As part of exchanges and evaluations of the operation levels of National Early Warning Centers in member states, a working mission led by Dr. Onyinye Nkechi Onwuka, Acting Director of Early Warning, visited Liberia from July 22 to 23, 2024.
During its stay, the mission held a technical meeting with the team from the Liberian National Coordination Centre for Early Warning and Response Mechanism (NCCRM), which was established with support from the ECOWAS Commission in February 2018. This center followed the Bamako, Mali Center that was set up in November 2017.
Dr. Onyinye Onwuka and Mr. Marcel Komi Bossou, Acting Head of the Systems Management and Planning Division, assessed the operations, achievements, and challenges of the Center. They also organized a training session for ECOWARN field monitors, analysts at the Center, and county liaisons on data collection, reporting, and analysis using the ECOWARN Reporter platform. ECOWARN monitors 42 event types and 55 predefined indicators to assess human security risks affecting West African citizens.
The ECOWAS Early Warning system was centralized at its inception in 2004 but decentralized to the national level starting in 2015. As of today, eleven National Centers are operational in Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and The Gambia.
The mission was accompanied by Mr. Arthur Bestman, Acting Director of NCCRM Liberia and his Deputy Mrs. Sophie MP Reeves. They had an audience with Vice President H.E Jeremiah Koung.
During this meeting Dr. Onyechi Onwuka reaffirmed ECOWAS’s commitment to making these centers operationally effective to contribute to regional peace and stability. She informed Vice President Koung about an upcoming Country Resilience and Human Security Assessment that will be carried out by the National Center with technical support from the Early Warning Directorate and financial support from the African Development Bank (AfDB).
Vice President Koung welcomed the mission and expressed gratitude for ECOWAS's support to Liberia. He informed them about an upcoming National Center Statutory Board meeting he plans to convene as Chair—the first under his administration.
It should be noted that Liberia's National Coordination Centre for Early Warning and Response Mechanism is attached to the office of the Vice President.
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