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Regional integration our
priority – Mumuni
Accra, March 27, Ghanadot/GNA - Alhaji Muhammad Mumuni,
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, on Friday
announced that President John Evans Atta Mills has decided to
make regional integration the flagship of its foreign policy.
He said the government intended to fast track the country’s
approach to integration to ensure that the foreign policy and
the integration process benefited the people directly.
Alhaji Mumuni was speaking at a training workshop in Accra
dubbed: “Call for Proposals, Non-State Actors’ (NSA)
Participation in the Regional Integration Process” in Accra.
The Call for Proposals is an ECOWAS regional integration
programme being funded by the European Union (EU) to help build
the capacities of NSA on EU funding procedures to enhance their
chances of accessing EU grants for their activities.
The Minister said government also fully supported the new ECOWAS
vision of moving the regional integration body to an ECOWAS of
people in which the community’s citizens moved about freely and
across the borders, transacted legitimate business without
hindrance and benefited from a regime of rule of law, peace and
stability.
Alhaji Mumuni said for the country to achieve this in a
sustainable manner, one of the key strategies was to forge
strong public/private partnership.
He said the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) was
about creating internal partnerships among public, private and
civil society organisations before moving into external
partnerships with development partners to complement the local
effort.
Alhaji Mumuni commended the ECOWAS Commission and other
institutions for working to concretise the new ECOWAS vision by
taking steps to engage non-state actors in the integration
process.
“It is my hope that at the end of this workshop, participants
would have adequately understood the procedures to follow in
responding to the call for project proposal in order to help
advance our regional integration agenda and help eliminate
poverty.”
Mr. Enobong Umoessien from the ECOWAS Commission said the
workshop would help build the capacities of participants to be
able to access funds from both local and foreign sources to
carry out their activities.
He said NSAs were capable of playing key roles in the
integration process due to their ability to build synergies with
similar grassroots organizations and their flexibility to adapt
to changing situations.
GNA |
