The ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security On Thursday 2 July 2015 in Monrovia, paid glowing tribute to Dr. Amos Sawyer, Former President of Liberia’s Interim Government, who was conferred with international recognition on his 70^thbirthday.

On behalf of the ECOWAS Commission President, Mrs. Salamatu Hussaini Suleiman commended Dr. Sawyer for his multifaceted actions in the service of peace and democracy, just like other personalities including Liberia’s President, Mrs. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. The ECOWAS Commissioner read the tribute at an international symposium on the action and work of the recipient.

Alongside the ECOWAS delegation comprising her colleague Commissioner for Social Affairs and Gender, as well as senior officials from the organization, Mrs. Suleiman made a presentation to Dr. Sawyer, a great friend of ECOWAS, who often heads its election observation missions.

The Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security was in Monrovia for a mission which will later take her to Guinea as part of an awareness and consultation tour with the authorities on the deployment of the ECOWAS Early Warning and Response System at national level.

Pursuant to its Vision 2020 and with a view to strengthening cooperation, coherence and complementarity in conflict prevention and resolution, ECOWAS, through its Observation and Monitoring Centre (Early Warning Directorate), launched in January 2015, a project dubbed: «Implementation of National Early Warning and Response Mechanisms».

The project aims at reducing the gap between early warning and response in Member States through the deployment of an early warning and response mechanism at Community level.

To ensure a successful implementation of the mechanism, there is the need to strengthen ECOWARN field monitors (which has reduced from 3 to 5 per country),and set up a centre to coordinate the national early warning and response mechanism in each ECOWAS Member State.

The centre’s mandate will be to activate, coordinate and monitor response activities in Member States. It will also serve as interface and close link between the Situation Room at the ECOWAS headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria and Member States’ peace and security institutions.

This important project, whose effective launch is scheduled for August 2015, primarily concerns Member States where the Commission President has Special Representatives, namely Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Burkina Faso and Nigeria.

The Commissioner, who is accompanied on this information and discussion mission by the Observation and Monitoring Centre’s Director, a Programme Officer and a Technical Adviser, will apprise the competent authorities of the countries visited of the context for deployment and share with them the administrative arrangements for the establishment of the mechanism and the project’s technical and financial arrangements.

It is worth noting that in application of the provisions of the mechanism for conflict prevention, management, resolution, peacekeeping and security, a sub-regional peace and security observation system has been set up, referred to as ECOWAS Early Warning and Response Network(ECOWARN), managed by the Early Warning Directorate.