Mano River Women's Peace Network
The Mano River Women's Peace Network (MARWOPNET) is an NGO with headquarters in Freetown, Sierra Leone, that promotes peace and development in the Mano River region (Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea). MARWOPNET was formed under the auspices of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in May 2000, when a group of women leaders from local NGOs met in Abuja, Nigeria, to promote their participation in the process of restoring peace in Africa, and specifically in the Mano River region. MARWOPNET, whose formation marked the culmination of efforts facilitated largely by Femmes Afrique Solidarité (FAS), an NGO based in Switzerland, is comprised of roughly 30 umbrella organizations.
It is a primary example of an NGO that has been actively engaged in both the informal, traditional, grass-roots sphere of conflict resolution, and at the highest levels of government. It has sent representatives on peace tours around the region, participated in over 20 international conferences and summits pertaining to peace and other humanitarian issues, advanced direct political action by state leaders, and participated in the formal peace negotiations that ended Liberia's civil war in 2003.