Human security experts from ECOWAS Member States meet in Lome to review 10 years of the national early warning and response mechanism in west Africa.
04 Jun, 2025“Drawing lessons from ten (10) years of implementation of the National Early Warning and Early Response Mechanism in ECOWAS Member States, with a view to defining new objectives for the coming years”. This is the objective of the ECOWAS Symposium on Human Security and National Early Warning and Response Mechanisms in West Africa, which opened on Monday 2nd of June, 2025 in Lomé, the capital of the Togolese Republic. The meeting, which is being held from 02 to 04 June 2025 as part of the celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), was officially launched by H.E. Ambassador Calixte Batossie MADJOULBA, Minister for Security and Civil Protection of the Togolese Republic, and H.E. Mrs Damtien TCHINTCHIBIDJA, Vice-President of the ECOWAS Commission.
The opening ceremony of the symposium was attended by the ECOWAS Special Envoy for Counter -Terrorism, the ECOWAS Resident Representative in Togo, the Acting Director and staff of the ECOWAS Commission, including Early Warning Directorate, Strategic Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Finance and Communication as well as the Directors and Representatives of the National Early Warning Centres of the Member States, UNOWAS, WANEP and the Directorates in charge of security issues in the Togolese Republic.
In her welcome address, Dr Onyinye ONWUKA, Acting Director of the ECOWAS Early Warning System, outlined the workings of the ECOWAS Early Warning System, which was established under the Revised Treaty of 1993 and the Protocol of 1999, and which now has eight operational centres in the Member States, with a further four in the process of being set up. “Through the ECOWARN report, our field observers diligently collect data on 55 pre-defined regional peace and security indicators and 42 event types. Our analytical framework covers five critical sectors: governance and human rights, security and former violent extremism, crime, health and environment, she added.
The Vice-President and the Head of the Early Warning Directorate, H.E Damtien TCHINTCHIBIDJA, expressed, the deep gratitude of the ECOWAS Commission to His Excellency Mr. Faure Essozimna GNASSINGBE, President of the Council, to the Government and to the people of the Togolese Republic, for their hospitality and their constant commitment to the service of regional integration.
Mrs TCHINTCHIBIDJA reviewed the main achievements of the ECOWAS Early Warning System, in particular the systematic collaboration with civil society organisations, the integration of a Geographic Information System (GIS) and the gender dimension. She noted that the Lomé symposium provides an opportunity to assess the progress made by the national centres, to propose strategies to reinforce the achievements and correct the mistakes, and to define a roadmap for the coming years”.
In officially opening the symposium, H.E. Ambassador Ca-lixte Batossie MADJOULBA, Minister for Security and Civil Protection of the Togolese Republic, stressed that “early warning is not just a technical device, it is above all a promise, the promise of never again being caught unawares by violence or disaster, the promise of saving lives by acting in time…. We need to build an ECOWAS capable of anticipating and responding effectively to crises, as a complement to economic integration. Together, let us reaffirm our ambition for a West Africa that is peaceful, united and looking to a better future.”
Over the course of the 3-day symposium, experts from the ECOWAS Commission and Member States will take stock of the implementation of the Early Warning and Early Response Mechanism, examine the legal instruments and regulations to formulate recommendations for its improvement, and finally determine new thresholds and objectives for the next 10 years, taking into account the current socio-political, security and human context in West Africa.
