The Government of Cape Verde extinguishes from this Wednesday the West African Institute for Regional Integration and Social Transformations (IAO), created in 2010 by decision of the ECOWAS regional community, alleging lack of funding.
The continuity of the IAO has been unsustainable”, reads the decree law that extinguishes that institute, which entered into force this Wednesday, approved in the Council of Ministers on April 7, 2022 and promulgated by the President of the Republic, José Maria Neves, the July 7th.
This institute was created in 2010, during the then second Government headed by Prime Minister José Maria Neves, based in Praia, in compliance with the decision of the Conference of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of African States Occidental (ECOWAS), held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, on January 18, 2008, aimed at bringing together experts in different sectors to improve the quality of regional integration among the 15 States of the subregion: Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Conakry, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.
The decision “follows the joint proposal” of the ECOWAS Commission, the African and West African Monetary Union (UEMOA), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and ECOBANK, to “create a international research center for regional integration and transformations in West Africa with the mission of producing knowledge to advise the Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS in making decisions that favor the regional integration of West Africa”, he recalls in the decree-law that from today extinguishes the IAO.
However, among the five promoters that led to the creation of the IAO, namely the ECOWAS Commission, the Government of Cape Verde, the UEMOA Commission, UNESCO and the Ecobank group, “only the first three made themselves available, in practice, to finance it, even so, for a short period of time, with the exception of Cape Verde”.
Without the subsidy of the partners, except for the Government of Cape Verde, a fact that is added to the bulky salary of the general manager [do IAO]because (…) the Institute is recognized by UNESCO as a category 2 international institute, and without losing sight of the broad board of directors, made up of five permanent members and fifteen elected non-permanent members, dispersed among political personalities, researchers, at the of representatives of civil society and the private sector of the West African region, which hinders both the functioning of this body and its meeting”, states the decree-law, on this extinction.
This institute was created using the internal law of Cape Verde, one of the options evaluated at the time by the promoters, but was faced, however, “with the non-existence, at that time, of a basic law that would allow the creation, in Cape Verde and by the State of Cape Verde”, of regional or international institutions and jointly with other States, international intergovernmental organizations or others.
In order to “overcome the legal vacuum”, the IAO was created after the approval of a law by the National Assembly, on April 19, 2010, with the legal regime of institutions with a regional or international vocation.
This diploma “allowed the creation of the IAO, by decree-law, as a center for the production of knowledge, training and international research on regional integration and an observatory for monitoring social changes and serving as a bridge between research, decision-making and the dialogue on public policies at the national, regional and interregional levels”, also refers to the decree law that now extinguishes the institution.
Source: Observadora
