Towards a more effective early warning system in the Horn of Africa
Learning lessons and seizing opportunities
The conflict early warning and response mechanism (CEWARN) is an early warning mechanism established in 2002 by the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD). It has acted as an important platform for regional cooperation on conflict prevention and early warning and response in the Horn of Africa region. In each country, specific national level structures have been key in the actual development of early warning and response on the ground. While its original mandate was focusing on pastoralist conflicts, CEWARN has evolved differently across the region, allowing the different national structures to adapt to different contexts and address different issues.
With changing national and regional conflict dynamics, this report draws on research and project activities which brought together stakeholders from the whole region in a process of reflection and exchange of best practices and seeks to highlight the lessons and opportunities for improving CEWARN’s functionality as its new strategy (2012-19) is reviewed and implemented.
This report draws on the C4P project activities, exchanges and research, and explores a number of issues relating to early warning and early response. Recommendations look at, among other things, the structure of the mechanism, increasing civil society participation in conflict prevention, and the necessity to priortise gender in early warning and early response work.
Download Towards a more effective early warning system in the Horn of Africa.
Read more about our work in Kenya and Uganda.
Capacities for Peace (C4P) is a European Union (EU)-funded project undertaken by Saferworld and Conciliation Resources which aims to build capacities of local actors in early warning and early action in 32 conflict-affected contexts across the world.The project is kindly funded by the EU Instrument for Stability.
“An effective early response system should not depend too heavily on individuals but should be systematised.”
Clare Gardner
