High-ranking officials of IGAD Member States convene today at Kampala’s Munyonyo common wealth resort to launch a regional strategy on conflict early warning and response. The meeting, that will be presided over by First Lady and Minister of Karamoja Affairs of the Republic of Uganda Hon. Janet Museveni, marks a significant commitment by Member States on early warning information-sharing, as well as joint policy and operational response to emerging threats of violent conflict.
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Uganda Hon. Sam Kutesa; the Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Eng. Mahboub Maalim; Permanent
Secretaries of Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia and Uganda, as well as IGAD's Committee of Ambassadors will also preside over the launch.
The proposed areas of cooperation in the strategy plan include prevention of land and border disputes as well as conflicts driven by natural resource competition; food insecurity; climate change; religious and ethnic identity; political processes and elections and devolution among others.
The strategy plan informs future operations of IGAD’s Conflict Early Warning and Response Mechanism (CEWARN) and entails fuller cooperation among member states on conflict prevention and mitigation, while building on the organization's previous focus on cross- border pastoral and related conflicts.
Speaking at the opening of the meeting H.E First Lady and Minister of Karamoja Affairs Hon. Janet Museveni said: since the nature of conflicts that the IGAD region is grappling with are fast evolving, it is imperative that Member States strengthen existing multi-lateral arrangements such as CEWARN to deal with a wide scope of national and trans-boundary security challenges.
The Executive secretary of IGAD Eng. Mahboub Maalim on his part said CEWARN continues to serve the region as a key component of IGAD’s peace and security programmes. He added with the launch of the post-2012 conflict early warning and response framework, CEWARN is better positioned to significantly contribute to the fulfillment of IGADs peace and security mandate and particularly the secretariat’s diplomatic and largely political-level interventions in Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution.
Today's public unveiling of the strategy framework is a milestone in a thorough seven-month consultative development process that involved state officials and an estimated 5,000 citizens, peace and development experts and local and national authorities.
The result, as reflected in the framework to be launched, has been a strong demand, from all quarters, for CEWARN to address a broader-spectrum of drivers of conflict such as natural resource competition; land; migration; IDPs and refugees; internal and international borders; climate; environment; ethnicity and religion; economic change; participation, and exclusion among others. According to CEWARN Director, Dr. Martin Kimani the framework’s implementation will be anchored on regional priorities while responding to some of the specific needs of Member States.
For more information, contact CEWARN PR and Communications officer
Ms. Tigist Hailu
Email:
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Tel: in Uganda + 256 782041153/ or +254 706421526, in Ethiopia 251 911 663514
or Ms. Emma .W. Tinka, Public Affairs Officer at the Uganda Media Centre, Office of The
president Email:
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/ btinka408@gmail.comTel: +256-414-237- 057/
+256-712 932-111
