Elders, ( renamed the Council of the Wise). ECOWAS has a Standby Force that has made peacemaking interventions in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau and Cote d’Ivoire.145 In 2010, ECOWAS simultaneously adopted the Dakar Declaration & ECOWAS Plan of Action for the Implementation of UNSCR 1325 and 1820 In West Africa.146 The Declaration defined various interventions to be coordinated by a Gender Development Centre which had been established in 2003.147 Coordination of RAP implementation by member states is undertaken by the Gender Development Centre, which also implements the mainstreaming of gender in the region.148As a region, ECOWAS has the highest number of countries with NAPs to implement UNSCR 1325; 13 out 15 countries in West Africa have NAPs. Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa Although established for economic development reasons, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) has components of peace and security with a women, peace and security component. The 1994 Treaty establishing the Common Markets of East and Southern Africa (COMESA) has as one its aims co-operation in the promotion of peace, security and stability among the Member States in order to enhance economic development in the region. The COMESA Gender Policy only makes fleeting reference to women, peace and security. Its provisions note the need to address peace and security as a cross cutting issue within the socio-economic concerns that COMESA addresses. COMESA has a Governance, Peace and Security Programme since 2002 and institutional frameworks to address peace and security.149 COMESA Ministers of Foreign Affairs meet annually to address matters concerning conflict prevention, conflict management and post conflict reconstruction and a Committee on Peace and 145 Ceesay-Ebo A ‘Gender Dimensions of the ECOWAS Peace and Security Architecture: A Regional Perspective on UN Resolution 1325. CODESRIA 2011 146 Peace women ‘Regional Action Plan: ECOWAS’. Available at https://www.peacewomen.org/actionplan/regional-action-plan-ecowas 147 ECOWAS Gender Development Centre. Available at https://www.ccdg.ecowas.int/aboutegdc/history/?lang=en 148 Udoka Ndidiamaka Owie ‘Women, Power & Policymaking: Beyond the Rhetoric: Mainstreaming Gender in the ECOWAS Peace and Security Architecture’ Policy Briefing August 2019 149 COMESA ‘Governance, Peace and Security’. Available at https://www.comesa.int/services/governancepeace-and-security-unit/ 54