G/SPS/GEN/2059  
 
13 October 2022 
(22-7711) Page: 1/3 
Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures  Original: English  
 
ECOWAS IMPLEMENTED SANITARY AND PHYTOSANITARY ACTIVITIES  
DURING THE PERIOD OF JULY  - OCTOBER  2022  
COMMUNICATION FROM ECOWAS -USAID SENIOR SANITARY  
AND PHYTOSANITARY (SPS) STANDARDS ADVIS OR 
The following communication, received on 8 October 2022, is being circulated at the request of the 
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).  
 
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1  INTRODUCTION  
1.1.  The USAID/West Africa Regional Mission, USDA, Food and Agriculture Organi zation Subregional 
Office for West Africa (FAOSFW) and Food and Agriculture Organization Resilience Office for 
West Africa and the Sahel (FAOREOWA) work to support the Economic Community of West African 
States  (ECOWAS) to advance their vision to create an economic union and common market. In line 
with this objective, ECOWAS is implementing many agreements designed to support the free 
movement of goods and people throughout the region. Since 2017, SPS -related actions have been 
implemented.  
1.2.  In view of improvi ng and strengthening SPS activities in the ECOWAS region, the following 
activities were implemented during the period of July – October 2022. It is to note that since 
March  2020, the COVID -19 pandemic that is still with us has impacted the smooth implement ation 
of SPS -related activities at national and regional levels. As such, most planned SPS -related activities 
were postponed till further notice. However, since countries have started lifting some of the travel 
restrictions, certain technical and capacity building activities were implemented at national and 
regional levels, following the COVID -19 protocols.  
2  PLANT HEALTH AND PLANT PROTECTION  
2.1  Continuation of training workshop on the "Use of the Harmonized Phytosanitary 
Inspection and Decision -Making Guide"  
2.1.  It is important to recall that this in -country training should be conducted in all 15 ECOWAS 
member States plus Chad and Mauritania. Following several coordination meetings, the plan has 
now been approved for the continuation of the training workshop on "The Use of the Harmonized 
Phytosanitary Inspection and Decision -Making Guide". This is an effort of USDA -FAS complemented  
by USAID West Africa Office dedicated to support West Africa NPPOs Taskforce to disseminate the 
harmonized Guide  in order to promote best practices in the conduct of plant quarantine operations 
in the sub -region. Training was conducted in Lome, Togo from 27 -30 September 2022, bri nging the 
total number of trained phytosanitary inspectors to 213 for the entire region.  The key sessions were 
about : 
− presentations and discussions on the provisions of the Guide related to phytosanitary 
inspection procedures for import and export;  
− presentations of ISPMs 05, 07, 11, 12, 23, 31 and 32; 
− exercises with practical demonstrations o f inspection, sampling, pest detection and 
identification and decision -making ; and  
− field visit to the seaport  of Lome.  G/SPS/GEN/2059  
 
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  2.2.  Also, i t is important to recall the program me aims at: 
− training in the countries, plant quarantine inspectors on a better understanding for further 
use of the Guide;  
− simulati on exercises with practical demonstrations of phytosanitary inspection including 
pest detection and identification at the laboratory;  
− testing  the applicability of t he Guide.  
2.2  Regional training of technicians on data entry, analysis, and simulation for fruit fly 
management using the ECOWAS data wizard and decision support system (DSS), Accra, 
Ghana, 3 -7 October 2022  
2.3.  A regional training on the above specific technical a rea was organized by the ECOWAS 
Commission through its funding support from the Agence Française de D évelop pement  (AFD) and 
the European Union (EU) to build technical capacity at national and regional levels. Therefore, this 
regional training session was o rganized and brought together technicians from The Gambia and 
Ghana, Guinea Bissau , Liberia,  Niger  and Sierra Leone. This is in  line with the objective of the 
Regional Innovative Fruit Fly Control System in West Africa (SyRIMAO) project.  
3  FOOD SAFETY  
3.1  Organi zation of the 1st regional meeting for establishing an ECOWAS food safety 
regulatory convergence forum  
3.1.  As announced in the June 2022 report, t he first regional meeting for establishing an ECOWAS 
food safety regulatory convergence forum was implemented from 18 to 22 July 2022 in Abidjan, 
Côte d'Ivoire. Participants are Codex contact points, OIE focal points and other CVOs, National Plant 
Protection Organization s, WTO -SPS focal points, experts, private sector representatives, 
regional  organizations and pa rtners.  
3.2.  This regional food safety regulatory convergence forum aims  
− at enhancing, reaching optimum coordination of food safety measures among countries, to 
provide improved guidance and enhanced coordination for conformity assessments and 
food inspection r egimes ; 
− to achieve a high level of coordination with systematic prioritization of food standards 
development based on their amenability to being more easily harmonized at regional level, 
using a scientific rationale . 
3.3.  The food safety regulatory convergence agreed on the following priority sub -committees : 
− Contaminants;  
− Food additives;  
− Pesticides and residues of veterinary drugs;  
− Microbilogical criteria and food hygiene.  
3.4.  Further the regional convergence also agreed on an action plan that contains 38 activities 
spanning across the above priority sub -committees. Follow up actions on consultation  and 
engagement with partners are ongoing in order to mobilize resource s for its implementation . 
4  PARTICIPATION TO NATIONAL, REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL MEETINGS  
4.1  Sensitization and roadshow in Sanve -Condji (Togo) on good practices in road 
transport and cross -border trade (31 August to 3 September 2022)  
4.1.  Custom and Agriculture Directorates, ECOWAS Commission in collaboration with the West 
Africa Association for Cross -Border Trade in Agro -Forestry -Pastoral, Fisheries Products and Food 
(WACTAF) organized a roadshow with the objective to raise awareness of the authorities and the 
various stakeholders (mainly private actors) of cross -border trade in order to reduce or elimi nate 
obstacles/harassments to trade in agro -pastoral products. Participants were traders, exporters, 
transporters, government of Togo officials, representatives of WACTAF, representatives of national G/SPS/GEN/2059  
 
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  transport facilitation, representative of CILSS, Represe ntative of ECOWAS, police officers, customs 
officers, military, immigration officers. Among other things were  discussed : 
− good practices to facilitate cross -border trade in term of conformity to the transport 
logistics, documents, sanitary and phytosanitary  (SPS) measures including:  
o mandatory documents to have (which an inspector must examine to verify the identity 
and integrity of the goods ): 
▪ phytosanitary certificate/veterinary certificate;  
▪ customs declaration;  
▪ identity of the goods (nature, packaging)  ; 
▪ quantities;  
▪ exporter (Name, ID, Full address);  
o means of transport and the people on board must have their up -to-date documents;  
o consignment verification: inspect for identity to ensure that the consignment is 
accurately described by its documents;  
o integrit y check to verify if the consignment, quantity and status is as declared in the 
phytosanitary certificate received or to be issued;  
o conduct physical examination of the consignment to confirm the identity and integrity;  
o noting that the phytosanitary certifi cate or veterinary certificate is the priority 
document needed to facilitate the entire process for documents check to facilitate cross -
border trade . 
4.2  Participation in the first International Plant Health Conference and Technical 
Committee of Regional Plant Protection Organization, London, U nited Kingdom , 
20-24 September  2022  
4.2.  During this week we participated in these meetings as indicated above. During the discussion 
at the Technical Committee meeting of the Regional Plant Protection Organization ,  ECOWAS 's 
request to IPPC to be recognized as the 11th Regional Plant Protection organization (RPPO) of the 
IPPC (granted to be recognized as the 11th RPPO of IPPC) was also highlighted. Follow up actions 
and consultations are being implemented to make progress on this regional agenda.  
5  GENERAL CONCLUSION AND WAY FORWARD  
5.1.  The ECOWAS Comm ission takes this opportunity to thank all partners for their continuing 
support in advancing SPS -related issues in the ECOWAS and Sahel sub -region, and to call for more 
collaboration, technical assistance and support for future implementation.  
 
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