Abuja 31^st July 2017. The modules for the training of personnel on skills enhancement and capacity building for the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between ECOWAS and the European Union (EU) have been validated at the ECOWAS Commission Headquarters, Abuja, Nigeria.

The three-Day pedagogical tools inter-Directorate validation meeting which ended on the 27^th of July 2017 was called in order to allow ECCOWAS and stakeholders to look at the content of the syllabus designed by the consultants for the development of training and dissemination tools for the ECOWAS/EU, EPA.

The meeting was also meant to help in the establishment of a regional framework for legal assistance to West African States in the area of commercial disputes. It considered the presentation of the training programme, the experts’ and parliamentarians’ training modules as well as instructors’ manual and related issues.

There were technical seminars for the consideration of the participants who commented and raised questions on the content of the modules after which it was decided that all training materials would be presented in the three official languages of ECOWAS-English, French and Portuguese.

Participants recommended that urgent arrangements be made by the ECOWAS Commission and West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) to ensure the proper organisation of the activities planned for the project and the future use of the validated pedagogical tools as developed.

They commended the consultants for the quality of content and of presentation of the pedagogical tools maintaining that these will greatly aid the intensification of activities meant to popularize the content of the EPA in the states of West Africa.

The Report of the meeting noted that there are a few Manuals yet to be completed while experts resolved that the drafts of such Manuals should be forwarded by the consultants to the Focal Points of the ECOWAS Commission not later than the 11^th of August 2017, taking into account the various observations and recommendations of the participants.

The opening of the validation meeting was presided over by the ECOWAS Commission’s Director of Trade Dr. Gbenga Obideyi and chaired by the Programme Officer, Competition, featured two seminars encompassing five modules.

The modules included those having to do with economic and trade partnership for sustainable development, trade policy and trade related issues, cooperation for implementation of the development and the achievement of the objectives of the EPA, dispute avoidance and settlement, general exceptions, institutional as well as final provisions, the obsolete conventions that preceded the EPA in West Africa, the EPA and he deepening of the ECOWAS integration process, the EPA provisions and paradigm shift in development, opportunities, risks as well as the accompanying measures of the West Africa EU-EPA.

Also on hand were relevant officials of the ECOWAS Commission and UEMOA, the regional and senior customs advisors, the consultant of Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GIZ to ECOWAS, experts in business promotion and technical secretariat, project consultants as well as officers from the legal affairs Directorate.