Following the meetings conducted with the concerned Standards Harmonisation Technical Committees (THC1, THC2, THC3, THC8 and THC9) from February to April 2021, to validate and complement the list of standards to be harmonised, set up the necessary sub-committees, adopt plan of activities and define the modalities of technical assistance to be provided by the WACQIP, the WACQIP undertook the following activities:

1. Provision of the technical assistance: 08 Experts have been recruited (02 for Mango value chain, 02 for Cassava and derivatives and 04 for Textile & garments). These experts are providing, progressively, the 36 expected draft standards relating their domain. The WACQIP, in order to accelerate the provision of regional standards, is recruiting two experts (one francophone and one anglophone) to support the coordination of the standards harmonisation process.
2. Provision of IT equipment (Laptop, printer and internet connection) to NSBs of Benin, Cabo Verde, Senegal, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, and  to the secretariat of the TMC/ECOSHAM. The WACQIP is still awaiting the request from the remaining countries. As a reminder, these equipment’s will facilitate the preparation of the working document and the participation of the representative from the national standards bodies to regional meetings.
3. Launching of the digitalisation of the standards harmonisation process: a call for bid is being prepared to select a supplier of an IT tool for the standards harmonisation. The main objective is to reduce the costs of the process, to allow broad participation of the public and stakeholders and to have a traceability tool for the process and the documents.

At the end of this harmonisation process, the region will have 94 additional standards to support the competitiveness of the 04 selected regional value chains and a relevant working tool for the TMC/ECOSHAM and its technical committees.