The Social Dimension of Regional Integration in ECOWAS

extortion at border posts” 58 and there are still many security check points set up along
international roads. Ultimately, difficulties facing cross-border and immigrant workers are
greater than those experienced by nationals. Such hindrances are among several reasons
why cooperation and integration in labour mobility has not been fully achieved in West
Africa. The ARIA report adds that insufficient political commitment and resources,
linguistic barriers, lack of expertise, uneven compliance with Community obligations and
persistent economic crises along with high unemployment in many of the countries are
further obstacles to the free movement of labour, exacerbated by high population growth
which strains resources for educational development and social assistance
(ECA 2004: 200).
For its part, the ILO recently completed a technical cooperation project on labour
migration in West Africa which was launched to investigate migration as a key to
promoting economic development within the context of regional integration. 59 As
recognized by the ECOWAS Secretariat itself, the project addressed the fact that barriers
continue to exist to the free movement of labour in the region despite joint regulatory
efforts to the contrary. The study further considered a host of persistent migration
challenges such as: the poor linkage between migration and development processes;
inadequate administrative and institutional capacity for effective migration policies and
management; the lack of protection for migrant workers; the poor quality of migration
statistics; as well as the loss of human capital through the emigration of highly skilled
workers.
While all of the foregoing obstacles need to be addressed in their own way, developing
common labour standards as well as complimentary and universal social security rules at
the Community level remains an important underlying strategy to protect workers who
move between Member States. 60 It similarly provides consistent ground rules for a
common labour market which ensure greater opportunities for skills, entrepreneurial knowhow,
technology and professional services to be exchanged between countries. However,
action on shared employment policies and social protection schemes has been slow to
develop in ECOWAS in spite of the commitment of the Revised Treaty to harmonize these
fields of law across the sub-region.
5.4 Social Protection
The range of different cross-border working scenarios within an integrated labour market
raises a number of issues. Among them is the concern that, since social security is a matter
of national competence, migrant workers risk being excluded from work-related benefits
unless appropriate legal guarantees are in place between regional partners. Mindful of this
risk to the security of migrant workers in West Africa and hoping to facilitate the flow of
58 ECOWAS Secretariat, online: .
59 The project took into account initiatives of both sub-regional bodies (ECOWAS and WAEMU)
although it primarily undertook a review of migration law and practice in WAEMU countries (a
region which has its own policy on the free movement of persons and the right of establishment). For
details of this ILO project and its documented findings see online:
.
60 The Protocols also guarantee the protection of workers who are expelled from a given country by,
among other things, stating that no expulsion may take place without ensuring that the migrant
worker’s fundamental rights have been respected (rights which incorporate by reference the ILO
Conventions on the protection of migrant worker). See ECOWAS Supplementary Protocol
A/SP/.1/7/86, Arts. 1 and 16.
20 Working paper No. 49