Abuja — ECOWAS has proven yet again to be a strong force in the fight against human trafficking. This time, it joined hands with the continental organization, the African Union, to launch a new two-pronged campaign to operationalize the continent's four-year old instrument to address the challenges of human trafficking, particularly women and children.

The latest initiative, which is a joint programme of ECOWAS, the African Union (AU), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC), will be realized through regional workshops and the launching of the AU's Initiative against Trafficking (COMMIT) in the Regional Economic Communities (RECs).

Specifically, it would develop a roadmap for implementing the 2006 Ouagadougou plan of action. "The workshop is of critical importance to countries of Africa and to the RECs considering that it is the second in series of planned launches of the COMMIT campaign that has the critical goal of aligning the Ouagadougou plan of action with those of the various RECs", the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Ambassador Victor Gbeho, said in a message to the workshop and launch for West Africa on Wednesday, 24th March 2010 in Abuja.

The Ouagadougou plan of action prioritizes a host of activities for implementation reflecting the dimensions of the scourge in the areas of prevention, creating awareness, victim protection and assistance, instituting an appropriate legal regime, policy development, law enforcement, cooperation and enforcement.

"Exploitation lies at the centre of the concept of trafficking in persons", Ambassador Gbeho said in his message, which was read by the ECOWAS Commissioner for Human Development and Gender, Dr. Adrienne Diop, to the 60 participants at the three-day workshop, blaming "certain social and economic realities" for this burgeoning criminal enterprise, particularly the "widespread poverty, unemployment, conflicts, political oppression and insecurity".