|
 Background
All of the analyses regarding obstacles to development clearly stress governance as an important issue and fundamental lever for peace and development. Due to lack of political will, some of the regional governance and conflict prevention instruments have not yet been ratified and remain relatively obscure to the general public.
The ECOWAS/SWAC Dakar workshop aimed at promoting and facilitating the implementation of regional governance and conflict prevention instruments. Drawing on outcomes of group discussions, participants drafted an Action Plan aiming to support the dissemination of these regional instruments and to develop synergies between state and non-state actors at the national, regional and international levels within a regional programme.
This draft action plan has been further developed with inputs from ECOWAS, the SWAC, the Women’s Group and the Youth Co-ordination Group and will be presented for approval at the Accra workshop.
Objectives
The Workshop's aim was to validate the Saly Action Plan and define the precise modalities of its implementation:
-
Define priority actions for 2009-2010;
-
Identify focal points in each country in order to set up national platforms;
-
Define the implementation and financing modalities of the national platforms;
-
Define the responsabilities of partners and the concrete modalities of their involvement
-
Set up a monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to keep track on progress made in the implementation of the Saly Action Plan.
Key Areas of the Saly Action Plan
The proposed draft action plan is built around five key areas:
Target Audience
The initiatives undertaken within the framework of the Action Plan will be aimed at:
-
Civil society, women’s and youth organisations who are evermore excluded from decision-making;
-
Children within the framework of civic education;
-
Political party members and national parliamentarians to enhance their involvement in this process;
-
The media to facilitate the dissemination of knowledge through radio and TV programmes;
-
Traditional and religious chiefs as opinion leaders and multiplicators, in particular in rural areas;
-
Military and security forces to raise awareness on human rights and democratic principles.
Co-ordination and Implementation
To implement this ambitious Action Plan, participants decided to build national and sub-regional platforms connecting civil society organisations, government representatives in charge of peace and security issues and national parliamentarians. The sub-regional ECOWAS offices will also take part in this process:
-
Group 1: Mano River zone: Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone
-
Group 2: Senegambia zone: Cape Verde, Gambia, Guinea Bissau and Senegal
-
Group 3: Gulf of Guinea zone: Benin, Ghana, Nigeria and Togo
-
Group 4: Sahelian zone: Burkina Faso Mali, Niger and Mauritania
The Action Plan will be co-ordinated by a Steering Committee composed of ECOWAS and the SWAC.
Participants
The workshop brought together some 45 participants from 12 West African countries; some of them were already involved in the Dakar-Saly workshop. It benefited from the support of the West African Women's Group and the Youth Co-ordination Group. Representatives from locally based development agencies were also involved.The Ghanaian government sent various representatives (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs, etc.) who participated in all of the works. Togo was represented by its Ambassador to Accra; the Embassy of Burkina Faso was equally represented. Also participating in the work in Accra were representatives of regional organisations (CELHTO/AU), sub-regional networks (FOSCOA, WANEP, REPAOC) and Accra-based development partners (Canada-CIDA, France, Germany-GTZ, Swiss, United States-USAID).
Partners
The Workshop was financially supported by the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs and the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
|
