Security is in place. COMESA has a Committee of Elders whose main is to provide
support to the Office of the Secretary General on preventive diplomatic missions.150
The COMESA Conflict Early Warning System monitors from an economic viewpoint
the System Structural Vulnerability Assessments151 that build on the COMESA Peace
and Prosperity Index.152 ECOWAS has the Regional Political Integration and Human
Security Support Programme that is part of its peace and security architecture153
From 2004-2007, COMESA, the East Africa Community (EAC) and
the Inter
Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) undertook a Conflict Prevention,
Management and Resolution project and strategy for the region; fighting the trade in
illicit small arms and light weapons was assigned to EAC, war economies to COMESA
and general conflict prevention to IGAD.154 Through the War Economy component of
the project, Members sought to understand better the economic elements of conflict
as well as post-conflict reconstruction.
CSOs involved in peacebuilding are accredited to the COMESA programme on Peace
and Security and the Inter Parliamentary Forum also has a peace and security
component within its mandate.
150
COMESA News ‘Egypt elected president of COMESA Committee of Elders 23 February 2019. Available at
https://www.comesa.int/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/COMESA-Quarterly-Newsletter-Vol.-1.-2019final_email.pdf
151
Elizabeth Mutunga ‘Repositioning COMEDA as a Peaceful and Secure Region for Deeper Integration’
COMESA.
Available
at
https://www3.nd.edu/~ggoertz/rei/reidevon.dtBase2/Files.noindex/pdf/d/386_06.%20Peace%20and%20Security
%2030%2007%202010.pdf
152
Statement by Mr. Sindiso Ngwenya COMESA Secretary General at the Annual Briefing of the African
Regional Economic Communities to Member States and United Nations Entities on Silencing the Guns in Africa:
The Nexus Between Peace, Security, Governance and Development October 2015
153
UNECA ‘COMESA - Peace, Security, Stability and Governance’. Available at
154
Mutunga E ‘Repositioning COMESA as a Peaceful and Secure Region for Deeper Integration’
55