A five-man team from ECOWAS held a strategic meeting with the Tripartite Steering Committee Secretariat at its conference room on Thursday October 2, 2025, to follow up on the implementation of the Unity Agreement, including Resolution 3 dealing with the Cross-Party Committee on Electoral Systems and Management Bodies Review.
The team enquired about the status of the implementation of the Unity Agreement, and drew questions around the implementation of the tripartite recommendations.
ECOWAS, like the UN, Commonwealth, and the EU, was one of the moral guarantors in the Unity Agreement forged following the row after the 2023 elections.
The technical meeting will help ECOWAS evaluate its intervention and identify challenges to inform future support as regards building governance, strengthening the rule of law, and enhancing fundamental freedoms in Sierra Leone.
The review is critical for Sierra Leone, which holds the leadership of ECOWAS, since it continues to demonstrate commitment in refurbishing its electoral systems in a manner that promotes public accountability, enhances high performance standards, and integrates transparency mechanisms.
The ECOWAS delegation also enquired about knowledge on the ECOWAS Community Strategic Framework (CSF). The Strategic Planning department Director explained that they were also here to have discussions on the CSF which he said is a five-year plan, linked to the ECOWAS Vision 2050, that guides the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in addressing the region’s socio-economic, security, and integration challenges.
The CSF, he said, is built around five core pillars: Peace, Security, and Stability; Governance; Economic Integration; Sustainable Development; and Social Inclusion. By focusing on these pillars, the framework aims to foster regional progress, create a unified digital market, improve human well-being, and advance economic and social justice across West Africa.
The Coordinator for the Tripartite Secretariat said the government had implemented the Unity Agreement much more speedily. According to Ngolo Katta, political detainees had been released, public address had been delivered by the President, salaries of MPs and councilors who did not take up their seats following the 2023 political impasse had been paid, and the Tripartite Secretariat set up.
On the implementation of the tripartite recommendations, he said there had been 84 percent progress, commending electoral management bodies such as ECSL, PPRC, and ONS etc. for their collaboration with the Tripartite Secretariat in the implementation of the recommendations. The Public Sector Reform Unit (PSRU) had also done a fantastic job critical to the tripartite reforms. It conducted management and functional reviews on ECSL, SLBC, IMC, IPCB and PPRC aimed at institutionalizing best practices in the operation and administration of the said institutions.
Significant progress had also been recorded in the legal corridors as regards drafting legislations and amending the constitution as proposed by the tripartite recommendations and Constitutional review white paper.
The strategic meeting discussed the role of the Tripartite Secretariat as a peace mechanism and a governance architecture for reforming electoral management bodies and fostering public confidence in the operation of the said institutions in the country.
The ECOWAS delegation had been in Abuja and Accra reviewing the CSF interventions for the ECOWAS Vision 2050. They will hold a number of meetings with institutions dealing with governance, Peace, security and stability, Governance, Economic Integration, Sustainable Development and Social Inclusion issues.
