The Vice-President of Ghana, Professor Jane Opoku-Agyemang, has called on ECOWAS Member States for proactive stronger early warnings to be able to act before local pressures become wider humanitarian crises.
The Vice-President of Ghana, Professor Jane Opoku-Agyemang, said member states must develop coordinated responses that address both the immediate effects and underlying causes of the crises.
She said this on Tuesday, 22nd September 2026, when she was speaking at the official opening of the Second 2026 Parliamentary Seminar and Second Extraordinary Session of the ECOWAS Parliament in Accra, on behalf of Ghana’s President John Rahmanu Mahama.
She said the interconnected nature of the challenges required unified action, including stronger early-warning systems, better support for host communities, and improved coordination across borders.
“We need stronger early warnings, better support for host communities, more resilient livelihoods, and better coordination across our borders, acting before local pressures become wider humanitarian crises,” she said.
She said that climate change should be treated not only as an environmental issue but also as a development and security challenge.
She also cited population displacement across the Sahel and neighbouring coastal states, saying that “insecurity, environmental stress, and disrupted livelihoods in one part of West Africa increasingly put pressure on communities and national systems elsewhere.”
She informed the Parliament that Ghana was working with ECOWAS to strengthen early warning through improved data sharing, closer coordination, and stronger links between national and regional response systems.
She called for greater efforts to secure climate finance and invest in resilient agriculture, water management, coastal protection, and clean energy.
She said: “ECOWAS already has important frameworks covering free movement, disaster risk reduction, climate action, and early warning,” but stressed that the priority was to ensure they were fully implemented and properly resourced.
The Second Deputy Speaker of the Ghanaian Parliament, Mr. Andrew Asiamah, who represented the Speaker, stressed that no ECOWAS member state could tackle the challenges alone, noting that rivers, ecosystems, and environmental crimes crossed national borders.
He also warned that regional responses would require adequate financing, saying policies without sufficient resources would remain largely aspirational.
The Head of the Ghanaian Delegation to the ECOWAS Parliament, Mr. Kweku Ricketts-Hagan, explained that the Parliament had an important role to play in bringing solutions to the issues of climate change and insecurity since they were closer to the people, and called for a coordinated and holistic approach in addressing the challenges.
The Second Extraordinary Session of the ECOWAS Parliament will also consider the institution’s 2027 budget and activity programme.
The parliamentary seminar is being held under a theme focused on climate change, environmental degradation, population displacement, and growing insecurity in the ECOWAS region.
