able to take up integration agenda and peace and security issues.

Let the AU focus on the major continental crises, other crises that arise in regions, let the RECs take the leadership in handling them

There will be cases where perhaps a more continental approach is called for. You have major crises, which will go beyond the region; naturally you need to bring in the continental organization to provide a compliment of leadership that is required to deal with it.

Let the AU focus on the major continental crises, other crises that arise in regions, let the RECs take the leadership in handling them. Major infrastructural projects obviously should be regionally focused. And then of course, the idea is to achieve a continental interconnection of all these regional projects. Let us think continental but let us act regionally.

Dr Mohamed Ibn Chambas was the last Executive Secretary of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) from 2002 to 2005 and the first President of the ECOWAS Commission from 2006 to 2009. He has worked for the organization at a pivotal moment of its evolution, during the institutional reforms of 2006.

Born December 7^th, 1950 in Ghana, Mohamed Ibn Chambas is a lawyer, diplomat, politician and academic from Ghana. He holds degrees in political science from the University of Ghana, Legon (BA 1973) and Cornell University Ithaca, New York (MA 1977, Ph.D. (1980) and a law degree from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.

Dr. Chambas’s experience on the international stage in Africa goes back a long way. Among his first political posts in Ghana, he was Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1987. From there, he has been Deputy of Bimbilla from 1993 to 1996 and Deputy Minister of Education in charge of Higher Education in 2000. He will restart his international activities by being a member of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group which has worked to facilitate a transition to constitutional democratic governance in Nigeria, Sierra Leone and The Gambia. Chambas also played an important role as mediator between the parties of the first civil war in Liberia in the 1990s, and later during the civil war in Côte d’Ivoire in the early 2000s.

At the end of his term at ECOWAS, Mohamed Ibn Chambas was appointed Secretary-General of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP Group) in November 2009. In December 2012, he was appointed African Union-United Nations Joint Special Representative for Darfur and Head of the Hybrid Peacekeeping Operation in Darfur.

Since September 2014, he has been the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Office for West Africa (UNOWA), now United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS).In this contribution to the debate on regional organizations in West Africa, he speaks with WATHI as a citizen of West Africa regarding the challenges of integration in the region.

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Part 3: “Let us think continental but act regionally”, Mohamed Ibn Chambas

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