Ghana in Search of Regional Integration Agenda 27 In 1990, Ghana became a member(together with Nigeria, Gambia, Mali and Togo) of the Standing Mediation Committee(SMC) tasked to find a solution to the Liberian crisis. Later, Ghana played a leading role in the formation of the ECOWAS Monitoring Group(ECOMOG) and apart from Nigeria, made the largest contribution in terms of peacekeepers, logistics and funds. It also contributed the first ECOMOG Commander, Lt. Gen. Arnold Quainoo. Ghana was also instrumental in promoting all the Liberian peace accords and in fact hosted the Akosombo and Accra conferences in 1994, and Flt.Lt, Rawlings' two-term tenure as ECOWAS Chairman in the 1994-1996 period greatly facilitated the return to peace in Liberia in 1997. Ghana also contributed in terms of personnel and logistics to the 1997 Liberian election. The Chairman of Ghana's Electoral Commission, Dr. Afari-Gyan, for example, was appointed the Chief Technical Advisor to the Interim Electoral Commission of Liberia, while the NDC government supplied public address systems and indelible ink(Ibid: 13). Ghana continued to play a similar leading role in the crisis in Sierra Leone particularly following the May 1997 coup which forced ECOWAS to send another peacekeeping force into Sierra Leone until peace was restored in 2002(Ibid: 13.) When Liberia relapsed into violence in the 1999-2003 period, Ghana was a leading troop-contributor to the ECOWAS Stabilising Force sent to maintain the peace ahead of the UN Mission in Liberia(UNMIL) and indeed it was in Accra that the Comprehensive Peace Accord(CPA) on Liberia was signed following peace talks lasting from early June to mid-August 2003. Liberia's transition to peace also virtually coincided with former President Kufuor's two terms as ECOWAS Chairman. Ghana's leading role in peacekeeping, peace talks and diplomacyamong other things continued under the Kufuor Administration(2001-2009). In addition to its role in the peace processes in Liberia and Cote d'Ivoire and Kufuor's two-term chairmanship, in 2002, the government sponsored Dr Mohammed Ibn Chambas to become ECOWAS Executive Secretary and he with the transformation of the Secretariat into a Commission has become the first President of the ECOWAS Commission(Ibid: 15). At the economic front, Ghana(under the NDC in December1999, andNigeria adopted the Fast Track Initiative(FTI) covering five programmes:the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme(ETLS); the establishment of a Second ECOWAS Monetary Zone; a borderless zone, infrastructural development, private sector development and collaboration and investment promotion. In March 2000, the Ghana-Nigeria initiative was broadened to include Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Togo, which unfortunately diluted the FTI(Ibid: 15).