The Vice President of the Commission, Damtien L. Tchintchibidja, was a Guest Speaker at a high-level side event on “utilising the Water—Energy—Food Nexus as an effective catalyst for conflict prevention and resolution”, organized by the German International Cooperation Agency (GiZ), in the margin of the 61st annual Munich Security Conference – 14 to 16 February 2025.
The main objective of the intervention was to share ECOWAS’s perspective, especially what the Early Warning System expertise and data in the specific thematic areas of environment, health, food security, climate change and transhumance, could contribute, looking at the security of our populations when attempting to access or share natural resources in volatile environments.
Speaking on the topic, the Vice President highlighted that “the ECOWAS region, with its enormous natural resources, has significant potential for economic growth and prosperity.
However, it is currently facing issues related to access and sharing of natural resources, which affect the regional stability, security, peace, and well-being of our populations.” She also talked about the main causes of these conflicts, such as limited access to water, cattle encroaching on farmlands, disagreements over who owns the land, the effects of climate change pushing pastoralist communities deeper into farming areas, and more competition for fewer resources.
Reflecting on concrete steps undertaken at the regional level, she shared ECOWAS’ robust strategies adopted, and mechanisms established as well as ongoing initiatives aimed at responding to the human security concerns linked to the Water-Energy-Food nexus in order to prevent or mitigate conflicts and promote sustainability and security.
The Munich Conference on Security is an annual conference on international security policy that has been held in Munich, Germany, since 1963. Over the past four decades the Event has become one of the most important independent forums for the exchange of views by international security policy decision-makers.
As part of the mission’s outreach, the ECOWAS Vice President met with Svenja Shulze, Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). This was an opportunity to exchange on issues of common interest in the framework of the collaboration between the German Government and the ECOWAS Commission.
In addition, the ECOWAS Vice President co-chaired the 8th Steering Committee of the ECOWAS Fund for Regional Stabilization and Development (FRSD) held on February 17th at the BMZ Office in Bonn alongside Mr. Christoph Rauh, Director for Africa at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
The FRSD Steering board meeting was an opportunity to discuss progress and challenges around the ECOWAS Stabilisation Fund’s ongoing activities in the current four (4) countries of intervention, notably The Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Benin, and Togo.