The Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), in collaboration with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), began on Monday a three day workshop on "capacity building for emergency and humanitarian response", at the Jerma Beach Hotel in Kololi.

In his opening remarks, Dr Abdou Gueye, early warning system manager, on behalf of Colonel Yoro Kone, Director of early warning department (EWD) said, in the last few years, conflict prevention has become their corner stone for sustainable peace building in West Africa.

Dr Gueye recalled that, the process of operationalisation of the Ecowas early warning system is in accordance with Chapter IV of the protocol relating to the mechanism for conflict prevention, management, resolution, peace building and security. He added that, Ecowas early warning system is the first pillar of overall conflict prevention, and that, the Heads of States and government of the sub-region gave Ecowas the mandate to make the system fully functional.

"The first step in this process was to build a partnership with civil societies in the sub-region. The second step was to seek for funding partners and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the European Union (EU), African Development Bank (ADB), and African Union (AU) all supported the process in various ways", Dr Geuye revealed.

Dr Geuye described the workshop as a true transformation of their vision of an integrated early warning system and also a step to deepen their partnership base with UNHCR, as well as increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the early warning system. He thanked the government and the people of The Gambia and the authorities of Jerma Hotel especially, for providing the enabling environment and facilities conductive for the fruitful discussion and critical thinking on the future of peace in West Africa.

For her part, Naffie Barry, deputy permanent secretary at the Department of State for Trade, Industry and Employment, on behalf of The Gambia government, urged participants to apply critical thinking to ensure better understanding of crisis and emergencies in the sub-region and ways of improving humanitarian responses to these emergencies. She advised the participants to take the workshop seriously.

Major Lamin Jammeh on behalf of The Gambia Armed Forces, described the workshop as timely, and hope that participants will come up with fruitful recommendations at the end of the workshop.

Moussa Dabal, Head of Ecowas Mission in Banjul, chaired the opening ceremony.