A two-day meeting of CEWARN’s Technical Committee on Early Warning and Response (TCEWR) comprising officials from CEWARN’s national Conflict Early Warning and Response Units (CEWERUs) and representatives of national civil society organizations kicks off in Djibouti on 24 April 2018. IGAD Member States: Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan and Uganda are represented at the meeting.

The meeting will appraise the progress of implementation of CEWARN’s early warning and response operations as expressed in its 2012-2019 Strategy framework that guides the mechanism’s operations along five broad thematic sectors of peace and security namely: Social, Economic, Environment, Economy, Governance and Security.

CEWARN has recently developed conflict early warning data collection and related technological tools as well as early warning indicators that enable the mechanism to undertake its work in the IGAD region along the five sectors.

These tools have been under pilot implementation in Somalia, Sudan and Uganda throughout 2017. In the course of the two days, the meeting will tackle concerns like building a robust network-based civil society participation in CEWARN’s operations in all Member States. The meeting is also expected to yield consensus on a way forward towards full roll out of these tools in all member states.

Amb. Mohamed Ali Hassan, Secretary General of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Djibouti, Amb (Eng.) Mahboub Maalim, IGAD Executive Secretary and Mr. Camlus Omogo, CEWARN Director presided over the official opening of the meeting.

CEWARN is preparing to publish a compendium to commemorate its 15-years of operation as a conflict prevention mechanism in the Horn of Africa region. The CEWARN Compendium was conceived in light of CEWARN’s transition from pilot project addressing cross-border pastoral and related conflicts from 2002-2012 to a more comprehensive mechanism addressing diverse forms of inter-state and intrastate conflicts.

CEWARN is looking to hire a short-term consultant to do an independent and thorough review of the CEWARN Compendium draft volume with a view towards ensuring it meets high standards in terms of content, presentation, organization, length, and supplementary graphic content.

The Compendium is a comprehensive but eclectic collection of perspectives on the inception and evolution of the CEWARN conflict early warning mechanism. The content is rich, diverse, and by nature at times idiosyncratic.

The issues covered range from pastoralist conflict to the application of predictive algorithms identifying symptoms and indicators of violent conflict in the Horn of Africa.

Please refer to Terms of reference for further details on application modalities.

IGAD’s Conflict Early Warning and Response Mechanism (CEWARN) has received support from GIZ under the IGAD –GIZ support programme to roll out GIS capacity building within the context of the IGAD Drought Disaster Resilience and Sustainability Initiative (IDDRSI).

Under this support, CEWARN has planned to organize GIS Training for its Member States’ subject-matter Programme Managers and Technical Experts. The training will cover basic aspects of GIS and how it can be applied in spatial planning in Conflict Prevention, Resolution and Management as depicted under Module 5 of the IDDRSI Program. The training will be held in April 2018 in Kamapla, Uganda.

In this light, CEWARN is looking for a qualified GIS trainer/ consultant on a short-term basis to assist in delivering the training. Please see Terms of Reference for details.

CEWARN is also calling for an Expression of Interest from companies who are able to provide a GIS training facility. Please see Expression of Interest notice provided for Details.

The IGAD Executive Secretary Amb(Eng.) Mahboub Maalim and CEWARN Director Mr. Camlus Omogo hosted a special event at the Radisson Blu in Nairobi on 19 December 2017 to mark 15th Anniversary of establishment of CEWARN and the launch of a documentary film showcasing its work.

 The anniversary and film launch event was well attended with over 100 audience drawn from Officials representing IGAD Member States as well as the African Union, the United Nations, private sector partners, academic institutions, media agencies and development partners.

Ambassador Purity Muhindi-Director, of Africa and the African Union at the Kenyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs delivered opening remarks as a guest of honor joined by Amb. Sahle-work Zewde, Director General of the United Nations Office Nairobi and Amb. Martin Kimani, Special envoy and head of National Counter Terrorism Center of the Republic of Kenya as well as Mr. Patrick Wilson, Deputy Mission Director for Regional Integration and Support Services of USAID/EA ,and Ambassador Frederic Gateretse-Ngoga representing the African Union Commission among others.

 In his welcoming remarks, Ambassador Maalim stated, as the IGAD region is faced with increasingly complex security challenges, there is need for a much stronger emphasis on conflict prevention efforts in the region and support to institutions like CEWARN.

He lamented the long-standing inclination among governments worldwide and the international community on greater focus and investments on humanitarian and military solutions to violent conflicts and crises.

During the event, CEWARN launched a 29-minute documentary film titled: “ Security in a decade and beyond” that was produced in several locations in Addis Ababa, Nairobi and Kampala as well as five borderland areas of the IGAD region across Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda.

The film depicts the region’s diverse political, socio-economic and cultural contexts as well as how communities are directly impacted by CEWARN’s early warning and response work. 

The event was hosted with financial contribution from partners including GIZ.

CEWARN was privileged to join the Peace & Security Dept of the African Union Commission, Institute for Peace and Security Studies, United Nations Office to the African Union (UNOAU) and partners at the International Peace Day Commemoration event on 21 September held at the African Union Head quarters.

During the event, CEWARN had a rare opportunity to screen a documentary film on its 15yrs of Conflict Prevention and Peace Building work in the Horn of Africa region titled “Security in a Decade and Beyond”. The film’s key messages on the role of citizens and all sectors of society in peace building as well as its strong emphasis on the need for a human security approach in addressing Africa’s security concerns set the tone for official commemoration events that followed with the theme: “Harnessing the Demographic Dividend: Meaningful Youth Inclusion in Peace building (#youth4peace )”.

Four panels comprising high caliber speakers from the various AU agencies and partner organisations spoke on topics related to : “Youth Participation in decision making at all levels”, “Protection of vulnerable youth from all forms of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV)”; “Youth participation in Conflict prevention”, as well as “Building partnerships to fully support youth initiatives and ensure quality education, youth employment and empowerment”.

CEWARN invites competent candidates from the IGAD region to apply for the position of Conflict Analyst based in Addis Ababa.

Deadline for Applications is 15 October 2017.

For more information on application requirements, Refer to Terms of Reference.

CEWARN in collaboration with the Horn of Africa Programme of the Life and Peace Institute convened a workshop to review and further develop a draft policy framework on informal cross border trade and cross border security governance on 1-3 August 2017 in Addis Ababa. The workshop brought together IGAD experts from the IGAD Drought Disaster Resilience and sustainability Initiative (IDDRISI), the IGAD Centre for Pastoral Areas and Livestock Development (ICPALD), and IGAD Security Sector Programme (ISSP) among others as well as a representative from COMESA.

The draft policy framework was developed within the context of a collaborative project among CEWARN, LPI , the Organisation of Social Science Research for Eastern and Southern Africa (OSSREA) and the InterAfrica Group (IAG) intended to explore policy response in leveraging informal cross border trade to enhance cross border security governance.

The project was conceived over two years ago and it involved the commissioning of country based and borderland studies to understand the dynamics of Informal Cross border trade as well as extensive engagements with CSOs, traders and borderland communities as well as Member State officials representing trade, security and customs sectors.

The workshop provided strong input in further refining the draft policy framework and CEWARN in collaboration with partners intends to convene similar forums involving member states, IGAD, other regional and continental experts to finalize the policy framework before its adoption by Member States.

CEWARN, national CEWERUs alongside thematic experts and other senior Member State officials convened in Debrezeit, Ethiopia on 15 June 2016 to appraise the pilot implementation of early warning data collection tools in Somalia, Sudan and Uganda.

The meeting was preceded by a three-day experts session to refine data collection tools, indicators and technological tools piloted in these three countries over a six-month period. CEWARN intends to learn from the pilot phase and roll out the system to the remaining Member States before the end of 2017.

CEWARN’s integrated data collection and analysis system can pull and process vast amount of data covering broad conflict themes categories along five sectors namely: Social, Economic, Environment, Economy, Governance and Security.

The meeting was organized with the support of GIZ and World Bank.

CEWARN with the support of GIZ conducted a capacity assessment mission of local peace structures in Dikhil region of Djibouti and Ely Daar, Ayssaita, Afambo districts of Ethiopia on 2-3 May 2017. The aim of the mission was to identify capacity gaps of these structures in undertaking response projects to conflicts and devise a strategy to fill these gaps.

The assessment is part of a wider CEWARN undertaking to periodically review capacities of local peace structure and national Conflict Early Warning and Response Units (CEWERUs) in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda.

A two- person team from the CEWARN office and a representative of GIZ conducted focus group discussions and individual interviews with close to 100 members of local peace structures including traditional leaders, local authorities, security institutions, women and youth in adjoining districts of the two countries.

The assessment mission was followed by a validation workshop at the CEWARN office in Addis Ababa on 8-9 May involving national CEWERU coordinators from Djibouti and Ethiopia as well as members of Local Peace Committee from Dikhil cluster, including representative authorities of Afar region of Ethiopia Ayssaita, Ely Daar and Afambo districts.

During the workshop, participants jointly reviewed the preliminary findings of the assessment and shared their vision statements in 3 relevant areas namely: early warning and response; capacity management; as well as cross-border development and cooperation.

Following two days of fruitful exchanges, the participants have agreed on a resolution including the setting up of a a cross-border platform for local peace structures to better coordinate peace initiatives along the border as well as establishment of three corridors of collaboration namely: Ely Daar (Ethiopia) –Dorra (Djibouti) and Ayssaita/Afambo (Ethiopia) –Yoboki/As Eyla (Djibouti).

The CEWARN director Mr. Camlus Omogo and team received a visiting delegation from the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) of Kenya on 29 March at the CEWARN office in Addis Ababa. The CEWARN team briefed the NCIC delegation on CEWARN expanded operations covering Economic, Social, Governance, Environmental and Security dimensions of violent conflict prevention as well as ongoing efforts in building its network of partners on early warning and response for regional coverage.

The NCIC delegation led by Commissioner Dr. Joseph Nasongoonon its part briefed the CEWARN team on the commission’s mandate and ongoing work in building peace, sustainable development and harmonious coexistence among Kenyans by addressing divisive politics and discrimination particularly after the post election violence of Kenya in 2007/8.

The delegation also spoke of its close collaboration with CEWARN’s national Conflict Early Warning and Response Unit (CEWERU)-Kenya in supporting peaceful General Elections in Kenya in August 2017.