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The Directorate of Multilateral Surveillance
is one of the three Directorates in the Department of
Macroeconomic Policy in ECOWAS Commission. The Directorate
is entrusted with monitoring and evaluating the
macroeconomic performance of ECOWAS Member States with a
view to promoting macroeconomic stability and convergence.
It also promotes the harmonisation of national economic and
financial policies towards the establishment of an economic
and monetary union.
The Directorate works closely with the West
African Monetary Agency (WAMA), which is a specialized
Agency of ECOWAS established to promote monetary cooperation
among the ECOWAS Member States. WAMA is based in Freetown,
Sierra Leone. The Directorate also works closely with the
West African Monetary Institute (WAMI), which was
established to promote the establishment of a second
monetary zone in West Africa, known as the West African
Monetary Zone (WAMZ). All ECOWAS Member States which are
not members of the UEMOA, except Cape Verde, are members of
the WAMZ. Specifically, the ECOWAS Member States in the
WAMZ are The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria, Liberia and
Sierra Leone.
The specific duties of the Directorate of
Multilateral Surveillance are as follows:
Evaluation of
the general performance of the West African economy to
determine compliance with the convergence criteria under the
multilateral surveillance mechanism.
Initiating
and monitoring regional policies for achieving macroeconomic
stability and macroeconomic convergence within the framework
of the multilateral surveillance mechanism.
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Monitoring the establishment and effective operations of
institutional organs of the multilateral surveillance
mechanism to ensure the effective implementation of the
mechanism.
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Harmonisation of national economic and financial
policies including public finance frameworks within the
framework of regional integration agenda.
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Conducting studies to inform policy on the performance
of the regional economy with a view to engendering
macroeconomic stability and sustainable economic
development.
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Maintaining close collaboration with regional and
non-regional institutions involved in ensuring
macroeconomic stability and fostering the achievement of
the African Monetary Cooperation Programme. The
institutions include the following: WAMI, WAMA, AU
Commission, EU Commission, UEMOA Commission, ADB, ECA,
ACBF, IMF and World Bank.
3.
Achievements
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Effective collaboration with the West
African Monetary Institute (WAMI) and the West African
Monetary Agency (WAMA) within the framework of Joint
Surveillance Missions to monitor and evaluate the economic
performance of Member States under the Multilateral
Surveillance Mechanism.
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Finalization of the construction of the ECOWAS
Macroeconomic Convergence (ECOMAC) Database.
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Production of macroeconomic convergence reports to
assess the status of Member States on the convergence
scale.
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Production of the Guidelines for the Formulation of the
ECOWAS Multi-year Convergence Programme.
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Effective
coordination of the activities of the organs of the
ECOWAS Multilateral Surveillance Mechanism, namely:
National Coordinating Committees (NCCs), ECOWAS-WAMA
Joint Secretariat, Technical Monitoring Committee
(comprising senior officials of Ministry of Finance and
Directors of Research of Central Banks) and the
Convergence Council (consisting of Ministers of Finance
and Governors of Central Banks).
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Capacity
building of officials of the National Coordinating
Committees and the ECOWAS-WAMA Joint Secretariat.
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Recruitment of Macroeconomists and Bilingual Secretaries
for NCC Secretariats in Member States.
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Provision
of yearly grant or subvention to NCCs.
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Effective
implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
between the ECOWAS Commission and WAMI on the
Establishment of the ECOWAS-WAMI Joint Task Force on
Trade-related Issues of the Monetary Integration
Programme of the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ).
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