CEWARN convenes national consultation on development of new strategy plan

Addis Ababa, May 3, 2012 (WIC) - The Conflict Early Warning and Response Mechanism (CEWARN) convened National Consultation on development of CEWARN Strategy plan from 2012 to 2019 in Hawassa Town of South Ethiopia Peoples’ State on Monday.

Speaking on the occasion, Agriculture State Minister, Mitiku Kassa said Ethiopia has been playing major role towards the establishment of early warning mechanism in the region with other IGAD member states.

He said the country will continue to work in close collaboration with other member states to prevent and resolve cross-border conflicts in the region.

CEWARN Director, Dr. Martin Kimani on his part said the aim of the meeting is to develop the CEWARN Strategy plan that covers the period from 2012 – 2019.

He said similar national meetings were convened in Djibouti, Sudan, Kenya, Somalia, and Uganda on development of the strategy plan.

The director said CEWARN has begun developing the strategy plan following decisions taken by Technical Committee on Early Warning (TCEW) and Committee of Permanent Secretaries (CPS) in May 2011, in Mombassa.

CEWARN has adopted a bottom-up approach in developing the plan with a strong focus on local community needs and perspectives regarding current dynamics of cross-border peace and security.

The approach aims to make the strategy responsive to priorities and emerging concerns as articulated by communities.

The plan is intended to build on CEWARN’s experience and strengthening in terms of informing national and regional conflict early warning, response and peace building practices and linking them with local practice.

The strategy development process is well underway with the completion of community conversations that engaged up to 5,000 people in CEWARN’s areas of reporting in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda. Similar conversations are underway in South Sudan.

The conversations have been effective in capturing local perspectives that provide insight into emerging issues and priorities in these areas.

The new strategy entails an expanded thematic and geographic scope with new areas of reporting in Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan and other member states.

Participants drawn from the ministries of federal affairs, foreign affairs and agriculture, federal parliament, federal police, Addis Ababa University, among others, are taking part in the three-day consultation.