The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has called on the private sector to invest in the peace and security sector within the region.
The Director, Humanitarian and Social Affairs, ECOWAS, Dr. Sintiki Ugbe, said at the weekend during the end of ECOWAS-EU PSS Project meeting that businesses will only thrive where there is peace and security as the sector is beyond law and enforcement.
Dr Ugbe therefore tasked the private sector to liaise with the regional and national governments to address challenges to peace and security in the region.
Recalling how the private sector rallied round the governments during the global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ugbe said: “We should leverage on the COVID-19 example and bring in the private sector and say if there is no peace and security whether nationally or regional, it will affect your business and so why don’t you also work with us wether it is ECOWAS or national government, or even the civil society to make the investment to ensure that there is security and peace in our region.
“I think that there are many areas we are looking at to ensure peace and security within our region. It is open for private sector to see where they can make added investment to make sure that communities are stabilised.
“For example, can you provide resources to strengthen resilience and recovery where there are areas that have been affected by climate change and people’s livelihood have been distorted. How do you intervene in ensuring that there is recovery for such community so that they are not drawn into conflict. That is an important investment.
“We shouldnt look at investment in ensuring security and stability not just in the area of law and enforcement alone. What we are saying is that we should broaden investment in law and security to address other issues that are very important to community citizen that can bring about stability within our region.
“There is an important role for the private sector in peace and security within our region. It is not something we should leave to government, it is not something we should leave to ECOWAS alone but you know it is something they can play an important role within the region.”
Meanwhile, at the end of the ECOWAS flagship peace and security project, which was supported by the European Union (EU) and other development partners, stakeholders called for the consolidation and sustainability of the project’s remarkable gains and support for successor programmes.
The Euro 29-million European Union Support to ECOWAS Regional Peace, Security and Stability Mandate Programme (ECOWAS-EU PSS Project), which was co-funded by the EU under its Regional Indicative Programme (RIP 10th EDF) and ECOWAS to the tune of €27 million and €2.33 million, respectively, recorded remarkable achievements both at the ECOWAS Commission and the member states levels.
“Apart from laying a solid foundation for its successor ECOWAS Peace and Security Architecture and Operations (EPSAO) programme, the PSS Project also built synergy with the African Union’s Peace and Security Architecture, member states and also provided linkages with other Regional Economic Communities (RECs),” Ugbe said.
Noting that the PSS Project had cut across various directorates, including political affairs; social affairs and gender; monitoring and evaluation, finance and human resources, peacekeeping and peace building, among others, she thanked the EU, UNDP, Lite Africa civil society organizations, especially the West Africa Network for Peace building (WANEP), and the media for supporting the successful implementation of the PSS project.
