IVORI

About the Project

IVORI

CUTS, Accra with support from the United Kingdom Department for International Development -Support to West Africa Regional Integration Programme (DFID-SWARIP) is implementing a project entitled: Integrating Consumers’ Voice in the Regional Integration Process, referred to as (IVORI), to inform studies on the perception of regional integration by consumers in two ECOWAS Member States: Senegal and Ghana, as a pilot initiative.

IVORI II

CUTS International with support from the European Commission, Nigeria is collaborating with GIZ Nigeria under the SEDIN/SNTSI Programmes to promote inclusive trade policy making process in Nigeria. The aim of this initiative is to ensure that the voice of consumers as a critical stakeholders in the trade policy process is recognized.

IVORI III

Heads of State from Eastern and Southern African countries signed a historic agreement on June 10, 2015 to officially launch the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) that brought 26 countries from ‘Cairo to Cape’ under one common market. Often, African regional economic communities are, perceived as elitist and government-to-government cooperation, partly because of lack of participation from citizens of Member States.

CUTS Accra on 20th February and 5th March, 2015 organized a focused group dialogue which brought together the representatives from the ministries, private sector, consumer organizations, advocacy groups, trade unions and groups to deliberate on the how best the voices of consumers in the sub-regional bloc could be integrating in the regional integration process. The same discuss was also held in Dakar on 16th February. This report was issued at the end of a focus group discussion and validation workshop organization by CUTS Accra on “Integration the Consumer’s Voice” in the Subregional Economic Integration Process in Ghana and Senegal.

Public Policy Dialogue on Integrating the Consumers Voice into the Trade Policy Process in Nigeria
May 19-20, 2015, Abuja, Nigeria
CUTS International and GIZ Nigeria are organising a Public Policy Dialogue on Integrating the Consumer’s Voice into the Trade Policy Process in Nigeria. This landmark event, which is supported by the European Union and the German Government under the Strengthening Nigeria’s Trade Support Institutions (SNTSI) programme, brings together Nigerian consumer groups, other civil society organisations, relevant Ministries, Agencies and Departments, the private sector and the academia, to jointly examine the issues surrounding the trade policy making process in Nigeria. The National Policy Dialogue will also focus on selected sectorial and regional (ECOWAS) initiatives currently being implemented by the Federal Government, with the view to identifying how consumer and general economic welfare concerns can be best mainstreamed into these initiatives.

Tuesday, May 19, 2015 • 0900-1730 hrs
Wednesday, May 20, 2015 • 0900-1200 hrs
Chelsea Hotel, Central Business District, Abuja

For more information please contact:
Seno • 08097190544 • seno.usendiah@giz.de
Leonard • 08038797791 • lou@cuts.org

Integrating Voice of CSOs in Regional Integration in Eastern & South Africa

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ABOUT IVORI-III
Heads of State from Eastern and Southern African countries signed a historic agreement on June 10, 2015 to officially launch the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) that brought 26 countries from ‘Cairo to Cape’ under one common market. Often, African regional economic communities are, perceived as elitist and government-to-government cooperation, partly because of lack of participation from citizens of Member States.

CUTS deemed it necessary to ensure that integration processes are owned by people – the actual beneficiaries, as traditionally there were weaknesses in this. One way of achieving this was through coalition-building through among non-state actors whose experiences and aspirations needs to be reflected in the integration process, especially in areas impacted by trade-led economic integration like agri-business, climate change and gender/women’s empowerment.

Against this backdrop, CUTS Nairobi with financial support from Oxfam’s Pan-African Programme initiated a project referred to as, ‘Integrating Voice of CSOs in Regional Integration in Eastern & Southern Africa’ referred to as the IVoRI-ESA or IVoRI-III project.

The idea was to build awareness and capacity of non-state actors in Eastern & Southern African countries, and establish a dynamic network to gather inputs and views for effective implementation of the TFTA. CUTS would develop a forward-looking ‘Engagement Framework and Action Agenda’ that specifies roles and responsibilities of national governments, regional authorities, business community and civil society organisations in the region. This would be shared with the three RECs (COMESA-EAC-SADC) and with other developmental actors in the region, to create buy-in and establish synergies.

This ‘Engagement Framework’ would help create a system for two-way movement of information from the beneficiaries to the implementers of the TFTA, and vice-versa. It would help to bring impacts of TFTA closer to the ground.