About 15 Journalists from the West African sub Region met in Accra over the weekend to prepare for a High Level Meeting of the ECOWAS Community Development Programme (CDP) to be held later this year in Cote D' Ivoire.

The Journalists are expected to support the formulation process of the ECOWAS Community Development Programme by making citizens within the ECOWAS sub-region to own the Community Development Programme.

Dr Guevera Yao, Coordinator of the ECOWAS CDP, at a closing ceremony, said the ECOWAS Commission has started preparation to organize a High Level Regional Conference on internal resource mobilization followed by a donor's roundtable.

He said communication activities have been identified as one key ingredient for the success of the two activities, hence the development of a communication plan by the Journalists to be submitted for further review.

Mr Bonaventure Adjavor, Deputy Director at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, who chaired the meeting, said ECOWAS would celebrate its 40th anniversary this year and there was the need for the media to highlight some of the achievements as well as the challenges of the sub-region.

The ECOWAS Community Development Programme was formed in May 2008 with an emphasis on participatory and inclusive approach of all ECOWAS Citizens, thus working to change the ECOWAS from an ECOWAS where heads of state meet to take decisions to an ECOWAS where citizens are prominently involved in decision making.