A high powered delegation, comprising members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Mediation and Security Council at Ambassadorial Level, ECOWAS Parliamentarians and Resident Representatives of the President of the ECOWAS Commission in Member States, received high-level training at the Clingendael Institute, The Hague, Netherlands while also sharing valuable experiences, towards strengthening the capacity of ECOWAS Institutions in dialogue, negotiation and mediation.
The 5-day program which began on the 27th of March 2023, aimed to enhance synergy and sharpen negotiation as well as regional conflict resolution capacity of the High-Level delegation to deal with the growing peace and security challenges in the region.
Beyond providing a compact understanding of negotiation and mediation concepts, tools and skills, the program offered the delegation a rare opportunity for collective reflections, experience-sharing and in-depth analysis on previous and ongoing ECOWAS’ peace-making efforts against the backdrop of the Four by Four Strategic Objective of the current ECOWAS Management.
Participants at the brainstorming sessions also identified gaps and the lessons learnt and thereafter made recommendations for improved future interventions in ECOWAS peace-making efforts.
The program at the renowned International Relations Institute was organized within the framework of the long-standing partnership between the ECOWAS Department for Political Affairs, Peace and Security and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, under the ‘‘Clingendael Peace Negotiation Programme’’ which began in 2015.
