The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has launched a resilience and human security assessment across its member states.
This initiative aims to deepen the understanding of security dynamics and trends while identifying and enhancing structures that bolster human security within the region.
Co-funded by the European Union and the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the project began with an inception dialogue in Abuja, marking Nigeria as the first country to participate in the assessment.
Chris Ngwodo, Director of the Office for Strategic Preparedness and Response in Nigeria, described the assessment as a comprehensive study to map human security vulnerabilities and resilience factors within the country. “Our goal is to understand the complex issues driving conflicts and instability in Nigeria,” Ngwodo stated. “We aim to identify resilience factors that can improve our response to these issues and gather empirical data to inform government policy interventions.”
This initiative follows a human security vulnerability assessment conducted in 2018, which provided valuable insights for establishing early warning systems across West Africa, particularly in Nigeria. Ngwodo emphasized that this new assessment continues the previous line of inquiry, with the team set to visit hotspots and areas that have demonstrated resilience to conflicts and violence. “We want to understand the factors contributing to resilience as well,” he added.
