ECOWAS SIGNS PACT ON PEACE AND SECURITY

IN an apparent move to be on top of the security challenges in the sub-region, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) as well as a Project Implementation Agreement (PIA) with about 10 training institutions. The institutions are peace and security bodies recommended by sub-regional experts for upgraded collaboration as part of efforts to strengthen their capacities to meet the security demands of the area. In this regard, the ECOWAS Commission said Wednesday in Abuja that a key objective of the MoU is “to strengthen the training pillars of the ECOWAS Standby Force (ESF), ECOWAS institutions, Member States and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) for the prevention and resolution of conflicts in the region, and to develop a full range of training at all levels, cutting across a broad spectrum including military, police, civilian and humanitarian issues” It explains further that the move is in tandem with the regional Peace Support Operations (PSO) concepts and the need for effective capacity building, particularly with reference to the recommendation of the fourth Defence and Security Commission meeting which held in Cote d’Ivoire in August last year and called for the establishment of “Tactical, Operational and Strategic training facilities within the region” According to the document embodying the MoU released yesterday by the ECOWAS Commission, the training institutions are to operate as regional PSO training for the strengthening of the ESF training pillars with support from ECOWAS in their staffing, curriculum development and any other areas as needed. They are also mandated to develop their curriculum on PSO in consultation with ECOWAS, taking into account the National, ECOWAS and African Union (AU) priority training needs regarding the ASF. Furthermore, it was agreed that where appropriate, ECOWAS “shall provide technical inputs into the development of the curriculum in response to regional needs, consistent with the Standardised Training Modules (STM) developed by the United Nations Department for Peacekeeping Operations (UNDPKO) Integrated Training Service.” The Project Implementation Agreement (PIA), on the other hand, takes into cognisance relevant provisions of the Regional Protocol on Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution, Peacekeeping and Security, as well as the Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance relating to the role of the Armed Forces, police and the security forces in the democracy within the region. The purpose of the PIA it was explained yesterday is to set out the modalities for the relationship between ECOWAS and the Training Institutions with respect to the implementation, by the latter, of the European Union support to selected West Africa Training Institution Project, which aims to develop the capacities of the stakeholders on peace and security matters. The EU supported project to the training institutions falls within the Africa Peace Facility under the 10th European Development Fund. The project is being coordinated by the ECOWAS Peace Fund. < Prev Next >