ECOWAS: Capacity building for political parties (I)

The Economic Commission for West Africa States ECOWAS in continuation of its capacity building for member states organised a workshop on the Review and Validation of Training Modules for Political Parties in ECOWAS Member States. The event held at Primal Hotel, Lagos, from 1st to 4th September 2015. In the her opening remarks, Her Excellency, […]

The Economic Commission for West Africa States ECOWAS in continuation of its capacity building for member states organised a workshop on the Review and Validation of Training Modules for Political Parties in ECOWAS Member States. The event held at Primal Hotel, Lagos, from 1st to 4th September 2015. In the her opening remarks, Her Excellency, Salamatu Hussaini Suleiman (Mrs), Commissioner, Political Affairs, Peace and Security stressed the importance of developing resource tools for training political parties across the region. She outlined the aim of the  main objectives of the workshop. They include to deliver, review and validate the training modules on Political Party Financing in West Africa; Campaign Finance; and Internal Party Democracy and Administrative Processes.
In his welcome remarks, Mr Elesan Okorodudu the Director of democracy and governance at ECOWAS told the audience that that the modules were designed to strengthen the capacities of political parties in the ECOWAS region. He introduced the resource persons Dr OShita Oshita, Director of the Institue of Peace and Conflict Resolution Abuja. Dr Ibrahim Bangura  an academic form Sierra Leone and -from Kofi Anan Institute for Democracy Development Ghana.
In his speech,  the Director of Political Affairs, Head of Division, Democracy and Good Governance Dr. Remi Ajibewu welcomed participants and reminded them ECOWAS of the various related modules earlier developed and tested by ECOWAS with support from development partners as well as other staff of the ECOWAS Commission. Participants were drawn from Political parties in West Africa, officials of Electoral Management Bodies, Politician, a member of the Executive Steering Committee of the Forum of West African Political Parties (FOWAPP), Director Political Affairs, representatives of Civil Society Organizations, and representatives from Research Centres and ECOWAS Center of Excellence, as well as experts and trainers on democracy and good governance.
I was privileged to be one of ten experts from within and outside the region. The three resource person who produced the draft modules presented the draft their work. Following the Opening Session, an orientation on the objectives and expectations of the Workshop was delivered by Elesan Okorodudu, the Head of Democracy and Good Governance Division, ECOWAS Commission. Thereafter, presentations were made by Consultant/Developers of the modules, namely Professor Oshita Oshita, Professor Bolade Eyinla and Dr. Ibrahim Bangura, who developed the Modules on; Political Party Financing in West Africa, Campaign finance and Internal Party Democracy and Administrative Processes for Political Parties respectively. On the first day, participants were divided into working groups that deliberated and reviewed the modules with structural, pedagogical and conceptual inputs that added value to the modules. Participants endorsed the need for the adoption and implementation of an affirmative action by political parties towards enhancing women participation in party decision- making processes across the West African region. In the same vein, they agreed as follows:
ECOWAS should develop a policy that will promote the establishment of a Women Trust Fund to assist women candidacy in elections. They also requested that ECOWAS should develop a regional strategy on political party financing. While stressing the need to institutionalize the training programmes for political parties, the experts and participants requested/directed that a regional center of excellence for training political parties be established. Finally, after exhaustive deliberations, the inputs received from each group were presented and the Modules were finalized and validated for the ECOWAS Commission to test-run in training sessions across the region.
In concluding, the Participants commended the ECOWAS Commission for its commitment to the provision of continuous capacity enhancement to political parties in order to further deepen and promote participatory democracy and good governance both within the political reviewed and examined two modules,namely   “Internal   Party   Democracy   and   Administrative   Processes”  and   “Political   Party   Financing”.  The Module on Internal Party Democracy and Administrative Processes addressed thematic issues such as, the evolution of party politics in West Africa Roles, Functions of Political Parties Models of party organization
and Key Dimensions of Party organization Political Godfatherism and Developing and implementing Intra-Party Democracy : Challenge of Democratizing Political Parties. In their group discussions and the outcome presented at plenary session, the participants commended the ECOWAS Commission for its previous initiatives towards promoting democracy and good governance. They highlighted the importance of the workshop which is aimed at producing training modules to address the challenges of financial management, administrative structures and democracy at the level of the political parties in the region. The participants extoled the ECOWAS Commission for the development and implementation of its numerous normative instruments in the region, and agreed on the need for the Modules to integrate the values and norms contained in these ECOWAS normative instruments. The participants agreed on the need to make the Module pragmatic in order to ensure active trainees participation and facilitate easy delivery of the training.
The participants underlined the need for the Module to address the challenges of political  party  ideology  and  identity  policy,  which  should  be incorporated  in  the  parties’ manifestoes and programs.and in the larger political space in Member States. On a final note, the workshop participants extended their gratitude to the President of the ECOWAS Commission for this new initiative aimed at deepening participatory democracy in the region. 

Mrs Salamtu Hussein Suleiman, Commissioner of Political Affairs, Peace and Security commended the participants robust discussion and declared the workshop open.