{"id":1152,"date":"2019-06-27T16:07:12","date_gmt":"2019-06-27T16:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mru.int\/?p=20"},"modified":"2019-06-27T16:07:12","modified_gmt":"2019-06-27T16:07:12","slug":"__trashed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mru.int\/fr\/__trashed\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mano River Union"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Mano River Union: An update<\/strong><\/p>

By Titus\nBoye-Thompson, Guest Writer, Freetown, Sierra Leone.<\/strong><\/p>

Economic integration institutions are\nvery highly dependent on political will and the sanguine nature of cross border\nrelationships. The European Union had been at the forefront in instilling the\nculture of closer integration as a driver of conflict avoidance, creating a\nplatform for dialogue and reducing political hegemony through the ratification\nof major political decisions within a centralised framework. Altogether, the\nEuropean Union has been more influential in promoting its edicts within the n\nations of its major colonial powers such as the United Kingdom, France, Holland\nand Belgium.<\/p>

The African Caribbean Pacific (ACP)\nStates comprise of all of the countries that had at some point come under the\ndirect influence and control of these former colonial powers that made up the\nEuropean Union. The prerequisites for trade protectionism and the reliance on\nraw materials from former colonies necessitated the need for the European Union\ncountries to attach some degree of mutuality to the ACP States and the formal\nrelationship was endorsed by several agreements signed in Togo, altogether\nreferred to as the \u201cLome Accords.\u201d The significance of these accords reflect\nthe residual relationships between former colonial powers and their wards in a\nconstructive framework for protecting the special bonds, trade and aid that\ncharacterized the dependency era.<\/p>

Sierra Leone has found significant\nbenefits in regional and sub-regional integration. Actively involved in ECOWAS,\nthis country has made significant progress with President Ernest Bai Koroma\nplaying a leading role as one of the peacemakers for ECOWAS and a recognized\nelder statesman given his strategic position as Chairman of the African Union\nCommittee of 10. It is the sub-regional construct of the Mano River Union that\nseem to be on a life string in the past years until the recent decision of the\nHeads of Governments in May 2008 to re-establish and restructure the\ninstitution as a functioning vehicle for sub-regional economic integration.<\/p>

The MRU was created on the 3rd October\n1973 by the \u201cMalema Declaration\u201d signed by President William Tolbert of the\nRepublic of Liberia and President Dr Siaka Stevens of the Republic of Sierra\nLeone. The Union was enlarged by the accession of the Republic of Guinea on\n28th October 1980. These three countries have a confluence border point on the\nEastern tip of Sierra Leone in the Kailahun District town of Koindu. The area\nholds a regular international market and the intermingled nature of the three\npeoples of that region had long cemented the conditions for cross border\nintegration given the commonality of their customs, traditions and origins. The\nRepublic of Cote D\u2019Ivoire joined the Union on 15th May 2008 and this ascension\ncoincided with the signal decision of the Heads of State and Governments to\n\u201cpursue the revival, growth, socio-economic development and integration of the\nsub-region within the framework of four pillars namely, institutional\nrevitalization and restructuring with focus on the Union Secretariat and public\nsector of Member States; peace and security; economic development and regional\nintegration; and social development.\u201d In terms of its core mission, the Mano\nRiver Union aims to \u201cstrengthen the capacity of Member states to integrate\ntheir economies and coordinate development programs in the areas of peace\nbuilding, as a prerequisite to any development, trade, promotion of development\nof industry, energy, agriculture, natural resources, transport and\ntelecommunications, monetary and financial affairs; in short, all aspects of\neconomic and social life of the Member States.\u201d<\/p>

In the call for mutuality, the\nSecretary General of the Mano River Union, Her Excellency Madam Medina Wesseh\nis pushing for a more functional role for the Union through rapid expansion of\nits project delivery and impact assessment and to raise awareness of the future\nscope for the Union to act as a first line platform for dealing with\nintegration issues and for the effective management of cross border incidences.\nA former Senior Executive Assistant to the Liberian President, Madam Wesseh has\nbeen involved in strategic decisions at the highest level of Government in\nLiberia. With her previous experience in USAID Programme Management and\ncoordinator of the Women\u2019s Consultative Group of Liberia, she comes to the post\nwith practical experience of building sustainable structures for community\ndevelopment and for dealing with pro-poor issues of disadvantage and exclusion\nparticularly with respect to engaging women and girls in mainstream economic\nactivities. Her call for mutuality is therefore focused on building the\nmechanisms that would make the Mano River Union\u2019s current mandate more\nfunctional and reflective of the aspirations of the political leadership and\ncommitment of the Heads of States and Governments towards its functioning as a\nUnion for economic integration and development.<\/p>

A central role of the Union is \u201cto\nmaintain the initiation of dialogue at all levels between its Member States for\nthe purpose of achieving greater unity and solidarity, and promoting goodwill,\nneighboring cooperation and peaceful co-existence among its peoples, promoting\npeace, security, democratic principles and the popular participation of\ncitizens in the pursuit of good governance.\u201d<\/p>

The principal concern of the Union as\nregards the context of mutuality is the interdependencies that exist especially\nat cross border locations. The potential for arguments over territory,\npastoralist impedance or water resource management are common grounds for\nmisunderstanding and long serving grievances that often lead to inter-state war\nand conflict. It is also significant that while the four countries of the Mano\nRiver Union have engaged in civil conflict over the years, the experience has\nbeen for a more open border arrangement with combatants freely taking refuge in\nneighboring countries thus heightening the potential for inter-state\nengagements. It is also the case that the recent Ebola Virus Disease that\nengulfed Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea easily spread across the borders of\nthese three countries quite swiftly because of the inter-connectedness of the\npeoples in the confluence region where it all started.<\/p>

The call for mutuality is therefore\ncognizant of the relationships that have existed between the peoples of these\nthree countries that started the Union and in recognition of the expanded\nnature of local conflict and social dispensations; the case for Cote D\u2019ivoire\u2019s\nascension to the Union became well established. There is even more a renewed\ninterest in enhancing the integrationist aspect of the Union by way of\nestablishing a robust framework for peace and security so that the overall\ninternational dynamic of conflict management can be better addressed. A joint\nor mutual peace accord is known to be beneficial to the security interests of\neach country and for establishing a common understanding around constraining\ninternal conflicts from spreading from one country to another. There is also\nthe issue of managing and controlling the spread of diseases and to establish\nearly warning systems to monitor and provide rapid response to incidents such\nas the epidemic caused by the Ebola Virus Disease. Given the perceived cross\nborder implications for serious public health concerns, a project to address\nHIV\/AIDS\/STI was funded by the AfDB in 2004. The results attained as compiled\nin the final programme report and the impact study conducted has been assessed\nby the AfDB to be one of the few sub-regional success stories. Beneficiary\ncommunities desired a continuation of the support as well as extension of its\ncoverage. Such programs that offer scope for mutuality are the very essence of\nthis new call for closer integration.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Economic integration institutions are very highly dependent on political will and the sanguine nature of cross border relationships.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3802,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-activites","category-non-classe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mru.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mru.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mru.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mru.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mru.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mru.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mru.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mru.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mru.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mru.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}