Archives 2021

COMESA Secretariat working with the African Union Commission (AUC), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Regional Economic Communities have conducted a four-day training of trainers’ workshop for 12 countries on conflict prevention and peace building in the continent.

The workshop was conducted on 7 – 10 December in Nairobi, Kenya and focused on the AU’s Continental Early Warning System (CEWS) Africa Reporter Tool, the AU/COMESA Structural Vulnerability Assessments (SVAs), the COMESA Early Warning System (COMWARN) and the Country Structural Vulnerability and Resilience Assessment (CSVRA) methodology.

Twenty-four focal persons from Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Comoros, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, Angola, Mozambique, Seychelles, Madagascar, Zambia and Malawi attended the training. Representative from the Southern Africa Partnership for Prevention of Conflict (SAPPC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) also part participated.

At the training, representatives from the AU, COMESA and UNDP called for enhanced collaboration with the civil society as it is crucial in conflict prevention and peace building. Specifically, civil society have contacts on the ground who can be very useful in conflict early warning by monitoring the situation and thus anticipate the emergence of conflicts.

Besides, civil society organisations (CSOs) are strong in research and analysis, that can benefit state-level interventions by providing information and policy options. They are also known to build consensus around negotiations thus providing quality analysis which can go a long way towards the success of the talks.

COMESA Head of Governance, Peace and Security Ms Elizabeth Mutunga said the workshop was necessary to maximise effectiveness of all the potential partners.

“Our workshop is designed to equip civil society with the tools that exist in our organisations so that as they work with us, we can all reap the greatest synergies. Apart from the training, this will be a wonderful opportunity to share experiences and learn from each other.”

The COMESA Peace and Security (GPS) Programme have nurtured strategic partnership with the Civil Society in conflict prevention and peace building since the programme was established in 2000.

GPS has conducted a study on the root factors of conflicts in the subregion to inform COMESA’s entry point into peace and security matters in the region.  The study and consultations found that conflicts were very complex and exhibited dynamism that called for use of multifaceted approaches and the actions of a wide variety of stakeholders working together to address them. Specifically, the consultations identified an important role for civil society organisations in all aspects of conflict prevention and peace building.

The West Africa Network of Peacebuilders (WANEP) from the Regional Office in Accra, Ghana and the Nigeria Country Network provided additional hands-on training based on their experience of field reporting using the Africa Reporter and the ECOWAS Early Warning (ECOWARN) Reporter.

A joint meeting of ministers responsible for youth and foreign affairs have called for the engagement of young people in shaping the peace and security agenda on the continent starting at the national and regional level before being escalated on to the wider scale.

They were speaking at the just ended high-level ministerial conference on the role of Regional Economic Communities in promoting youth, peace and security agenda in the east and Horn of Africa, that was conducted in Nairobi, Kenya from 1 – 5 November 2021.

The aim of the conference was to promote the youth, peace and security agenda by advocating for more inclusive policies and meaningful engagement of young people in peacebuilding and conflict prevention mechanisms. It was jointly organized by the African Union working with COMESA, the Government of Kenya, and civil society organisations namely Save the Children, Life and Peace Institute and the Horn of Africa Youth Network.

Young people drawn from national youth councils and civil society organisations from Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan and Uganda participated and issued their own communique to the ministers.

In the Communique, they called for strengthening the implementation of the AU Continental Framework on Youth, Peace and Security. Specifically, they urged for speedy establishment and strengthening of fora that promotes inclusivity of various stakeholders to engage on matters of youth, peace and security.

Further, they called urgent action to address the root and structural causes of conflicts by strengthening early warning systems at national, regional and continental levels. They reckoned that this could be achieved by mainstreaming youth and encouraging the use of alternative dispute resolution.

They urged stakeholders and all Member States to make tangible investment in provision of essential protection services including mental health and psychosocial support, life skills and addressing sexual and gender-based violence in the context of conflict.

The conference participants urged regional institutions to enhance information, communication and dissemination with stakeholders and further promote knowledge management. In this respect, they called for investment in capacity building of youth leaders, commitment to mobilization of resources for the national youth councils to execute their mandate while also strengthening accountability mechanisms.

The meeting was opened by Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of ICT, Innovation and Youth Affairs Kenya Hon. Joseph Mucheru. Ministers who participated in the meeting were Hon. Mohammed Abdirizak Minister of Foreign Affairs and Hon. Hamza Saeed Hamza, Minister of Youths and Sports of Somalia and Hon. Muna Seid, State Minister of Women and Social Affairs, Ethiopia.

Uganda was represented by Dr Hassan Wasswa Galiwango, High Commissioner to Kenya, and Djibouti by its Counsellor to Kenya, Ms Hibaa-Haibado Ismael Housse. Others were Dr Rhuks Ako, representing the AU Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security represented the AU and Ms Elizabeth Mutunga, Head of the Governance, Peace and Security, COMESA Secretariat.

COMESA is mourning the demise of Ms Hope Kivengere, a Member of the COMESA Committee of Elders, who passed away on 19 October 2021 in her home country Uganda.

Ms Kivengere was appointed to the Committee of Elders in April 2015 where she also served as the Deputy Chairperson. In the course of service to the regional bloc, she carried out several assignments including that of leading COMESA Election Observer Missions.

Among these were the 2018 Presidential Elections in Egypt, the 2019 Presidential Election in Comoros, the 2019 General Elections in Malawi and most recently, Zambia’s General Elections in August 2021.

In a message of commiseration, sent through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kampala, Uganda, Secretary General Chileshe Kapwepwe described Ms Kivengere as an active Elder who executed her role with energy and excellence.

“It is with profound sadness and a great sense of loss that we have learnt of the untimely death of Madam Hope Kivengere,” said the Secretary General. “We shall always cherish the memories of our interactions with her.”

Madam Kivengere was endowed with a wealth of knowledge in peace and security matters as well as sharp diplomatic skills having worked as the Spokesperson for the Presidency in Uganda from 1986-2001.

COMESA has deployed a 40-member election observer mission in Zambia for the August 12 General Elections. The observers drawn from 10 Member States were flagged off on Sunday, August 8, 2021, by the Secretary General, Chileshe Kapwepwe at the COMESA Secretariat in Lusaka.

The Mission includes observers from Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Sudan, Somalia, Uganda and Zimbabwe and staff from COMESA Secretariat. It is led by Ambassador Ashraf Gamal Rashed of Egypt assisted by Madam Hope Kivengere of Uganda. The two are Members of the COMESA Committee of Elders.

Prior to deployment, the observers were conducted on a two-day training by the Secretariat and key stakeholders including the Electoral Commission of Zambia, the national police, political analysts, civil society and the media. The training covered among others, the COMESA election observer principles and methodology, observer responsibilities, and on the Zambia electoral process.

In the days preceding the elections, the observers will meet various electoral stakeholders including political parties, and exchange views with other election observer missions.

The observation process will be guided primarily by the constitution and legal framework of Zambia, in consistence with the relevant international and regional instruments including the COMESA Guidelines on Election Observation.

COMESA in partnership with the African Union, Economic Social and Cultural Council, (ECOSOCC) and the Save the Children International, have launched an online information-sharing platform to facilitate civil society organisations in the region to play a bigger role in conflict prevention and peacebuilding.

Livingstone, Zambia, Friday, May 21, 2021: COMESA in partnership with the African Union, Economic Social and Cultural Council, (ECOSOCC) and the Save the Children International, have launched an online information sharing platform to facilitate civil society organisations in the region to play a bigger role in conflict prevention and peace building.

The platform https://gps.comesa.int was launched in Livingstone, Zambia by the Assistant Secretary General of COMESA, Dr Kipyego Cheluget.

The development of the platform followed a study and stakeholder consultations done by COMESA on the root factors of conflicts in the sub-region. These activities revealed that conflicts in the region were not only complex but required joint approaches to address them.

Dr Cheluget said state actors need to complement their strengths and competencies with non-state actors in the region to address the conflicts sustainably and comprehensively.

“While national governments have the primary responsibility to ensure peace and security within its borders, civil society and private sector organisations also have an important role to play, particularly being close to the grassroots, where most intra-state conflicts start,” Dr Cheluget said.

The platform is therefore aimed at enabling robust networking amongst these actors to create strong partnerships for peace and security by sharing information on relevant themes to keep the wide population of CSOs informed.

Besides, it will encourage debate around key topical issues and build consensus on the positive role that CSOs and Private Sector Organisations can play and at the same time, showcasing their work to encourage replication of good practices.

Over 30 CSOs from 17 Member States have been accredited since 2012 and have been partnering with COMESA in the development and implementation of its peace and security programme.  This includes the development of the COMESA Early Warning System (COMWARN). They also serve in the COMESA elections observer missions, with some of them providing analysis of the electoral environment in their respective countries.

Speaking at the launch, ECOSOCC representative, Mr Osei Kyeretwie said his organization is keen to support strategic partnership with COMESA in building the capacity of CSOs to be more effective in their role.

Ms. Hortense Minishi, Head of Programmes at Save the Children International, said the responsibility of protecting the children and youth from situations of conflict is a multi-stakeholder undertaking that should bring everyone on board.

The launch was attended by among others, a Kenyan delegation comprising of the Commissioners of the National Cohesion and integrity Commission and Members of the Kenya Parliamentary Committee on Cohesion and Equal Opportunities. The delegation was in Zambia for a COMESA-AU training on COMWARN and structural vulnerabilities and resilience assessment frameworks.

Livingstone, Zambia, Monday, 17 May 20121: Kenya is set to become the second country in COMESA, after Zambia to undergo structural vulnerability and resilience assessment as part of capacity building to prevent occurrence of conflicts. In preparation, a Kenyan delegation comprising members of the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) and the Parliamentary Committee on National Cohesion and Equal Opportunities is attending a five-day training on the COMESA/African Union Structural Vulnerability Assessment and Resilience Assessment framework (SVRA).

The training opened today in Livingstone, Zambia, and is organized by COMESA in collaboration with the African Union and the Save the Children International. Its key objective is to train the two institutions, which are key in building cohesion and integration in Kenya, to develop a roadmap of the implementation of the SVRA process in the country.

COMESA has been implementing an early warning system (COMWARN) that provides forecasts on the structural drivers that could lead countries towards higher or lower levels of peace and prosperity.  The model, which is anchored on the COMESA Peace and Prosperity Index has the overall goal of supporting member states to build resilience.

Speaking at the opening of the training, the Chair of the NCIC Rev Dr Samuel Kobia, said violence has become a common means of expressing opposition and dissent on most issues especially in African where there are young democracies.

“One of the identified roadblocks to a violence-free election in Kenya is inadequate or total lack of immediate interventions to curb escalation of violence,” Dr Kobia said.  “In our election’s roadmap, we want to strategically disrupt violence by establishing a robust election early warning and rapid response system that will tap into the existing sub-systems across the country.”

As Kenya prepares for election next year, he said, it must address all potential sources of violence. Among the initiatives the Commission is working on includes developing a social cohesion index using a set of quantitative indicators covering critical components such as equity and trust.

During the training, Zambia, which is the first country in COMESA to volunteer for the structural vulnerability and resilience assessment process of the AU and only the third in the Continent will share its experience with Kenya delegates.   Zambia will also hold elections in August this year.

COMESA Secretary General, Ms Chileshe Kapwepwe expressed hope that Zambia’s lessons will provide enough incentives to hasten Kenya to incorporate the use SVAs into the national early warning system.  She assured Kenya, that COMESA and the AU will jointly mobilize the necessary resources to ensure its success.

“Apart from equipping your situation room, which shall be done by the AU, we shall also support the meetings and workshops as well as the recruitment of a consultant who will be identified by Kenya once the country agrees to volunteer to the process,” she said. “We shall also readily provide you whatever technical support that you shall need to ensure that the process is successful.”

Save the Children International Representative Mr. Anthony Njoroge, observed that the most burdensome brunt of armed violence and warfare is borne by children, hence his organization’s resolve to work with regional economic communities’ efforts towards this objective.

“Our commitment is to jointly support the development of child-friendly indicators to strengthen the existing Early Warning System to reflect the actual situation on the ground and provide accurate data for the better protection of children and youth in situations of conflict, for ultimately, a peaceful, secure and stable Africa” he said.

Head of delegation of the Kenya Parliamentary Committee Hon. Prof Zadok Ogutu observed that politicians contribute to political conflicts and the involvement of the legislators in peace building initiatives was appropriate.

The training ends on Friday.

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