Vice President of the Republic of Ghana, Prof Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, has called for enhanced regional cooperation, proactive leadership, and practical policy coordination to address the evolving security challenges confronting West Africa and the wider region.

She made the call on Thursday, January 29, 2026, while delivering an address at the Joint Ministerial Meeting of the High-Level Consultative Conference on Regional Cooperation and Security in Accra.

Addressing Honourable Ministers, government officials, and regional stakeholders, the Vice President conveyed warm greetings from President John Dramani Mahama and underscored the importance he attaches to the conference, noting that the strong ministerial participation reflects the urgency of the challenges facing the region.

Prof Opoku-Agyemang described the Ministerial Meeting as central to the conference, stressing that it is the forum where analysis must be translated into concrete policy direction and national priorities aligned to guide regional action.

She observed that the region’s strategic environment has changed significantly, with security threats becoming increasingly interconnected and transnational.

According to her, challenges such as violent extremism, terrorism, organised crime, cyber threats, and persistent youth unemployment transcend national borders and institutional mandates.

“In this context, leadership requires more than responding to immediate pressures,” she said, adding that foresight and coordination are essential to ensure that security strategies, foreign policy, and development agendas reinforce one another rather than operate in isolation.

The Vice President cautioned against fragmented approaches, noting that experience within and beyond the region has shown such methods to be ineffective in addressing today’s complex threats.

She emphasised that effective regional cooperation must be anchored in timely information-sharing, joint analysis, and coordinated responses, with prevention serving as a practical necessity rather than an abstract ideal.

Professor Opoku-Agyemang further stressed the need for regional initiatives to be designed with implementation clearly in mind, highlighting the importance of defined roles, strong institutional frameworks, and alignment with national priorities. Without these, she warned, cooperation risks remaining aspirational instead of operational.

She also underscored the role of credible and capable institutions, noting that even well-crafted policies yield little impact if coordination is weak or mandates are unclear.

Sustained progress, she said, depends on institutional coherence, ownership, and the ability to translate decisions into tangible results.

The Vice President noted that the outcomes of the Ministerial Meeting would directly inform the deliberations of Heads of State and Government at the Summit scheduled for the following day, making the clarity of the ministers’ conclusions both immediately and long-term significant.

As discussions continued, she urged participants to balance ambition with realism, ensuring that recommendations reflect both the scale of the challenges and the institutional capacities of member states, while remaining grounded in national contexts.

While acknowledging the seriousness of the challenges ahead, Professor Opoku-Agyemang expressed confidence in the region’s ability to overcome them through sustained political commitment, coordinated action, and a focus on practical outcomes.

On behalf of President Mahama, she thanked the ministers for their constructive engagement and wished them a successful Ministerial Meeting.