Context
West Africa's peace and security landscape is shaped by political upheaval, extremism and inconstant governance. Since 2021, changes in military power have disrupted constitutional processes, weakened governance structures and strained regional cooperation. Extremism is spreading from the Sahel Zone into coastal states. Disinformation and organised crime are adding to the destabilisation of the region.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) promotes conflict prevention, reforms for good governance, and regional strategies to secure stability, resilience and economic integration.
Objective
West Africa is more stable, democratic and resilient due to ECOWAS’s effective response to regional challenges in close cooperation with member states and civil society.
Approach
The project focuses on three core areas:
1. Conflict prevention and management: The project works with the national coordination centres to improve the ECOWAS early warning and response systems. To this end, it is expanding the data in the ECOWARN system and the analysis of that data.
2. Supporting good governance for security and elections: The project offers training courses and advice for security officers, parliamentary committees and civil society to promote transparent security institutions. It also supports electoral bodies in implementing the recommendations on election-monitoring and with curbing disinformation.
3. Women, peace and security: The project increases the participation of women and young people in peace processes by involving civil society networks. At the same time, it expands the cooperation between ECOWAS and the training centres to strengthen the West African security architecture through training, research and dialogue.
GIZ is implementing the project together with organisations from France and Spain as part of a Team Europe approach.