Post-conference meeting on the mission of advocacy on IDPs in Abidjan
Published on 03/07/2015
Scheduled for 10:00 a.m., the meeting began at 11:32 a.m. with a total of 25 participants on the fifteen expected. Were present at the meeting, the Special Representative of ECOWAS, the UNHCR representative, a representative of the AU Commissioner for Social Affairs and Gender of the ECOWAS and four of his associates, a representative of the Embassy of Finland in Abuja, two representatives of the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Affairs, two MPs from the ECOWAS Parliament, two representatives of NRC, two representatives from IAD-International, a representative of ASA and journalists.

This meeting, which follows a study conducted in three ECOWAS member countries (Ivory Coast, Liberia and Nigeria) for its pilot phase, was jointly organized by ECOWAS and UNHCR with funding from the Government of Finland. It is part of an awareness mission to encourage and support ratification and proper implementation of the Convention in Kampala. The ECOWAS mission will tour the three countries for two main purposes:

- To sensitize all stakeholders on the importance of ratifying, own and implement the Kampala Convention of the African Union (AU);
- Educate all stakeholders about the link between the Kampala agreement of the AU, the ECOWAS Humanitarian Policy (PHC) and its Action Plan as a tool of implementation of the Convention Kampala.

After the welcome words of the master of ceremony appointed forthwith, participants attended a series of speeches respectively that of the Special Representative of ECOWAS, the representative of the UNHCR followed by that of the Commissioner of Social Affairs and the kind of ECOWAS and the speech of the representative of the Minister of Justice and Freedoms, which opened at the same time the work of the day.

All speakers welcomed the initiative of ECOWAS that comes to boost the post-ratification process of the Convention, particularly the domiciliation of the Convention in the legal corpus, integrating provisions of the Convention in laws and regulations countries and the commitment of the government to popularize and implement effective and progressive way that convention.

Indeed, Africa must be commended for being with a tool that provides a legal framework for the protection of displaced persons and refugees in a comprehensive and consensual manner promoting cooperation, solidarity, professionalism, reporting obligation, sustainability, sensitivity ... which are fundamental values ​​of ECOWAS.

Cote d'Ivoire ratified the Convention on January 22, 2014, and like most of the signatory countries, actions are rare in terms of integration of the Convention into national policies and the implementation of the provisions of this Convention.

According to the Commissioner for Social Affairs and Gender, all is not to sign or ratify the Convention, but to appropriate, incorporate that Convention into national policy in popularizing and creating a legal operational framework for its implementation.

According to one of its official, ECOWAS is currently testing a disaster management model or caused by human action. This tool will be popularized after its validation in collaboration with other actors involved in already existing mechanisms, such as the coordination and leadership of OCHA for humanitarian actions.

There were a total of two (02) Powerpoint presentations, namely that of the Program Manager of ECOWAS and of the High Commissioner for Refugees Representative (UNHCR), whose were emphasized on the need for a legally binding framework for the signatory countries of the Convention in order to ensure its strict compliance with the protection of IDPs throughout the subregion.

Discussions

All exchanges revolved around issues of visibility, dissemination and the means for implementation of the Convention in signatory states.

Several recommendations were made to the project initiators and also in the place of others involved in the process. Among other recommendations, we can quote:

- Disseminate the Convention through the media and NGO umbrella;
- Boosting national unit of ECOWAS and create interaction between this cell and civil society on one hand and on the other hand between the cell and the competent authorities in order to create synergies;
- Establish a mechanism for the visibility of actions involving the media;
- Commitment of each of the actors especially civil society mobilization around the issue of IDPs and refugees;
- Decentralization of decisions concentrated in Abuja;
- Greater involvement of decentralized structures of the state, which must act as a relay.

The meeting, which did not held as planned given the delay, ended at 3:35 p.m. This kind of meeting will continue in the other two countries targeted by ECOWAS for this phase of experimentation.

This meeting was an opportunity for IAD-International to exchange with other humanitarian and development actors at subregional level on intervention strategies, and also to strengthen its partnering network.

The communication department
IAD-International