ECOWAS has urged experts from member states to develop a comprehensive logistics concept and depot policies for operation of the bloc’s standby force, ESF. As significant steps in enhancing ECOWAS capacity to respond to emerging security challenges.
The Commissioner, Amb. Abdel-Fatau Musah, ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security, gave the charge at a validation meeting on the ESF logistics concept and depot policies on Monday in Abuja, Nigeria.
The five day meeting focused on refining logistics frameworks essential for Peace Support Operations, PSO, across the region.
Ambassador Musah, represented by the Head of Peace Support Mission at the Commission, Dr. Sani Adamu underscored the need for a well resourced and functional static depot.
“The logistics challenges that confronted the ECOWAS Peace Operations in the early 1990s, was one of the reasons that informed the first meeting of ECOWAS Defense and Security Commission (DSC) in Accra – Republic of Ghana in the year 2000, where the meeting recommended for the establishment of a permanent logistics base for the subsequent ECOWAS Peace Support Operations Missions.”
Since then, the ECOWAS Commission has injected substantial resources towards the construction as well as operationalization of the depot, and it remains a critical flagship project for the region’s Peace Support Operations infrastructure.
He noted that “The increased acts of terrorism, violent extremism, and political instability being experienced in a number of the ECOWAS Member States with heavy and dire consequences are all testaments to the urgent need for a well-resourced logistics strategy with fully functional and operational static depot.
With the completion of the ECOWAS Logistics Depot in Lungi – Sierra Leone, it is imperative to develop relevant documents to guide the day – to – day operations of the Depot. Thus, the ESF Logistics concept and other relevant documents were developed as tool kits for the management, coordination, and utilization of the depot’s resources and services, accordingly.
The Commissioner, Political Affairs Peace and Security, further urged participants to put in their wealth of experience in validating the policy documents to a more robust one.
“I urge you all to bring to bear your wealth of experiences to comprehensively review these documents and make them in tandem with continental and global best practice. Over the next five days, I expect that you will engage in constructive discussions, share expertise, and validate these policy documents. Your collective inputs will be invaluable in ensuring that these documents are robust, relevant, and effective in our peace support operations objectives.
I am pleased to disclose to you that, we are already talking with our partners, and they are set to support the conversion of the outcome of this exercise into training curricula to be availed to the ECOWAS Training Centre’s of Excellence for competency capacity building of our security services.”
Also speaking, the Chairman of the Meeting, Air Cdre
Sampson Eyekosi stressed that the conduct of Peace Support Operations in the ECOWAS region requires well thought and proven logistics procedures and processes.
“The success of Peace Support Operations in ECOWAS requires a well-structured logistics system built on lessons from previous missions.This validation exercise ensures that the ESF Logistics Concept and Depot Policies are efficient, practical, and effective in supporting peacekeeping deployments.
In the collective lessons learned from best practices with our involvement with the UN and AU in particular as well as with other national and international organisations, we all can bring collective value to finetune the current drafts of the ESF Logistics Concept and Depot Policies, in order to develop the best and most suitable operating procedures for the discharge of logistics during PSOs and other emergencies in our region,” he said.
According to Eyekosi, in order to properly structure and organise effective support for the ongoing and future peace missions in the region, there is a need for sustained commitment to strengthening regional security.
“our beloved region calls us now to duty and have deliberately brought together, the brightest professional logistics, administrative and management minds here to brainstorm and produce a final product that will indeed stand the test of time in the real world. This unique opportunity, therefore, requires that we all bring to bear our wealth of experience in various aspects or gamut of logistics, administration, and management to give back for the interest of our region.
Particularly, as it relates to Peace Support Operations in West Africa and Africa as a whole,” he said.
The stand force logistics concept provides a platform for coordination of all key logistics support and procedures, Add the collective experiences of the expert to the ECOWAS Logistics Concept, the policy and guiding documents for the management of the ECOWAS Logistics Depots
Shakirat Sadiq
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