On 5th and 6th December 2018, the NEPAD agency co-organized “Knowledge Sharing Workshop on how to make OSBPs Operational as an instrument of trade facilitation in the West and Central African Regions” in Accra, Ghana with the Government of Ghana, JICA, ECOWAS, ECCAS and UEMOA targeted on West and Central Africa.

The aim of the workshop was:

1. Improve knowledge on the 2nd edition of the OSBP Sourcebook.
2. Update and share experiences of OSBP development in the West and Central Africa regions and the enhancement of South-South Cooperation through learning lessons from the East and Southern Africa regions.
3. Identify challenges of nonoperational OSBPs in the West and Central Africa regions and necessary action to take for each stakeholder.

In 2011, the 1st edition of the One Stop Border Post (OSBP) Sourcebook was published to support policymakers and implementers to develop and operationalize OSBPs. While the 1st edition of the OSBP Sourcebook proved to be a unique and useful tool, there was a need to update this reference so that policymakers and implementers can learn from current knowledge, experience, and good practices. The Infrastructure Consortium for Africa (ICA), hosted by African Development Bank together with the NEPAD Agency initiated this project in January 2015 with the financial support from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The 2nd edition of the OSBP Sourcebook was published in May 2016 and the NEPAD agency is now taking the lead in promoting this Sourcebook and support RECs, member states and other key stakeholders for OSBP development on the continent. In cooperation with RECs colleagues, the Agency is aiming to establish an OSBP practitioner’s network to learn from each other as well as to regularly update the Sourcebook. In this regard, the RECs under the leadership of AUC and NEPAD agency are leading this process by having organized knowledge sharing workshops in East and Southern Africa already, now it is a time for West and Central Africa.

Since OSBPs play significant role in regional corridor development and trade facilitation both regionally and inter-regionally, participants of the seminar learnt from more advanced regions in terms of development of OSBPs, in the spirit of South-South Cooperation, which is corresponding to a founding philosophy of the NEPAD agency.