PSQAO WAQSP

Program Background From 2001 to 2012 two important programs for the development of quality have been implemented. The first program (Program Quality WAEMU-PQ1) ran from 2001 to 2005 and concerned States members of WAEMU(Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo). The second program (Program Quality of West Africa-PQAO) has been implemented over the period from 2007 to 2012, and covered the 15 States members of ECOWAS(Benin, Burkina Faso, Cap-Vert, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Ghana, la Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, la Sierra Leone et le Togo), of which 8 are members of WAEMU, and Mauritania. These two programs have been funded by the European Community for a budget over total of EUR 21 million ( including 14.5 million for PQ1 and 16.5 million for the PQAO ), and technically executed by UNIDO. Generally, these previous programs enabled: - increasing awareness at all levels for quality, materialized through: the adoption of a regional policy of quality at the level of the Committee of ECOWAS and political qualities in some countries, taking texts on quality at the Committee of ECOWAS with the establishment of regional quality structures, taking texts for the quality development and implementation of national quality programs in some countries; - strengthening national and regional quality infrastructure through: the creation or strengthening of national bodies for standardization, metrology, certification or inspection, the amelioration of the jurisdiction of bodies of the conformity assessment ( of which 19 were able to be credited); - more enhanced engagement of the private sector in favor of quality, through : the establishment of quality approach in several companies ( including a certified thirty ), the training and qualification of national expertise to assist companies in their different quality approaches; Despite all the challenges remained important for inter alia the following reasons: • the majority of Member States has no national quality policy; • quality infrastructure in the region is not well established; • procedures for the development and application of technical regulations and standards are not always consistent with those recognized at the international level; • the technical regulations are not well developed and applied to protect the environment, health and safety and to control bad business practices; • testing laboratories, inspection bodies and certification bodies are generally not in accordance with relevant international standards; very few of them are accredited ( largely thanks to the previous quality programs ); • generally, these bodies of the conformity assessment are not accredited to the credibility of the issued certificates; • national systems of measurement in the region are not well developed, to ensure the accuracy and reliability of measurements in trade, industry, science and technology; accreditation of laboratories for testing, inspection and certification bodies remains a major challenge, because there is no functional accreditation bodies in the region. In addition the costs of interventions by foreign accreditation bodies that provide accreditation services in the region are prohibitive. This justify the relevance of a greater attention to the communication of the program side. The program is well supported, well framed and has produced significant results. Unfortunately, those were not enough visible to help achieve the objective of the program and promote the intended impact. Overall objective of the program The overall objective of the program is to support the implementation of ECOWAS regional quality policy to "establish a framework for the development and exploitation appropriate, relevant, efficient and effective quality infrastructure to facilitate intra-regional and international trade, to protect consumers and the environment, and promote stable economic development." The specific objectives of the program The support program to the West Africa Quality System ( PSQAO ) includes four specific objectives: - Specific objective 1: Relevant stakeholders in the countries covered by the program use regional infrastructure of quality and harmonized legal framework - Specific objective 2: The private sector has access to harmonized standards to facilitate regional and international trade - Specific objective 3: Public and private sectors have access to an accredited program providers and competitive services to conformity assessment provided in the region - Specific objective 4: Consolidation of a strong quality culture at the level of private sector operators, program visibility. These goals help define the scope of implementation of the communication strategy: a communication regionally articulated in national activities and the changing international environment in the area.