Ghana in Search of Regional Integration Agenda 189 things with conflict management missions, including: observation and monitoring; peacekeeping and restoration of peace; humanitarian intervention in support of humanitarian disaster; enforcement of sanctions, including embargo; preventive deployment; peace-building, disarmament and demobilisation, In sum, the adoption of the Protocol Relating to the Mechanisms for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution by ECOWAS, appears to give this Regional Economic Community(REC) a new impetus from within to tackle the region's conflicts. 226 From that point of view, a key issue is how the responsibilities assumed by ECOWAS cohere and link to the AU's overarching framework for peace and security. ECOWAS, in Article 52 of the Protocol Relating to the Mechanisms provides for the cooperation of that regional body with the AU, the UN and other relevant international organisations. The AU, of course, has been keenly aware of this issue and as such adopted the Peace and Security Protocol setting out its relationships with RECs for conflict prevention, management and resolution. 227 4. THE ROLE OF SOME INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS AND DONOR AGENCIES IN COMPLEMENTING THE INTEGRATION AGENDA OF WEST AFRICAN STATES International Organisations as well as donor agencies also have a special role to play in complementing the integration agenda in West Africa. This is obviously the case since these organisations and agencies are well placed to support initiatives and policy changes favourable to regional integration and by so doing help Member States to meet their challenges—challenges that range from peace and security, economic marginalisation, weak infrastructure, and weak performance in macroeconomic policies. In what follows, an attempt will be made to highlight the different roles of the African Union(peace and security), the European Union, USAID and the IBRD(financial and economic support). A. The African Union The African Union is essentially a regional arrangement endowed with several organs, powers and functions for the promotion of accelerated socio-economic integration of the Continent. The Constitutive Act establishing the Union does not set out to create a super-state in the sense that Member States have subordinated their sovereignty to the Organisation. The AU still upholds the principle of sovereign equality and independence of its Member States. That principle is retained in the Objectives of the AU. Member States merely envisage a fundamental re-ordering of 226 See Gebe, Boniface Yao,“ECOWAS Security Protocols and Conflict Management in West Africa” Lessons and the Way Forward” in Vol. 1, Legon Journal of International Affairs, December 2004, pp. 1-25. 227 See, infra.