US embassy cable - 05ABUJA2283

UNCLAS ABUJA 002283 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
FAS/USDA for Roxana Henderson 
 
E.O.  12598: N/A 
TAGS: EAGR, EAID, TBIO, NI, ATRD, ECOWAS 
SUBJECT: Phytosanitary Program Assessment Trip 
 
REF: State 205212 
 
1. (U) Reftel requested post to meet with ECOWAS Secretariat 
and judge its interest and ability to host a program to 
develop phytosanitary capacity. We have not met with the 
ECOWAS Secretariat by hope to do so by November 23 and will 
report on the results. 
 
2.  (SBU)  As an interim response, post provides this 
assessment from ACCRA-based WARP USAID staff working with 
ECOWAS and Abuja staff who work with ECOWAS on other issues. 
They expect that ECOWAS would be interested in participating 
in such a program. They judged ECOWAS overall institutional 
capacity for such a program as being very low. In general, 
the progress made on a project depends on the individual 
tasked with managing it. Some are good, others are weak, and 
the choice of or a change in personnel can make or break a 
program.  ECOWAS is faced with some immediate challenges, 
because two of four senior staff members, plus at least one 
other employee were killed in the recent Bellview plane 
crash in Nigeria. 
 
3. (SBU) WATH/Accra is working on an SPS harmonization 
project with ECOWAS, but is facing problems with 
communications and follow-through. The current SPS staff is 
mainly Francophone with relatively weak English. Overall, 
they believe that ECOWAS capacity would need considerable 
reinforcement and support to host a significant program. 
FUREY