The Commission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) organised the Annual Meeting of National Commissions (NATCOM) on Small Arms in 2021 to review activities for the effective implementation of the ECOWAS Convention on Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) under the theme, “Promoting transparency and information exchange in the control, administration and management of SALW in the ECOWAS region” in Accra, Ghana, November 17-19, 2021. The European Union and the German Government supported the organization of the meeting within the framework of the Organized Crime West Africa Response to Trafficking – (OCWAR -T) project,
The meeting chaired by the NATCOM of Ghana was attended by the National Commissions of the following Member States: Republic of Benin, Burkina Faso, Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, Republic of The Gambia, Republic of Ghana, Republic of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Liberia, Republic of Niger, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Republic of Senegal, Republic of Sierra Leone and the Togolese Republic.
Present at the opening ceremony were The Board Chair of NATCOM of Ghana, the representative of the Ambassador of Germany, the representative of the Delegation of the European Union, the Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP ), the Permanent Representative of ECOWAS in Ghana representing the Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security of the ECOWAS Commission, the Director General at the Ministry of Interior representing the Government of Ghana, as well as other representatives of key partners such as: GIZ; Mines Advisory Group (MAG); UNDP; and UNIDIR.
At the end of the meeting, the Member States delegates unanimously stressed the need for the inclusion of qualified IT experts into the daily operations of the NATCOMs for effective management of the arms tracing databases and the full operationalization of Articles 9,10,11 of the small arms convention.