Annual Report – Fiscal Year 2018: Reacting to Early Warning and Response Data in West Africa (REWARD)

The program was funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and was part of the Early Warning and Response Partnership (EWARP) initiative. The objective of EWARP was to bolster the capacity of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Warning and Response Network (ECOWARN) to monitor, gather, analyze, and disseminate threat information to its 15 Member States to support peace and security in the region. The REWARD program was designed to support USAID's Regional Development Cooperation Strategy (RDCS) Development Objective 1 (DO1), "Strengthening systems of non-violent conflict management in the West African region." The program pursued two purposes: Purpose 1, "ECOWAS response to early warning recommendations improved," and Purpose 2, "National and local stakeholders' response to electoral violence triggers improved." Purpose 1 aimed to strengthen the ECOWAS Early Warning Directorate (EWD) to collect early warning data, improve the EWD's capacity to analyze, report, and generate recommendations, and enhance the Directorate for Political Affairs (DPA) response capacity. The program achieved this through the implementation of USAID REWARD Output 1.1, Output 1.2, and Output 1.3. Output 1.1 involved strengthening the EWD to collect early warning data, which contributed to the improvement of the ECOWAS regional conflict early warning system. Output 1.2 focused on improving the EWD's capacity to analyze, report, and generate recommendations, which expanded analytical capabilities in conflict management. Output 1.3 enhanced the DPA response capacity, which also contributed to the improvement of the ECOWAS regional conflict early warning system. Purpose 2 aimed to improve national and local stakeholders' response to electoral violence triggers. This was achieved through the implementation of USAID REWARD Output 1.4, which enhanced the Commission for Political Affairs Peace and Security (CPAPS) internal and external communication and collaboration on early warning. The REWARD program also supported the development of the ECOWARN indicators, which were refined and validated through a series of workshops and training sessions. The program also conducted a Country Risk and Vulnerability Assessment (CRVA) to strengthen ECOWAS's early warning capacities. The program's success was measured through the implementation of the Indicator Performance Tracking Sheet, which tracked the program's progress against its indicators. The program also conducted a midterm evaluation, which revealed a 27% increase in household income among program participants compared to the control group. The REWARD program's achievements were also recognized through the implementation of several success stories, including the strengthening of ECOWAS's early warning capacities, the implementation of conflict prevention theory, and the mitigation of violent presidential elections in Sierra Leone and Mali.