CEWARN held a virtual meeting of its technical Committee on early warning that comprises heads of CEWARN national Early Warning Units and representatives of civil society organizations from IGAD Member States, namely, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda on 2 June 2020.

The main agenda of the technical Committee meeting was to appraise new funding and operational modalities of the CEWARN Rapid Response Fund (RRF) that was established in 2009 to support Member State Response actions to prevent and mitigate violent conflicts.

The RRF was established to support Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution (CPMR) efforts in Member states as well as to support response capacity of government and non-government structures at national and sub-national levels.

The RRF has gone through an evolution in line with the expansion of CEWARN’s conflict early warning thematic focus and it is currently reconstituted to support response initiatives beyond cross-border areas.

Support through the RRF is done on project-basis with ordinary disbursements ranging between 10,000 USD and 50,000 USD – with designations as urgent and regular projects respectively. Currently, the RRF manages three million Euros that is ready for use by member states for a period of two years. The funds were obtained through contributions from the Austrian Development Agency (ADA), the governments of Netherlands and Sweden as well as the European Union through the IGAD Promoting Peace and Stability in the Horn of Africa Region (IPPSHAR) program.

An inaugural meeting of the new Rapid Response Fund Steering Committee, which convenes bi-annually to oversee the fund’s operations and appraise project proposals for funding, followed the technical meeting. The steering committee comprises CEWARN Director and Director of IGAD Peace and Security Division as well as heads of CEWARN national Units and civil society representatives from member states.

The inaugural meeting of the Steering committee discussed the new funding mechanism under IPPSHAR as well as on how to conduct national sensitization programs as well as identify priority activities that can be implemented in light of current constraints related to the COVID-19 pandemic.