WIPSEN-Africa signs Memorandum of Understanding with ECOWAS, KAIPTC and GTZ

The Women Peace and Security Network Africa (WIPSEN-Africa) has formalized its collaboration with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) and the German Development Cooperation (GTZ) through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that is aimed at promoting the mainstreaming of gender and women's issues in peace and security in West Africa.

The MoU specifically defines the terms of the tripartite partnership between WIPSEN-Africa, the ECOWAS Gender Development Centre (EGDC) in Dakar, Senegal and the KAIPTC/GTZ to among others,

1. Develop a region-specific gender, peace and security manual to be used for training of military and civilian peace support personnel and field practitioners;
2. Increase capacity to mainstream gender in peace and security policies, programmes and institutions; and
3. Document grassroots women's perspectives on peace and security as a basis for developing informed training curricula and operational guidelines.

The project will be focused on, and implemeted with stakeholders from the Fifteen (15) ECOWAS Member States. Special focus will however be placed on Five (5) countries which provide represntative cases of unique conflict and peace systems with natural socio-cultural, economic, political, and security inter-linkages; namely: Liberia (post-conflict), Guinea Conakry (simmering conflict zone), Cote d'Ivoire (fragile), Niger Delta, Nigeria (a region recently transiting from armed violence) and Ghana ("peaceful").

For more information on the project please contact wipsen@wipsen-africa.org.