The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has convened a four-day Zonal Strategic Planning Meeting on Local Conflict Prevention and Peace Building in The Gambia.

The meeting, which commenced on Monday 30th June, will end on the 3rd July 2008, at the Jerma Beach Hotel in Kololi.

The Gambia is the observation and monitoring centre for Zone1.

Zone1 includes The Gambia, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau and Senegal. 

The purpose of the meeting is to develop strategies and plans of action to promote dialogue and conflict prevention in identified trouble spots in the member countries.

The meeting will review proposed plans of action for local interventions developed by civil society peace networks and develop modalities for joint ECOWAS-CSO.

Time-lines and the co-ordinating roles of the Zonal Bureaux, complementary frameworks and the way forward will be discussed among other things.