The project to strengthen the early warning and response capacities of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB), has entered its active phase. This was marked by a retreat that began on Monday, 10^th of November 2025, at Zuma Rock in Niger State, Nigeria.

The overall objective of the project is to strengthen ECOWAS’ early warning capacity to detect, anticipate and prevent human security crises in West Africa, thereby contributing to peace, stability, investment and development at the regional level. Specifically, the project aims to make prevention a guiding principle of early warning and crisis response approaches, to integrate gender and climate change aspects into the early warning system for a more comprehensive approach, and to increase the West African region’s capacity to withstand climate shocks and other factors of fragility.

At a cost of two million seven hundred thousand (2,700,000) US dollars, the project will be implemented over two (2) years by the ECOWAS Commission’s Early Warning Directorate, in accordance with the project agreement signed between the latter and the AfDB in May 2024. The project is led by a Management Unit composed of procurement officers, accountants, a communications officer, a monitoring and evaluation specialist, consultants and resource persons. This unit is coordinated by Komi Koko Bossou, ECOWARN System Administrator at the ECOWAS Commission’s Early Warning Directorate.

The project essentially has three components: assessments of country resilience and human security; strengthening the ECOWAS early warning network by modernising its data collection infrastructure, its analytical capabilities and its interoperability with artificial intelligence tools; and capacity building for analysts.

The project also provides for contextual risk assessments and conflict sensitivity analyses in ECOWAS member states, with a view to strengthening prevention and resilience in AfDB operations. These assessments will need to incorporate gender-sensitive indicators, identify structural vulnerabilities and support conflict prevention strategies through data-driven analysis.

During the four-day retreat, the Project Management Unit team and Early Warning Directorate staff will update the overall work plan, timetable and project components, and refine the communication strategy to ensure greater visibility for activities.

They will also update the procurement plan and agree on the monitoring and evaluation framework to ensure the project’s complete success. The terms of reference for activities not yet started will also be developed during the retreat.

At the opening of the retreat, the Director of Early Warning at the ECOWAS Commission, Dr Onyinye Onwuka, called on the members of the Management Unit to work towards the success of the project.