Brief Highlights of Jonathan Sandy, Chairperson, AU ECOSOCC Peace and Security Cluster Opening Remarks 
on the 
Regional Training Workshop on Leveraging CSOs Networks for Conflict Prevention in the Horn and Eastern Africa

At the Imperial Gold View Hotel, Entebbe, Uganda
14-16 September, 2023

Salutation ! 

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, and Training participants
 
I am extremely delighted for the invitation to deliver an opening remark at this 3-day training workshop aimed at strengthening the capacities of CSOs in the Horn and East Africa on COMESA’s Conflict Prevention tools. I consider this initiative as complementary to the ongoing efforts of the AU Peace and Security Council( AU PSC), RECs/RMs and CSOs in commemoration Africa Amnesty Month on Silencing the Guns on the continent. 
 
 I mean,  as many of you may be aware, this training workshop is taking place as we continue to commemorate this Month-September as the designated AU PSC Africa Amnesty Month on Silencing the Guns in Africa. Since its inception in 2020, the AU PSC, Member States, RECs/RMs, Civil Society Organisations, and development partners have initiated several legal, policies and projects/programmes that tend to facilitate the surrender and regulation of weapons to the relevant government authorities in the month of September each year without fear of prosecution.
 
This 2023, to kick start a month long commemoration of series of activities, His Excellency Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambers, the AU High Representative of the STG in Africa convened an Expert Roundtable under the theme, “ A Decade of Silencing the Guns in Africa: Measuring Progress, Lessons Learned and Way Forward”.  The  3-day Roundtable took place from August 30th to September, 1st, in Nairobi, Kenya. At the end of the Expert Roundtable, participants agreed that  the Office of the High Representative should prioritise Conflict Prevention approach and activities to STG in Africa in the next 3 years.  
 
Within this context, I consider this training and capacity building exercise for CSOs as crucial and timely, as its strategic objectives are consistent with the AAM commemoration Agenda, and as a core priority of the Office of the High Representative on STG, and by extension the AU. Based on lessons learned from the ECOWAS region, it is evidence that CSOs continue to play a crucial in conflict prevention, especially in the administration and management the region’s ECOWARN system. 
 
And to support Continental conflict prevention efforts, collaboration need to be strengthened between the COMESA Conflict Early Warning System ( COMWARN) and the Continental Early Warning System ( CEWS), including the development and implementation of the COMWARN Structural Vulnerability/Resilience Assessment ( SVA)  Methodology and tools.
 
At the state level, I am pleased to note that level of cooperation and collaboration between the AU-COMESA through joint SVA consultations and capacity building on SVA Methodology have commenced in some member states such as Uganda ( 2017), Zimbabwe  and Madagascar ( 2018),  Kenya( 2019), Zambia ( 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021), Mauritius and Seychelles ( 2022) and Malawi ( 2023). 
 
Despite these efforts, CSOs involvement in the joint AU-COMESA SVA Methodology training and capacity building interventions have been limited.  I am therefore pleased that through the fourth European Union Support Programme to the African Peace and Security Architecture ( EU APSA IV), ECOSOCC in collaboration with COMESA have designed and organised this training workshop aimed at enhancing the capacities of CSOs in the Horn and East Africa Region to seek a better understanding of the AU Continental Early Warning System ( CEWS) approach and methodology, and the COMESA’s conflict analysis toolkit, including its conflict analysis manual, Handbook on resource-based conflicts, Handbook on Electoral Conflicts, the SVA process, approach, methodology, and the expected role of CSOs in contributing to  Early Warning data collection, analysis, reporting and dissemination of results and outputs from the process.  
 
I hope that by the end of this 3-day training workshop, the capacities of CSOs are strengthened, for them to be able to effectively compliment Government’s efforts in rolling out the CONWARM SVAs process, methodology, analysis and Output/reporting in their respective countries. Such efforts will certainly contribute towards conflict prevention, resolution and management in the region and across the continent.
 
Wish everyone fruitful discussions and a successful learning process!
 
Thank You!!