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The Fifty-Seventh Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government St. John’s Preparatory School - Danvers, Massachusetts - December 2020

Letter from the Chair

Dear Delegates,

My name is Declan Golden. I am a junior at St. John’s Prep, and I will serve as your Chairperson for the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government. I have been involved in Model UN at the Prep for one year (in addition to this one). Outside of Model

UN, I run winter track and play Ultimate Frisbee. Along with athletics, I also enjoy partaking in Greek and Latin Club and playing the violin. I find the topic of West Africa’s economic problems both concerning and captivating because the prospect of aiding and advising a growing community is a thrilling opportunity to expand our world view as well as become invested in a foreign matter. Thus, I recommend that you read through this paper as well as do your own research on current events in West Africa, the industry of your given country, and the history of this problem (as it is still extremely important to our conversation). Linked at the end of this paper are some extra sources which I HIGHLY recommend you check out. Even if you skim through, they are excellent sources of context for our discussion.

Please do not hesitate to email me with any questions or concerns! I will be happy to assist you, and I am very excited to meet you in December!

Thank you,

Declan Golden ‘22 ([email protected])

Chair, ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government, SJPMUN XV

Committee Description

The Economic Community of West Africa (ECOWAS), is a union of 15 countries in

West Africa founded on May 28 of 1975 with the signing of the Treaty of Lagos. ECOWAS was created to unify and protect the interests of West African states following post World War

II decolonization. The mission of ECOWAS at its founding was the promotion of “economic integration in ‘all fields of economic activity, particularly industry, transport, telecommunications, energy, agriculture, natural resources, commerce, monetary and financial questions, social and cultural matters’”(ECOWAS). Currently, ECOWAS maintains its founding mission and acts both as an economic supervisor and mentor to member countries, but also embodies the capacity for disciplinary, mediatory, and conciliatory action.

Source:https://www.ecowas.int/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/CEDEAO_ECOWAS_MAPS_en1.html

The current member countries of ECOWAS are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde,

Côte d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria,

Sierra Leone, Senegal, and Togo (Boddy-Evans). Although most borders were drawn by colonizers, many countries still retain strong cultural connections with each other. While there are three official languages in ECOWAS: French, Portuguese, and English, the region is home to thousands of local tongues and ethnicities across borders, playing into the region’s unity.

Incorporated into ECOWAS are 6 commissions: th e ECOWAS Commission, the Community Court of Justice, the Community Parliament, ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), West Africa Health Organization (WAHO), and the Inter-Governmental Action Group Against Money-laundering and terrorism financing in West Africa (GIABA). The Treaty of Lagos was revised in 1993 because of political unrest in some of the member states. In this amendment to the 1975 Treaty of Lagos, ECOWAS member states signed 93 governing articles, most notably creating the West African Parliament, the

Community Court of Justice, and a Peacekeeping Force known as ECOMOG (ECOWAS

Ceasefire Monitoring Group) to address unrest in West Africa (ECOWAS, History). Our committee this year will be The Authority of Heads of State and Government (The

Authority). This council is the supreme institution of ECOWAS through which all projects and decisions are made. The Authority’s mission is to “be responsible for the general direction and control of the Community and shall take all measures to ensure its progressive development and realization of its objectives” (Treaty of Lagos 1993). Decisions in The Authority are made by unanimity consensus or by two thirds majority. Our voting requirement will be by two thirds majority. In a normal meeting of The Authority, there would be a chairperson selected

from the individual Heads of State and Government, but as this is only a 15 person committee, we will forgo the Chairperson and all delegates will act as normal Heads of State and

Government.

Statement of the Problem

West Africa, a 3.5 million square mile region populated by 381 million people (West

Africa: extreme inequality in numbers), is diverse in a number of natural resources including oil, gas, and timber to diamonds, gold, agricultural products, coltan and bauxite.

Unfortunately, the revenues from the sales of these resources have been exploited by post-colonial Western influence, unequally distributed among the West African population, and contribute to corruption, environmental degradation, poverty, and violence. According to OxFam International, in 2019, compared to other regions on the continent, West Africa has the greatest number of countries with more than 30 percent of the population living on less than $1.90 a day, the international threshold for extreme poverty.

In addition, monotone markets, markets drawing from two or three natural resources in a primary level economy (purely extraction of resources), create an unstable balance maintained by international demand of these natural resources. For instance countries like

Nigeria have been known to experience negative growth when the prices of one of their chosen exports, oil, devalues (African Development Bank, 2018). West Africa’s flat markets are a result of the impact of former colonizers, England and France, using West African countries as resource wells. In turn, West Africa’s “all of the eggs in one basket” approach to economic endeavors is further compounded by social instability including political violence and terrorism. Moreover, the majority of infrastructure already in place, like roads, bridges, and railways “lead to the coast”, both enforcing extractive habits and inhibiting movement towards secondary economic development (the manufacturing of finished products).

Within specific countries who have seen economic improvements as their primary export increases in value, wealth inequality becomes rampant. In the West African region, less than 1% of the population owns more wealth than the rest combined. Wealth inequality of this scale is made possible by a staggeringly informal market, “under the table” contract work,

(West Africa Inequality Crisis). According to the African Development Bank’s 2018 economic outlook, fewer than 4% of jobs in West Africa are considered to be part of the formal economy, the part of the economy able to be taxed. With poorly enforced labor standards,

West Africa’s wealthiest can exploit labor for cheap costs, saving profit for personal gain.

In addition, at the governmental level, there is little accountability to check powerful regimes resulting in violent civil wars leading to human and economic cost (African

Development Bank). Adding to the strife in West Africa, unstable governments being overturned hinders the economic growth process. This is most notable in Côte d’Ivoire (as seen in the 2nd Ivorian Civil War, from 2010-2011) when conflict broke out between loyalist forces supporting (at the time) incumbent President Laurent Gbagdo and the opposition forces of President-elect Alassane Ouattara who is Côte d’Ivoire’s internationally recognized president.

So as the ECOWAS Commission, we must address West Africa’s shallow markets, and in doing so improve infrastructure, which will also ameliorate the immense poverty and help to formalize the economy.

History of the Problem

In the late 1400’s, the arrival of Europeans in Africa during the Age of Exploration led to subsequent centuries of European influence in Africa, especially on the Western Coast.

Control began with the Transatlantic Slave Trade (which was abolished in the early 19th century) and continued with formal colonization of Africa (the Age of New Imperialism) in the late 19th century. At this time, in addition to the trade of human beings, there was a demand for natural resources. Roads were primarily created for the transportation and general expedited extraction of these resources to be loaded onto ships and sent to Europe. The earliest formal resistance to colonization (in West Africa, Britain and France) was the Aborigines'

Rights Protection Society based in the Gold Coast (to be Ghana). This group was critical of colonial rule and worked to protect Aboriginal Land and acted as a base for the subsequent movement for Ghana’s independence in the mid 20th century (McCaskie and Fage,

Decolonization).

The colonisation of West Africa by French and British included the implementation of

European style education and the conscription of African soldiers to fight for the allied powers in the World Wars. These two factors contributed to the decolonization movement in West

Africa and the rest of Africa. Following World War II, a majority of colonizing countries did not have enough money or political support to continually suppress colonial revolts which were a result of a common belief in the right of Self-Governance. In addition, specifically in

Africa, education gave birth to the first generation of modern African Leaders, chief among them was Kwame Nkrumah. In tandem with the RDA (African Democratic Rally), Nkrumah led protests starting in 1948 against the British Colonists in the Gold Coast. His efforts

ultimately forced the creation of a new constitution in 1951 which favored an assembly style government led by elected African ministers. Then in 1957 after a series of negotiated concessions from the British, the Gold Coast became the independent state of Ghana. Ghana’s independence inspired other West African nations to pursue their own independence

(McCaskie and Fage, Emergence of African Leaders).

In 1975, at the very end of Decolonization, the Economic Community of West African

States was introduced as a part of the Treaty of Lagos. This body was created to promote economic trade, cooperation, and self-reliance in the region of West Africa. Before ECOWAS, the first attempt at integrating came from the introduction of the CFA Franc which would unify all Francophone (countries colonized by France) nations under a common currency assured by France. Later in 1964, Liberian president William Tubman initiated thought on an

Economic Union for West Africa and a subsequent agreement in 1965 between Côte d’Ivoire,

Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. However, ECOWAS was not born until delegations from

Togo and Niger, touring the region (West Africa), became desirous to the idea of integration leading to the 1975 Treaty of Lagos. Countries at the signing were Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone,

Togo, Guinea, Niger, Côte d’Ivoire, and Mauritania. All of these countries still as of today remain members of the Community with the exception of Mauritania which left in December of 2000 to become better aligned with North African countries because of religious and ethnic

Similarities (ECOWAS, History).

Since its inception, ECOWAS has undergone one significant adaptation, in 1993 which saw the creation of four new institutions. In addition, over the past 45 years ECOWAS has seen success in multiple project areas. They include:

1) The Common External Tariff: A blanket tariff placed on all goods entering any member country of ECOWAS. This assures stability in trading and economy as well as

domestic economic growth and a higher level product turnover because of the enlarged

domestic market (ECOWAS, CET).

2) Abidjan-Lagos Highway Project (under the regional infrastructure development programme): This undertaking, referred to as the “Corridor Project”, would install a

highway between the cities, Abidjan and Lagos, to promote the ECOWAS sentiment of

free movement. In addition, this highway will improve international trade in the region

as well as advantage social and economic areas (ECOWAS, Info).

3) Supplementary Act of Investment: This act set into play during the 61st regular session of ECOWAS’s Council of Ministers works to adopt the most desirable conditions for

both foreign and domestic private sector investment (Jus Mundi).

4) Common currency (ECO) The effort for a common currency for all member states of ECOWAS is the most recent of these projects and pieces of legislation. This would

entail the unification of ECOWAS members under the common proposed

denomination of “ECO”(Dewast). https://www.ecowas.int/achievements-of-ecowas-at-40/

….This type of integrational action would be the next big step for ECOWAS and

is set to be decided in July 2020. In a similar vein, ECOWAS would follow in its sibling organization, the EAC’s (Eastern African Community) steps, as they too have taken on a common currency.

Finally, while ECOWAS has made great strides to address a lack of effective economic and infrastructure as a result of colonization, there still exists a great amount of work to be done. As of 2020, 75% of ECOWAS member states’ exports still remain under the category of fuel extractives. The next greatest area of export belongs to cocoa and cocoa products at only 5%. The remaining 20% of exports are dispersed between precious stones, cotton ,edible fruit, rubber, plastic, wood and wood products, and fish and shellfish

(ECOWAS, Imports/ Exports).

Questions to Consider

For our ECOWAS Committee there are three main questions to consider….

1) How can ECOWAS establish domestically beneficial transportation/ infrastructure?

a) What will the ecological impact of new infrastructure be?

i) Will they harm the environment?

ii) Will there be any possible negative consequences?

b) Is there a way to neutrally institute infrastructure (ie. Minimal impact)?

2) How can ECOWAS attain funding for these endeavors?

a) Will ECOWAS have to go into debt?

b) Will the EBID (ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development) be able to

cover costs?

c) Can ECOWAS rely on their ability to secure a loan?

d) Will a loan come from an independent state or from an international

organization?

3) How can West Africa diversify and add depth to its market and economy?

a) How can ECOWAS institute Secondary and Tertiary economic

development?

b) Will there be an environmental impact from implementing manufacturing

plants?

c) Can ECOWAS secure trade in new industries with the international

community?

BLOC Positions

The 15 member states of ECOWAS are split into two groups based on colonial influence.

BLOC 1: The Francophone countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo) and Guinea-Bissau make up WAEMU (UEMOA), the West African

Economic and Monetary Union.

● WAEMU was founded 1994 to help defend against economic domination by bigger

Anglophone economies like Ghana and Nigeria. It serves as a union of Francophone

Countries to help economically integrate under the CFA Franc.

BLOC 2: The Anglophone countries, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone make up WAMZ, the West African Monetary Zone.

● WAMZ was founded in 2000 to begin the process of introducing a common currency

known as the “ECO”, and eventually to merge it with the CFA Franc. It is made up of

all Anglophone countries except Guinea which is Francophone.

The current issue which divides these two blocs is that of a common currency. In early January of 2020, WAEMU, specifically Côte d'ivoire Président Alassane Ouattara, and French

President Emmanuel Macron announced that the CFA Franc, which is ensured by the French

Bank and has existed since 1945, would be renamed and reformed to become the “ECO”. The

WAMZ deliberated on this decision and have released a Communique condemning the

WAEMU’s actions to unilaterally rename the CFA Franc as the “ECO”. The WAMZ finds issue with these actions because it would like to see the “ECO” instituted as a common

currency for the entire region, not just as a replacement for the CFA Franc. Subsequently the

WAMZ which believes the “ECO” should be adopted on a slower time table (Smith).

Works Cited

Boddy-Evans, Alistair. “What Countries Are Members of ECOWAS?” ThoughtCo,

ECOWAS, 2015,

www.thoughtco.com/economic-community-west-african-states-ecowas-43900. ECOWAS. “Economic Community of West African States(ECOWAS).” Economic

Community of West African StatesECOWAS, ECOWAS, www.ecowas.int/institutions/. MAYAKI, Harouna. “Economic Community of West African States(ECOWAS).”

Economic Community of West African StatesECOWAS, ECOWAS, www.ecowas.int/. ECOWAS. “Economic Community of West African States(ECOWAS).” Economic

Community of West African StatesECOWAS, ECOWAS,

www.ecowas.int/about-ecowas/history/. “West Africa: Extreme Inequality in Numbers.” Oxfam International, OxFam

International , 25 Nov. 2019,

www.oxfam.org/en/west-africa-extreme-inequality-numbers. AFB. “West African Economic Outlook 2019.” African Development Bank, African

Development Bank,

www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Publications/2019AEO/REO_2019_-

_West_africa.pdf .

AFB. “West African Economic Outlook 2018.” African Development Bank, African

Development Bank,

www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Publications/2018AEO/African_Eco

nomic_Outlook_2018_West-Africa.pdf.

OxFam. “The West Africa Inequality Crisis.” OxFam International, June 2019,

oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/bitstream/handle/10546/620837/bp-west-africa-inequ

ality-crisis-090719-en.pdf.

Fage, John D., and T.C. McCaskie. “The Formation of African Independence

Movements.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 23 Oct. 2019,

www.britannica.com/place/western-Africa/The-formation-of-African-independence-mo

vements. ECOWAS. “Common External Tariff (CET).” ECOWAS (CET), ECOWAS,

www.ecowas.int/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/CET_Factsheet_EN.pdf .

MAYAKI, Harouna. “Economic Community of West African States(ECOWAS).”

Economic Community of West African StatesECOWAS,

www.ecowas.int/ecowas-launches-project-implementation-unit-of-the-abidjan-lagos-cor

ridor-highway/. Mundi, Jus. Supplementary Act A/SA.3/12/08 Adopting Community Rules on

Investment and the Modalities for Their Implementation with ECOWAS, Jus Mundi,

jusmundi.com/en/document/treaty/en-supplementary-act-a-sa-3-12-08-adopting-commu

nity-rules-on-investment-and-the-modalities-for-their-implementation-with-ecowas-eco

was-supplementary-act-on-investments-friday-19th-december-2008.

Dewast, Louise. “West Africa's Eco: What Difference Would a Single Currency

Make?” BBC News, BBC, 6 July 2019, www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-48882030. ECOWAS. “Economic Community of West African States(ECOWAS).” Economic

Community of West African StatesECOWAS, ECOWAS,

www.ecowas.int/achievements-of-ecowas-at-40/. ECOWAS. “Economic Community of West African States(ECOWAS).” Economic

Community of West African StatesECOWAS, ECOWAS,

www.ecowas.int/doing-business-in-ecowas/import-and-export/. “CEDEAO ECOWAS Map 2014.” ECOWAS, 2014,

www.ecowas.int/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/CEDEAO_ECOWAS_MAPS_en1.html. Momodu, Samuel. “Second Ivorian Civil War (2010-2011).” Welcome to Blackpast •,

27 June 2019,

www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/second-ivorian-civil-war-2010-2011/.

Additional Information

● This source from Britannica goes into depth about Africa’s economy as a whole. It gives a wider perspective and frame of reference to compare West Africa to. Moreover, while I have highlighted the Economic part of this article, there is a copious amount of information regarding other aspects of Africa also included in this article: https://www.britannica.com/place/Africa/Economy

● This document is the 1993 amended treaty which involved the inclusivity of disciplinary and military action in the ECOWAS charter. While I recognize this is a very dense document, I found it informing to read/ brush through the first couple of articles, specifically in chapters 1 and 2. These chapters provide context for our council (Ie. ECOWAS’s goals and visions) as well as our functionality: https://www.ecowas.int/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Revised-treaty.pdf

● This website is a short fact sheet discussing Decolonization post World War 2. This specific time period is very important because it was the genesis for what would come to be ECOWAS: https://cmvtcivils.wordpress.com/2015/09/05/reasons-for-the-end-of-imperialism-de colonization-and-emergence-of-new-nation-states-and-its-impact/

● This article by The Guardian discusses a key phrase, something called the “Resource Curse”. This term is a good descriptor for West Africa and seems to illustrate West African problems efficiently: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2007/may/02/society.conservationanden dangeredspecies1

● This document is an address for ECOWAS’s 40th anniversary. While it is 5 years old, it is a great marker for comparison for continuity and change over time. It is important to understand both the problems that have existed as well as what ECOWAS has done recently to address them. This source gives a good overview of the current status of the Economic Community of West African States after 40 years and 2015 (the year it was published) should be considered an important date in relation to our debate: https://www.uneca.org/sites/default/files/PublicationFiles/uneca_ecowas_report_en _web_v2.pd

● 1975 treaty: http://www.internationaldemocracywatch.org/attachments/351_ecowas%20treaty% 20of%201975.pdf