Ghana becomes first African country to undergo structural vulnerability assessment

A report on Ghana’s Country Structural Vulnerability and Resilience Assessment (CSVRA) and Country Structural Vulnerability Mitigation Strategy (CSVMS) to highlight issues of conflict prevention has been launched today.

The exercise, which was conducted between October and November last year, sought to identify structural stability and resilience indicators that make the Republic of Ghana more resilient to conflict.

It further explored the dimensions upon which the AU and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) can best support the actions to be undertaken in the implementation of the mitigation strategy.

Conducted within the framework of the African Union’s (AU) continental Structural Conflict Prevention, and endorsed by the Union’s Peace and Security Council (PSC), CSVRA lays emphasis on conflict prevention through the decisions of the heads of the assemblies of state in the declaration of ‘silencing the guns in Africa’ by 2020.

It forms part of the flagship projects and programmes of Agenda 2063; Africa’s blueprint for its long-term socio-economic and integrative transformation.

The socio-economic tools required for a successful implementation are Governance, rule of law, democracy, human rights, peace and security, environment, and climate change as well as gender and youth.

Hence, Ghana is the first AU member state that has volunteered to undergo the first ever CSVRA concept pioneered by the AU.

The final report of the Ghana CSVRA, according to the AU, highlighted issues of structural vulnerabilities and resilience but also proposed some quick recommendations to address the vulnerabilities as well as to strengthen the resilience across socio-economic development.

Nonetheless, the AU lauded Ghana’s conflict management skills.

“I’m glad to learn from the assessment that despite the vulnerabilities diverse resilience factors have enabled Ghana to prevent and manage violent conflicts including the culture of peace among Ghanaians, reverence and respect of traditional authorities such as respect for human rights, a vibrant civil society and media, as well as key democratic institutions such as the National Peace Council. The recent appointment of a Special Prosecutor is a laudable approach,” Head of Conflict Prevention & Early Warning Division of the AU Commission, Ambassador Fred Ngoga said.



In his remarks at the launch of the report, Minister for National Security, Albert Kan-Dapaah, said that Ghana takes pride as the beacon of peace in Africa hence, stakeholders in the country are willing to put the tools to test to ensure peace and stability.

He said Ghana accepted the challenged wholeheartedly because government sought to unearth underlying issues which could possibly threaten the peace in the country.



“We were excited to come up with any findings that would come out of this process so that we could help to shape the policies and programmes that would be necessary to address any structural vulnerabilities that are identified.” He stated.

The Minister commended the AU for their assistance in the study. He reiterated that it is a “cornerstone that will boost our country’s early warning capabilities.