CO-NIGERIA OXFAM has over the years engaged with ECOWAS directly and indirectly via partners on a host of issues, in the just concluded Regional Strategy before the WAF platform moved into the OiA, the Strategy recognised that in the “region, there are thirty specialized regional economic integration and /or cooperation organizations operating around the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) and/or the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). In this context, harmonization of efforts must be undertaken in the fields of environmental and agricultural policies, taxation, and security issues management. It must be said that differences in methodology and perspectives can represent opportunities to put forward crucial change agendas by leveraging the comparative advantages specific to each of these organizations. It is worth noting that ECOWAS has initiated ambitious programs to transform the region. These include the ECOWAS of Peoples, the Regional Crisis Management Policy as well as the RegionalAgricultural Policy ECOWAS has also demonstrated a valuable influencing capacity at the African Union level that makes it a prime partner on regional and continental issues. At a sectoral level, a number of specialized institutions exist: the Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control, working on national food security policies and strategies, national action plans for desertification control and national domestic energystrategies, among others, and ARAA (Regional Agency for Agriculture and Food), responsible for the implementation of ECOWAP and applying a learning by doing strategy combining national, regional, and international organizations and institutions for the implementation of its actions. Oxfam works with the Media Foundation for West Africa for promotion and consolidation of Human Rights and pressfreedoms in the sub-region. They do this by developing advocacy actions targeting ECOWAS Commission and member states for implementation/enforcement of ECOWAS frameworks on human rights, gender, and good governance. They deliver these tasks by engaging and holding consultations with the leaders of ECOWAS Commission on enhancing compliance with frameworks on human rights. Policy briefs and papers are being developed for further engagement andfor generating learning for effective influencing.

1.2 Rationale
During the Country Mapping Review process around 2019, one of the proposals from OXFAM was to establish an Advocacy and Influencing Desk in strategic locations to work with and engage regional institutions like ECOWAS. The intention is that in moving ahead as influencing countries, there was an idea for Ghana, Nigeria, and Senegal to determine their value proposition as influencing offices so that there will be an agreement on how Oxfaminthe Region should and would engage with ECOWAS and other bodies in a coordinated fashion. With the coming into force of OiA and changes at the regional level, the momentum has gone down, yet different countries directly or through partners are engaging with ECOWAS at different levels.

Also, ECOWAS is strategically positioned to support in achieving this proposal for OXFAM as the commission’s activities mainly focus on political work with great decision-making power to facilitate meaningful and realizable programmes and policies for the entire community.

Secondly, the commission focuses on planning, implementing, and financing programmes which are developed in consultation with the member states and prepared based on studies conducted.

1.3 Influencing offices and regional value propositions.
In the Nigerian Operational Country Strategy (OCS), it is stated that Oxfam’s key contributions are to connect local to national, and regional to global. We are a connector, facilitator, and convenor. We willseek to connect our partners with regional institutions. Specifically, this will entail further our work with ECOWAS to establish an MoU with theCommission. This will help to structure the working relationship and create synergy in areas of inequality,gender, and agriculture/resilience building. Based on our expertise on local and national issues, we will continue to expand the body of knowledge on these chosen areas of expertise, connect adequately local to national, and endeavor to shift the terms of the debates at the State and Federal levels as well as the West African Region level.  With the seat of the ECOWAS being in Abuja/Nigeria, we will play a more effective role representing the rest of the Oxfam countries in West Africa on the table andconvening on big issues of inequality, gender,and poverty (resilience building, social protection). Oxfam will play the role Advocacy and Influencing Desk (AID) for the RegionalPlatform/Single Africa Entity, representing all the other WAF countries’ interests. Oxfam will use its relationship with ECOWAS to link up with the continental Pan African program on influencing and advocacy issues.