On the 14th of June 2022, ECOWAS held a ministerial validation meeting on Human Capital Development (HCD) Report 2022 through zoom in order to increase the West African Region’s human capital indices by 2030.
The Gender and Transformative Action Report for Human Capital Development in West Africa was also discussed and presented at the meeting.
The ECOWAS Commission had previously produced the Integrated Human Capital Development (HCD) Strategy, which serves as a framework for accelerating the growth of human capital in the region by requiring Member States to develop National Human Capital Development Strategies.
H.E. Finda E.M. Koroma, Vice President of the ECOWAS Commission, gave a welcome address at the inaugural session.
On behalf of H.E. Jean-Claude Kassi Brou, President of the ECOWAS Commission, and the whole management and staff of ECOWAS, she welcomed the Ministers of States to the validation meeting in her speech.
She praised the Republic of Ghana for chairing the meeting and thanked Honourable Ministers from Member States for making themselves available for the validation meeting on behalf of the Commission.
The ECOWAS Commission, according to the Vice President, has set an ambitious goal of becoming Sub-Saharan Africa’s top-performing Regional Economic Community (REC) in HCD by 2030.
The Integrated Human Capital Development (HCD) Strategy, developed by the Draft Report – HCD Ministerial Validation Meeting Commission, aims to improve the human capital indices of the West African region by 2030.
She stated that the ECOWAS Commission has selected six (6) intervention areas to help Member States progress on each of the four (4) priority levels outlined in the ECOWAS Strategy for 2030, namely:
(a) Advocacy, Policy and Communication,
(b) Monitoring and Evaluation,
(c) Capacity Building and Knowledge Sharing, and
(d) Resource Mobilisation.
The six (6) areas relate to the updating of;
(i) HCD index,
(ii) HCD gender index,
(iii) HCD implementation monitoring and evaluation dashboard,
(iv) ECOWAS HCD report 2022,
(v) the organisation of capacity building sessions and exchange fora between the National HCD Focal Points and ECOWAS HCD squad, and
(vi) the conduct of study on gender transformative action for HCD.
Hon. Cecilia Abena Dapaah, Chair of the Meeting and Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources for the Republic of Ghana
She emphasized the importance of human capital development for ECOWAS member states in her opening remarks, praising the ECOWAS Commission and its partners for advocating the development of the region’s Integrated Human Capital Development Strategy and its implementation papers.
She also stressed the necessity of Human Capital Growth in today’s governance of nations, emphasizing how it is especially vital in promoting creativity and innovation among the populace in order to promote long-term development.
She advocated for increased participation of women and girls in education, as well as the mainstreaming of women from the informal economy into formal and long-term wealth-generating industries.
Following that, the meeting went into plenary sessions to debate and review the materials.
Creating synergy on gender efforts among Member States, raising visibility for gender transformation actions, leveraging harmonized data and surveys for reporting, and strengthening HCD indicators outcomes for better comparability among Member States are just a few of the key proposals.
H. E. Finda Koroma offered the final remarks, thanking everyone for their contributions and observations, and promising to include all recommendations in the final version of the reports.