News:
November 15, 2020
Speaker of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament, Rt. Honorable Sidie Mohamed Tunis on Saturday, November 14, 2020 arrived in Lome, the capital of the Republic of Togo ahead of the third delocalized meeting of the parliament.
The meeting is expected to span from Tuesday, November 17 to Saturday, November 21, 2020, where five standing joint committees on, Telecommunication and Information Technology, Education, Science and Culture, Political Affairs, Peace, Security and APRM, Infrastructures and Legal Affairs and Human Rights would bring together Community lawmakers to have discussions on ICT and Education in this era of coronavirus pandemic.
The theme for this meeting is: “ECOWAS in the Era of COVID-19 and beyond: Focusing on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to promote Distance Education and training in the ECOWAS Member States”.
On his arrival at the Etienne Eyadema Gnassingbe International Airport in Lome, Speaker Tunis at a press briefing noted that his delegation is in Togo to chart the way forward on how ICT can be used during the pandemic to sustain the educational sector in the ECOWAS region. He stated that the coming days would bring together experts in ICT to develop meaningful recommendations that would help the West African sub-regional in its future event, of any pandemic.
“As representatives of the people of the community, we will ensure that the outcome document of this session is fully implemented,” the ECOWAS Parliament Speaker assured.
Meanwhile, the third committee meeting follows two (2) other committee meetings which were all held in this November 2020.
It would be recalled that earlier this month, ECOWAS Parliament under the direct leadership of the Speaker, from November 3 to7, 2020 held a joint committee meeting in Cotonou, Benin to discuss; “Africa Continental Free Trade Area, how feasible in the face of cross-border threats: Terrorism and Insecurity, Pandemics, Protectionalism”.
Furthermore, the meeting in Cotonou was followed by another joint committee meeting in Bissau, Republic of Guinea Bissau, also under the direct supervision of the ECOWAS Parliament Speaker with the theme “ECOWAS Food Security; Agricultural Production and the fight against COVID 19”.
As a result, several educational institutions turned to modern ICT platforms in the form of videoconference to enhance dissemination of very vital information and also organised teachings without physical contacts.
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com