Historic Moments At WANEP General Assembly

The WANEP 13th General Assembly held from January 20 to 22, 2015 in Accra, Ghana under the theme: “WANEP Transition from Programming to Visioning in support of ECOWAS and African Union Peace Architecture.” A high point of the meeting was the official handing over of leadership from the
outgoing Executive Director, Mr. Emmanuel Bombande to incoming Executive Director, Mr. Chukwuemeka Eze. Other significant achievements of the meeting included the swearing-in of the new Regional Board members, the adoption of the WANEP 5-year Strategic Plan (2015 to 2020) and the review and adoption of the Constitution among others.

In an emotion-laden speech, Mr. Bombande, who is also one of the two founding members of WANEP, took a trip down memory lane to the early
days of WANEP, recalling how it all started. He expressed profound appreciation to all those who contributed to the success of the organization and pledged his continuous support and commitment to WANEP.

Mr. Eze’s acceptance speech enumerated his forays into peacebuilding through WANEP recounting his progress in the organization which he started
as the first staff of WANEP-Nigeria. Mr. Eze, who is succeeded by Mrs. Levinia Addae-Mensah, has served WANEP in different capacities as National Network Coordinator (NNC) of WANEP-Nigeria and later as Program Director at the Regional office.

The incoming Program Director, Mrs. Levinia AddaeMensah was also introduced to the General Assembly. Levinia joins WANEP from the
Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center where she served as the Director Planning and Programmes. Levinia is coming back to a familiar turf having worked in WANEP for five years in Peace Education and in Special Projects .

A high point of the meeting was the brief presence of Dr. Sam Doe, co-founder and WANEP’s first Executive Director. It was indeed a momentous occasion.!

The General Assembly which was attended by representatives of WANEP’s national networks, strategic partners and key stakeholders was also an opportunity to honour major partners namely; the Governments of Sweden, Denmark and Austria.