CEWARN convened the 14th meeting of Committee of Permanent Secretaries (CPS) that brings together permanent secretaries of Ministries of Foreign affairs and Heads of national Conflict Early Warning and Response Units (CEWERUs) from IGAD Member states on 19 July 2019.

The meeting that was held at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Addis Ababa was also attended by IGAD Focal Persons from Ministries of Foreign Affairs of IGAD member states. The CPS is CEWARN’s highest policy organ that convenes bi-annually to consider the progress of CEWARN’s operations and provide policy guidance.

The CPS meeting was preceded by a two-day technical Meeting of Heads of CEWARN’s national Units (CEWERUs) as well as representatives of Civil society organizations from Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda.

The technical meeting received reports from national CEWERUs and the CEWARN Unit on the status of implementation of CEWARN Strategy Framework 2012-2020. The technical meeting came up with a set of recommendations to guide the mechanism’s subsequent regional conflict prevention and peace building work.

The recommendations of the technical meeting that were adopted as decisions of the CPS include: directing the national CEWERUs to use innovative means of setting up sustainable national early warning data collections systems that are suitable to their unique contexts. The systems could combine various methods including engaging CSOs and crowd sourcing.

The CPS also directed the CEWARN Unit and CEWERUs to initiate a revitalization of national CEWERU steering committees and expand their membership as well as develop and/or update their operational guidelines to ensure effectiveness.

Refer to Decision of the 14th CPS.