BREAKING NEWS, Security
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THE ECOWAS Commission has taken steps to improve its early warning system, EWS, through a strategic plan for effective linkage between early warning and prompt response, as well as the strengthening of capacity building of peace and security architecture in member states. Addressing participants at a one-day workshop in Abuja on June 3, Salamatu Hussaini Suleiman, ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security, who was represented by Ambassador Tunde Ajisomo, special representative of the President of the ECOWAS Commission in Liberia, said the development of the strategic plan had become imperative to make the regional early warning system more proactive. The improvement will also involve the establishment of a result-based management system.
Essien Abel Essien, director of ECOWAS Strategic Planning Directorate, highlighted the need for the strategic plan/framework to be realistic, implementable and periodically reviewed in order to monitor and evaluate its impact. To this end, he said the aim of the framework should be “to facilitate the creation of a peaceful region through efficient, effective integration of the early warning and response actions and the enhancement of local, national and regional capacities.”
In her opening remarks, Florence Iheme, acting director of the ECOWAS Early Warning Directorate, EWD, said an improved early warning system would lay the foundation for effective responses by ECOWAS in preventing and mitigating violent conflicts in the region. She stressed the need for the commission to build on the 2012 review supported by the German Agency for International Cooperation, GIZ, for the improvement of the regional early warning system and strategic linkage with response mechanisms. The acting director also emphasised the importance of framing a robust strategic plan with the support of the Strategic Planning Directorate and other relevant Directorates within the Commission, and the GIZ, for implementation over the next five years. This, she said, would help the Early Warning Directorate contribute to the attainment of ECOWAS vision 2020 for transformation from an ECOWAS of States to an ECOWAS of people.
Representatives of GIZ, the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, IPCR, West Africa Network for Peace building, WANEP, and ECOWAS Commission officials attended the workshop. The EWS is a regional peace and security system aimed at providing credible information in the prevention, management and resolution of conflicts.
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