The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies (ACSS) have reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening strategic collaboration in addressing emerging regional threats, particularly misinformation, disinformation, and rising insecurity across West Africa.

During a high-level engagement, the Director of ACSS, Ms. Amanda Dory, led a delegation in discussions with the Vice President of the ECOWAS Commission, Ms. Damtien Tchintchibidja, focusing on deepening bilateral cooperation in the areas of peace, security, and strategic lead-
ership.

The meeting emphasized the importance of fostering resilient governance structures, enhancing human security, and improving early warning mechanisms to prevent and mitigate conflict in the region.

ACSS reiterated its support for the Commission’s commitment to a cohesive “One ECOWAS” approach, aligned with ECOWAS’s Vision and strategic priorities in peace and security. A key element of the discussions was the promotion of experience-sharing initiatives, especially those targeting ACSS alumni involved in governance, peace, and security within ECOWAS institutions and its Member States.

Vice President Tchintchibidja reaffirmed ECOWAS’s dedication to enhancing its
predictive and forecasting capabilities of the ECOWAS Early Warning System. This enhancement is expected to contribute significantly to a more integrated and effective implementation of the ECOWAS Peace and Security Architecture.

Both parties agreed to collaborate in the following key areas of Capacity building for ECOWAS and Member States’ personnel, Strategic leadership development for peace and security practitioners, Information sharing and exchange of best practices and Utilization of new technologies and models, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), for data collection, analysis, and scenario-based
forecasting