ABSTRACT
Debates about long-term initiatives which recognise institutional and structural approaches to peacebuilding have evolved to include actions aimed at building social relationships and the participation of the people in the governance process. Also, increasingly the role of the civil society is acknowledged as transforming participatory processes within regional economic communities (REC). The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), in furthering its human security and strategic objectives, has adopted a bottom-up approach in its ECOWAS Vision 2020 which seeks to transform the region from “an ECOWAS of states” to “an ECOWAS of peoples.” This chapter seeks to take the debate further by highlighting the challenges ECOWAS faces in the achievement of its Vision 2020 objectives, and by prescribing alternatives for improving ECOWAS–civil society partnerships in peacebuilding in West Africa. The chapter reviews ECOWAS’s experience in regional peacebuilding through community participation and provides insights that can help IGAD and other African RECs to strengthen peacebuilding institutions and structures. It also highlights the challenges faced by ECOWAS in this regard and explores the way forward.
