Disaster risk reduction is mainstreamed at the highest institutional level in ECOWAS. The ECOWAS founding treaty, which was revised in 1993, incor-porates articles relevant to the strengthening of disaster management institutions, the establish-ment of hazard early warning systems, and the provision of food aid, within the ECOWAS poverty-reduction, security and sustainable development agenda. The ECOWAS disaster risk management and humanitarian action mechanisms derive their mandate from the treaty. The ECOWAS Treaty clearly identifies disaster risk reduction as an im-portant priority and a key objective to be pursued by all ECOWAS institutions. It can be concluded that disaster risk reduction is considered an im-portant priority. The extent to which ECOWAS institutions and sectors have responded to this directive and incorporated disaster risk reduction dimensions in their policies and strategies is ex-amined below.
There are also guiding documents, such as ECOWAS Vision 2020, Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance and the ECOWAS Community Development Programme, which provide man-dates and guidance for good governance.
Although they could serve to create an enabling environment for mainstreaming of disaster risk re-duction, many of these strategic frameworks do not explicitly address issues of disaster risk reduc-tion. Nevertheless, many of them explicitly iden-tify the poverty and vulnerabilities of ECOWAS communities as key challenges that need to be addressed. As these documents acknowledge and address some of the main drivers of disasters, such as poverty, they address elements of disaster risk reduction, even though this may not neces-sarily constitute mainstreaming.
ECOWAS has common sectoral protocols, poli-cies and strategies related to development that are relevant to disaster risk management and hu-manitarian action. These cover sectors such as ag-riculture, environment, industry, energy, science and technology, and health. Protocols relating to customs, immigration and movement of people and goods, and those relating to mechanisms for conflict management and prevention are also rel-evant to disaster risk management and humani-tarian action. Some examples are highlighted below.
The ECOWAS Environmental Policy: The overall objective of the policy is to reverse environmental degradation and depletion of natural resources, ameliorate the quality of the living environment and conserve biological diversity. The conceptual backdrop of the Policy carefully takes into consid-eration the sustainable management of environ-mental resources.
The objectives and strategies employed in the policy contain some elements of disaster risk re-duction, which are in harmony with three objec-tive of the Africa Regional Strategy for Disaster Risk
Reduction (enhance knowledge management for disaster risk reduction; increase public awareness of disaster risk reduction; and improve govern-ance of disaster risk reduction institutions), and Priorities 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the Hyogo Framework for Action.
The strategic aims of the Policy, include strength-ening environmental governance (setting up regional mechanisms) and building capacities;
promoting sustainable management of resources for the improvement of the subregional economy in an environmentally friendly manner, prevent-ing environmental pollution and nuisance, ur-ban waste and controlling transboundary move-ment of hazardous waste/products; and promot-ing environmental information, education and communication.
The Environmental Policy integrates attributes/
elements that are in line with all the priorities of the Hyogo Framework for Action, except Priority 5. In this regard:
i) The policy is designed to strengthen envi-ronmental governance and build capacities in the subregion through the setting up of a high level standing mechanism for environ-mental policies;
ii) It prescribes the establishment of a regional observatory centre for environmental moni-toring and assessment with a view to promot-ing the monitorpromot-ing of environmental change and prevention of risks;
iii) The policy seeks to promote environmental information, education and communication for a healthy environment within the subre-gion, by strengthening information and com-munication activities on environmental man-agement and to promote a subregional pro-gramme on environmental education, with its subsequent integration into school curricula;
iv) In ensuring sustainable management of re-sources, the environmental policy aspires to
enhance the conservation and sustainable de-velopment of forests, fauna and grazing lands;
combat land degradation and drought, and the improve the sustainable management of coastal, island and marine ecosystems;
v) It provides for appropriate town and country planning policies to manage environmental pollution, nuisance, and hazardous and urban waste.
On the one hand, the Policy integrates disaster risk reduction, as many of the elements and objec-tives are consistent with elements of disaster risk reduction. On the other hand, however, the policy articulates the mandate of the environment sec-tor and what its objectives are. It is not necessarily responding to disaster risk reduction issues. It is not expressed in disaster risk reduction terminolo-gy, nor is there any evidence that the policy takes into account disaster risk reduction frameworks.
ECOWAS Agricultural Policy (ECOWAP/CAADP):
The general objective of this policy is to “con-tribute in a sustainable manner to satisfying the food needs of the population, promote eco-nomic and social development while reducing poverty in member States as well as addressing inequalities between territories, areas, and coun-tries” (ECOWAS, 2005).The policy has seven spe-cific objectives, namely to achieve food security for the rural and urban populations; reduce food dependency in a perspective of food sovereignty;
integrate producers into markets; and develop human capacities and create jobs that guarantee remunerative incomes to improve the living con-ditions of rural populations as well as the delivery of services in rural areas; ensure sustainable inten-sification of production systems, while preserving natural resources and biodiversity; reduce the vul-nerability of West African economies by limiting factors that lead to regional instability and insecu-rity; and ensure adoption of appropriate funding mechanisms.
The Policy contains features, which are consist-ent with all priorities of the Hyogo Framework for Action, and thus integrates disaster risk reduc-tion considerareduc-tions. These features include the following:
i) The policy promotes institution building through the adoption of gender-sensitive approaches, support for the formulation of agricultural and rural policies and strategies and long-term funding for agriculture, which ultimately improves food security, human ca-pacity and awareness and builds community resilience;
ii) It strives to prevent and manage food crises and other natural disasters through the estab-lishment of early warning systems, crisis man-agement systems and capacity-building for the monitoring and evaluation of agricultural development projects in the subregion;
iii) The policy aims to improve food security, de-velop human capacities of rural populations and sustain intensification of production sys-tems while preserving natural resources and biodiversity. Issues of water and resource management are tackled through integrated water resource management and sustainable management of natural resources, including forestry and fishery resources;
iv) It also promotes information sharing and communication among stakeholders and en-courages the formulation of mechanisms for disaster-related insurance and compensation;
v) The policy takes into consideration the devel-opment of appropriate response and recov-ery measures for crisis-affected areas.
Similarly to the ECOWAS Environmental Policy, the ECOWAS Agricultural Policy has many features that are consistent with disaster risk reduction ele-ments, but that does not constitute mainstream-ing as it is defined. However, within a develop-mental context, effective implementation of the ECOWAS Agricultural Policy will contribute
signifi-cantly towards reducing vulnerability and build-ing resilience to disasters.
ECOWAS Regional Strategic Plan 2011-2015: The following strategic priorities and goals of the plan contain disaster risk reduction elements that are in line with the Priorities 1 and 2 of the Hyogo Framework for Action.
i) The regional plan advocates for good govern-ance, justice and an upgrade of conflict pre-vention and management efforts, together with the development of a conflict resolution mechanism/framework.
ii) It reinforces institutional capacity by enhanc-ing the technical and analytical skills of staff in order to create appropriate human capacity for development and also to ensure collabora-tion, coordination and synergy among mem-ber States.
iii) The plan sees the promotion of human devel-opment as an instrument of poverty reduc-tion and seeks to develop strategies and tools to give impetus to regional agricultural devel-opment and ensure the sustainability of the environmental bases of production.
There is no evidence that the strategy takes on board disaster risk reduction issues. A clear state-ment on disaster risk reduction at a strategic level would provide guidance and direction for all sec-tors in the implementation of their programmes.
The absence of explicit integration of disaster risk reduction in the ECOWAS Strategy would seem to indicate the overall status of mainstreaming of disaster risk reduction in the ECOWAS subregion.
African Monitoring of the Environment for Sustainable Development (AMESD) initiative:
This project was a follow up to the Preparation for the Use of Meteosat Second Generation in Africa project (2002-2006), which assisted in de-veloping the capacities of the national meteoro-logical services. The AMESD project covered the
period 2008-2013 and was funded by the Ninth European Development Fund. The overall pur-pose of AMESD was to improve decision-making processes in the fields of environmental ment in Africa; increase the information manage-ment capacity of African regional and national institutions mandated for environment-related sectors; and facilitate access to earth observation technologies.
ECOWAS was one of the five sub-Saharan Africa