Multinational - Support to ECOWAS for peace and development project (PADEP)

The support to ECOWAS for peace and development project is in line with the framework for the implementation of poverty reduction and regional economic integration policy of ECOWAS and the Bank. The planned actions, along with the interventions by the countries, will help to minimise the risks of conflict in the sub-region and promote economic recovery in areas that are already experiencing conflict. Among other things, the project will help to: to implement the protocols on conflict prevention in the West African sub-region; sensitise and educate 23 million citizens of ECOWAS to embrace a culture of peace, democracy, and human rights; supervise 2,235,279 persons directly affected by conflicts as well as the 700,000 refugees and displaced persons who need social reintegration; enhance the professional capacities of 208,750 education officers and experts in peace-education strategies; provide adult literacy for at least 2.000 women, with emphasis on peaceful crisis resolution and the elementary principles of entrepreneurship; improve the youths’spirit of voluntary service aimed at the promotion of peace and offer them about 135 fixed-term job contracts in the area of development; and, right from the very first years of project implementation, facilitate the socio-economic reintegration of members of about 6,600 associations and NGOs of some of the most vulnerable people in the conflict-affected countries. The project has three components: (i) capacity building for ECOWAS, (ii) support to the ECOWAS Peace and Development Programme, and (iii) project management.