The network of Peasant organizations and Producers in West Africa (ROPPA) was officially founded on July 2000 during a meeting in Cotonou that gathered about a hundred farmers¡¦ representatives appointed by their respective organizations. The network gathers organizations or ¡§consensus executives¡¨ coming from 10 West African countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, the Ivory Coast, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo). This group is not closed, and the middle course ambition is to host farmer organizations from all the ECOWAS countries, that represent the real West Africa.

The social-economic context that determines the family farmers and organizations activities has been characterized since 1998 by three major elements that have motivated and mobilized a lot of farmer leaders from West Africa to create and make the ROPPA work.

Visit: http://www.roppa.info

Members of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (also known by its French acronym, UEMOA) are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. UEMOA member countries are working toward greater regional integration with unified external tariffs.

UEMOA has established a common accounting system, periodic reviews of member countries' macroeconomic policies based on convergence criteria, a regional stock exchange, and the legal and regulatory framework for a regional banking system.

Visit: http://www.uemoa.int

The Permanent Inter States Committee to combat drought in the Sahel (CILSS) was created on 12 September 1973, following major drought which struck the Sahel in the 1970s.

CILSS consists today of nine States including 4 coastal States: (Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, Senegal), 4 landlocked States: (Burkina Faso;) Mali; Niger; (Chad); 1 Island State: (Cape Verde). 

Visit: http://www.cilss.bf/

The Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS) is a regional group of fifteen countries, founded in 1975. Its mission is to promote economic integration in "all fields of
economic activity, particularly industry, transport, telecommunications, energy, agriculture, natural resources, commerce, monetary and financial questions, social and cultural matters ....."

The Institutions of the Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS) are as follows:

• The Commission
• The Community Parliament
• The Community Court OF Justice
• ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID)

The ECOWAS Commission and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development, more often called The Fund are its two main institutions designed to implement policies, pursue a number of programmes and carry out development projects in Member States. Such projects include intra-community road construction and telecommunications; and agricultural, energy and water resources development.

Visit: http://www.ecowas.int/

INTRODUCTION  

The Secretariat of the Mano River Union was set up to provide the necessary capacity to assist member States integrate their economies and coordinate development programmes in peace building as a pre-requisite for the reconstruction and developments of the economies of the four member States.

The Union’s Headquarter is in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and has its country offices in Monrovia-Liberia, Conakry-Guinea, and Abidjan-Côte d’Ivoire. 

Historical Background

The Mano River Union was established on 3 October 1973 by a Declaration signed by Presidents Siaka P. Stevens of Sierra Leone and William Tolbert, Jr of Liberia in Malema (Pujehun District, Sierra Leone). The then People’s Revolutionary Republic of Guinea subsequently joined the Union by signing a Treaty of Accession on 25 October 1980, thus transforming it into a three-country instrument of multi-lateral cooperation for sustainable development with the accession of Guinea to full membership, the Union became a bilingual sub-regional organisation, with English and French as the official languages. At the Heads of State Summit of the Mano River Union held in Monrovia on 15 May 2008, the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire formally joined the Mano River Union. 

MRU had, in the past, been instrumental in accelerating and managing a process for economic integration amongst the MRU Member States. It helped in boosting intra-union trade through the removal of trade tariff barriers and facilitated the harmonisation of national policies, enhancing productivity in agriculture, industry, energy and the development of infrastructure, such as the construction of the Mano River Bridge, a vital link between Liberia and Sierra Leone. The Union was only a month away from launching Air Mano when war broke out in Liberia in 1990.

Visit: http://manoriveruniononline.org/index1.html