ECOWAS, Germany To Address Water, Energy, Food Conflicts In Nigeria, Others

The Vice President of the ECOWAS Commission, Damtien Tchintchibidja, has said that the commission will deepen collaboration with its partners to harness the water-energy-food nexus as a tool for conflict prevention.

He said this as a Guest Speaker at a high-level side event on “utilising the Water—Energy—Food Nexus as an effective catalyst for conflict prevention and resolution”, organized by the German International Cooperation Agency (GiZ), in the margin of the 61st annual Munich Security Conference.

The main objective of the intervention was to share ECOWAS’s perspective, especially what the Early Warning System expertise and data in the specific thematic areas of environment, health, food security, climate change and transhumance, could contribute, looking at the security of our populations when attempting to access or share natural resources in volatile environments.

Speaking on the topic, the Vice President highlighted that “the ECOWAS region, with its enormous natural resources, has significant potential for economic growth and prosperity.

“However, it is currently facing issues related to access and sharing of natural resources, which affect the regional stability, security, peace, and well-being of our populations.”

She also talked about the main causes of these conflicts, such as limited access to water, cattle encroaching on farmlands, disagreements over who owns the land, the effects of climate change pushing pastoralist communities deeper into farming areas, and more competition for fewer resources.

Reflecting on concrete steps undertaken at the regional level, she shared ECOWAS’ robust stratgies adopted, and mechanisms established as well as ongoing initiatives aimed at responding to the human security concerns linked to the Water-Energy-Food nexus.

This, she added, would help to prevent or mitigate conflicts and promote sustainability and security.

The Munich Conference on Security is an annual conference on international security policy that has been held in Munich, Germany, since 1963.

Over the past four decades, the event has become one of the most important independent forums for the exchange of views by international security policy decision-makers.

As part of the mission’s outreach, the ECOWAS Vice President met with Svenja Shulze, Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

This provided an opportunity to exchange ideas on issues of common interest in the framework of the collaboration between the German Government and the ECOWAS Commission.

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ECOWAS, Germany To Address Water, Energy, Food Conflicts In Nigeria, Others is first published on The Whistler Newspaper