ECOWAS, World Bank holds WURI first supervisory committee meeting

By Linus Aleke, Abuja

The Commission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), in collaboration World Bank is holding the inaugural meeting of the Supervisory Committee of the West Africa Unique Identification for Regional Integration and Inclusion (WURI), programme, in Lagos, Nigeria.

The West Africa Unique Identification for Regional Integration and Inclusion (WURI) is a multi-phase programme financed by the World Bank and implemented by Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Niger, Togo, and the ECOWAS Commission.

The ECOWAS Commission in a statement, said, the objective of the programme is to increase the number of persons in participating countries who have government-recognized proof of unique identity that enables access to services.

The statement disclosed that the meeting brought together WURI implementing Member States’ Permanent Representatives nominated by their respective government to the Supervisory Committee, the WURI implementing countries’ project Coordinators, representatives of the ECOWAS Commission as well as representatives of the World Bank.

The aim of the meeting, the commission said of is to, first of all, inaugurate the Supervisory Committee to be vested with decision-making authority from each of the countries and to be responsible for the strategic direction of the programme.

At this meeting, the committee will review and endorse the regional work plan aimed at advancing the achievement of the regional objectives of the WURI programme.

The committee, the statement added, will also adopt the technical recommendations to be implemented by each country.

“Most importantly, the newly constituted Supervisory Committee is expected to adopt the programme’s Governance Framework, which will guide the countries’ collaboration and coordination of the programme’s objective of service accessibility across the countries.
Specifically, the Commission aims to foster regional dialogues and cooperation for cross-border mutual recognition of foundational identity systems for access to services. The ECOWAS Commission and the World Bank serves as the co-secretariat for the Supervisory Committee and any other committee set up for the programme,” the statement averred.

The ECOWAS Commission concluded that it is responsible for the coordination of the regional aspects of the programme between the ECOWAS Member States, while the World Bank is providing financial, technical and coordination support to the programme.