<<Print>>

Mr. Essien Abel Essien, Director of Strategic Planning at the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission says it is important to focus on the positive aspects of regional integration, while putting in measures to mitigate the threats that accompany it.

Speaking in an interview with the GNA on the threat of terrorism in the West African sub-region and how the sub-regional body was dealing with it, he said that addressing threats to security was about minimizing the threats by putting in appropriate measures.

Mr Essien was also a participant of a three-day meeting of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and other professional bodies under the umbrella of the West Africa Civil Society Forum (WACSOF) on the ‘ECOWAS Community Strategic Framework’.

The need for concrete measures to address terrorism and security in the sub-region is ever more pertinent in light of recent global terrorism attacks including attacks in Burkina Faso, Mali, Ivory Coast and Nigeria, and in light of ECOWAS’ quest to achieve a borderless sub-region with free movement of people and goods.

Mr. Essien noted that ECOWAS recognized the potential threats that came with the move towards a borderless sub-region, explaining that the main focus of a borderless region was to promote trade integration, a labour market integration and ensuring that goods and services can move across the country boundaries unimpeded.

“Yes, this could also bring in some security threats but I think it is better to look at the positives and also note and design strategies to mitigate the negatives. So the emphasis is not going to be the threat that it brings, but on the economic development that will come at the end of the day,” he said.

He added that theoretically, economic development would minimize security threats as countries in regional integration come together to minimize wars and threats.

Mr. Essien said the ECOWAS Conflict Prevention Framework was the strategic document that outlined measure for mitigating the threats.

Nana Asantewaa Afadzinu, Executive Director of the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI) said the Community Strategic Framework (CSF) was the successor to the Regional Action Plan instituted from 2011 to 2015 which set out how to work to implement the ECOWAS’ vision 2020.

She noted that the CSOs meeting was a more deliberate effort on the part of ECOWAS to get civil society inputs into the design of the framework. Participants will not only look at what had been done so far but how it can be made practical.

She stated that while ECOWAS had excellent normative frameworks, such as the Conflict Prevention Framework, applying it to the average citizen such as the trader who had to cross borders to purchase their wares, was a major problem.

“One of the major strategies to use in addressing the issue of security is looking at community awareness and mobilisation. People have to be involved; the citizens have to be involved because we are talking about human security,” she stated, explaining that if the people did not know about the issues, addressing it will not happen.

Ms. Afadzinu said the meeting will identify the challenges and the practical things that could be done, how to engage government as well citizens, making them a key part of implementing and achieving the objectives of ECOWAS Vision 2020.

The objectives is to achieve a borderless, peaceful, prosperous and cohesive West Africa by the year 2020. The process of developing the CSF is expected to be completed by June 2016.