Africa-Press – Mauritius. The maintenance of regional peace and security are prerequisites to sustainable socio-economic development and a successful regional integration, said the Minister of Land Transport and Light Rail, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade, Mr Alan Ganoo, this morning, at Voila Hotel in Bagatelle.
The Minister was speaking during the opening ceremony of a three-day National Consultative Workshop on the COMESA Conflict Early Warning System (COMWARN) Structural Vulnerability Assessment (SVA).
The COMWARN SVA model, developed by the COMESA with the technical assistance of the African Union (AU), is a comprehensive conflict early warning and analysis system.
It aims at identifying the conditions, processes and actors responsible for the eruption and escalation of violent conflicts in the African region. In his address, Mr Ganoo emphasised the important role of the region in maintaining continental peace and security.
He thus reiterated Government’s commitment in working closely with the COMESA and the AU so as to explore the set of structural vulnerability factors that are inherent to Mauritius as a Small Island Developing State and ensure the successful use of the COMWARN SVA methodology.
Speaking about the COMWARN SVA, the Minister indicated that it not only complements the AU’s Continental Early Warning System, but also provides the AU with a unique platform to disseminate its own tools namely, the Country Structural Vulnerability and Resilience Assessment and the Country Structural Vulnerability Mitigation Strategy.
The Foreign Minister moreover spoke about maritime safety and security in the Indian Ocean which is high on Government’s agenda whereby Mauritius is playing and will continue to play a prominent role in enhancing maritime domain awareness in the region. Government, he further underscored, is sparing no efforts to promote sustainable blue economy industries and coastal development projects.
For his part, the COMESA representative, Dr Oita Etyang, present at the opening ceremony, stated that the National Consultative Workshop is pertinent in that it is providing an opportunity to COMESA and the AU to disseminate Mauritius’s report on structural vulnerabilities which is a key output of the Early Warning System.
The system is very important as it will help in identifying vulnerabilities and challenges in the socio-economic, governance, environment and education sectors, amongst others, that will allow the elaboration of robust plans and policies to address such vulnerabilities in advance.
Within the COMESA region, Kenya, Uganda, Madagascar, Zambia and Zimbabwe have already started the process of utilising the COMWARN SVA and now Mauritius will be the sixth country to do so. The Consultative Workshop
The event, organised by the COMESA Secretariat jointly with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade, is bringing together around 30 participants coming from different Ministries/Departments to partake in discussions.
Resource persons are from the COMESA Secretariat and the AU Commission. The aim is to sensitise participants on the COMESA and AU Structural Vulnerability and Resilience Assessment methodologies.
Stakeholders will also deliberate on the necessary response strategies towards addressing the identified vulnerabilities with a view to coming up with a SVA Response Strategy for Mauritius.
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