Technical Consultation to Boost African Union Commission and ECOWAS Commission Coordination and Partnership for Peace

Abuja, Nigeria, 27 February 2024: The Political Affairs, Peace and Security Departments of both the African Union Commission (AUC) and the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) held a technical consultation meeting from 26 to 27 February 2024 in Abuja, Nigeria, to scale-up institutional cooperation, coordination and partnership towards advancing good governance, peace, security and stability in the West African region and consequently across the continent.

The meeting was premised on the 2008 memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the African Union (AU) and the regional economic communities and mechanisms (RECs/RMs) and sought to strengthen collaboration between the AUC and the ECOWAS Commission. Participants agreed to foster strategic coordination and collaboration between the two institutions in key areas towards harmonizing regional preventive diplomacy efforts; building synergies on regional early warning; enhancing the African Standby Force; collective response to democratic governance as well as the joint management of political transitions and external partners and actors in the region.

The first in a series of planned AU and RECs/RMs consultations to scale-up institutional partnership, delegates reflected on means of addressing the varied complex political and security challenges in the Sahel and broader West African region in line with the ECOWAS Vision 2050 and the African Union Agenda 2063.

The participants also agreed on the imperative to improve consultations between the Peace and Security Council (PSC) of the AU and the ECOWAS Mediation and Security Council (MSC).

Additionally, the consultation’s conclusions included developing coordination modalities to address the political transitions in the region, revitalizing annual consultations between the AU Continental Early Warning System and the ECOWAS Early Warning System, and working closely to support electoral processes and management. Finally, the consultations underlined the need to enhance synergy between the African Standby Force and the ECOWAS Standby Force, among others.

Alhaji Sarjoh Bah, Ph.D., Director of conflict Management at the AU PAPS Department and Dr. Cyriaque Agnekethom, Director of Peacekeeping and Regional Security at the ECOWAS PAPS, led the discussions on behalf of the AU and ECOWAS, respectively.