20.09.2023

Limitations of crisis prevention, management and resolution mechanisms in the ECOWAS region and civil society’s contribution to their review and updating

Analytical note
Publication
 

ECOWAS has set up mechanisms to promote democracy and strengthen collective security within its borders. These mechanisms have produced mixed results since their creation at the end of the civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone. The military coups that have taken place in Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso and Niger over the last three years have shown the limits of these mechanisms and the need to review them in order to adapt them to the ever changing political, security and geopolitical context in West Africa.

Limitations of crisis prevention, management and resolution mechanisms

This is a major challenge that ECOWAS will have to overcome successfully if it intends to preserve its central position as the organisation responsible for maintaining collective security in this part of the continent and promoting democracy for the well-being of its peoples.

This analytical note addresses this issue by focusing on the role that civil society should play in reviewing and updating the mechanisms for crisis prevention, management and resolution within ECOWAS, and by making recommendations to ensure that this review is successful.

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