ECOWAS workshop in Suleja aims to strengthen humanitarian response coordination in West Africa

A four-day workshop on monitoring, evaluation, and financial reporting of humanitarian interventions in West Africa opened on November 5, 2024, in Suleja, Niger State, Nigeria.

The event, organized by the Directorate of Humanities and Social Affairs of the ECOWAS Commission, aims to improve the coordination, effectiveness, and accountability of regional humanitarian efforts across member states.

The workshop targets national focal points responsible for disaster management and humanitarian response, as well as ECOWAS staff, focusing on building their capacity in monitoring, evaluation (M&E), and financial reporting of humanitarian activities.

Ezenekwe Tochukwu, representing Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, officially opened the workshop on behalf of the ministry’s director, Ezelu Valentine. Valentine underscored the challenges in the region, emphasizing the need for coordinated, effective, and compassionate humanitarian responses, enabled by strong M&E frameworks.

Dr. Sintiki Ugbe, Director of Humanitarian and Social Affairs at the ECOWAS Commission, delivered a keynote address stressing the importance of efficient M&E systems to optimize resources and improve humanitarian efforts. Dr. Ugbe highlighted the launch of the ECOWAS Humanitarian M&E Platform, a centralized system for sharing experiences, monitoring, evaluating, and reporting humanitarian interventions across member states.

The workshop’s interactive sessions will provide participants hands-on training on data collection, analysis, report generation, and platform navigation, equipping them with skills to track, report, and optimize humanitarian interventions for greater impact across West Africa.