Constituency Building for Competition Reforms in West Africa

CUTS International organised an international conference on 6th–7th August 2010 in Dakar, Senegal to mark the culmination of the project entitled, ‘Strengthening Constituencies for Effective Competition Regimes in Select West African Countries’ (7Up4 Project, www.cuts-ccier.org/7up4). A purpose of this conference was to showcase the project findings, and trace the path for competition reforms in the countries/region. A number of renowned competition experts from across the world would provide their inputs for evolving effective competition regimes in the region.

Since June 2008, CUTS has been implementing the 7Up4 project in seven ECOWAS member states, viz. Burkina Faso, The Gambia, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo with the support of DfID, UK; IDRC, Canada and Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Sweden. Through this trilateral development cooperation project CUTS has been able to raise awareness on the benefits from an effective competition regime and highlighting the need for competition reforms to be included as a national development priority for achieving economic development and consumer welfare goals.