URI - Africa to Establish Working Partnership with ECOWAS

17 October 2016
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Greetings of peace and blessing from URI-Africa.

This is to inform you that URI was introduced to Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on the occasion of our meeting with H.E. Edward Singhatey, Vice-President of ECOWAS.

As a bridge-building interfaith organization, URI-Africa also express its interest to establish a close working partnership between the grassroots organizations of URI Cooperation Circles and ECOWAS, through the URI West Africa regional office, to enhance social development, interfaith and inter-cultural relations, and peaceful co-existence, and to address the issues of counter violent extremism, radicalization, and hate speech. We aim to introduce peace education in West African countries and to compliment the regional integration work of ECOWAS.    

ECOWAS is a 15-member, regional intergovernmental organization with a mandate of promoting economic integration in all fields of activity of the constituting countries. It is also the leading organization in the region which is promoting the issues of peace and security. The headquarters of ECOWAS is based in Abuja, Nigeria.

Member countries making up ECOWAS are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cote d’ Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Senegal and Togo.

The Vision of ECOWAS is the creation of a borderless region where the population has access to its abundant resources and is able to exploit same through the creation of opportunities under a sustainable environment. What ECOWAS has created is an integrated region where the population enjoys free movement, has access to efficient education and health systems, and engages in economic and commercial activities while living in dignity in an atmosphere of peace and security. ECOWAS is meant to be a region governed in accordance with the principles of democracy, rule of law, and good governance.

The strategy of URI-Africa is to enhance working partnerships for each URI sub-regional offices with the relevant inter-governmental sub-regional institutions in the region.

So far, URI Africa has established a working partnership for URI Horn of Africa with the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD). IGAD is an intergovernmental organization in the Horn of Africa. The vision of IGAD is to achieve peace, prosperity and regional integration in the horn of Africa region.

May Peace Prevail on Earth

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