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West African Politics

West African Politics: In-depth reporting on executive leadership, legislative changes, and democratic processes across the 15 ECOWAS nations.

West African Politics

ECOWAS Commission Launches Automated Platform for Community Development Programme

By Kabir Isa

The ECOWAS Commission has launched an automated platform for its Community Development Programme at an event in Abuja, Nigeria, held from 5 to 9 October 2026. The platform is designed to support the coordination, programming and monitoring of regional development projects and to improve public access to project information. Operationalisation has begun with ECOWAS institutions and technical entities populating the system.

West African Politics

ECOWAS Opens Accra Workshop to Put 2026–2031 Communication Strategy Into Practice

By Kabir Isa

ECOWAS opened a workshop in Accra on 12 October 2026 with communication officers from its institutions and specialised agencies, convened with German development agency GIZ. The meeting is focused on implementing the ECOWAS Inter-Institutional Communication Strategy and Information and Communication Policy for 2026–2031. Officials including Joel Ahofodji and Ambassador Mohammed Lawan Gana spoke about coordination, messaging and the transition to an "ECOWAS of Peoples".

West African Politics

ECOWAS and OECD Move to Turn 2025 Memorandum Into Joint Work Programme

By Kabir Isa

ECOWAS Commission President General Birame Diop met OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann in Paris on 1 October 2026, in one of his first official engagements since taking office. The two sides reviewed implementation of their October 2025 memorandum of understanding and set out proposed next steps, including a joint technical coordination mechanism and a joint work programme.

West African Politics

ECOWAS Statistical Leadership Training in Monrovia Ends with Calls for Stronger Systems

By Kabir Isa

A five-day ECOWAS training workshop on statistical leadership and management for National Statistical Systems managers from Member States and Mauritania concluded in Monrovia, Liberia. Participants recommended stronger strategic leadership, safeguards for the professional independence of statistical institutions, and improved coordination among statistical producers. They also urged ECOWAS to support capacity-building on generative artificial intelligence and to establish a regional committee for international statistical decision-making.

West African Politics

Writer Asks If Borana Gadaa System Offers Lessons for African Elections

By Kabir Isa

A Peace News Network article by Diba Kosi Bilinga, republished by Global Voices, argues that the Borana Gadaa system's fixed eight-year leadership rotation offers lessons for African elections. The piece compares Gadaa institutions with constitutional term-limit removals, ethnic mobilization, and disputed results across the continent.

West African Politics

Borana Gadaa System Offers African Elections Model of Rotational Power

By Kabir Isa

An essay by Diba Kosi Bilinga, republished by Global Voices, argues that the Borana Gadaa system's rotational leadership offers lessons for African elections. The piece contrasts the eight-year power rotation among five Gogeessas with patterns of constitutional amendments, disputed results, and coups elsewhere on the continent.

West African Politics

Borana Gadaa System Offers African Elections Model of Rotational Power, Writer Argues

By Kabir Isa

A Peace News Network article republished by Global Voices examines the Borana Gadaa system, a rotational leadership model practiced in southern Ethiopia and northern Kenya, and asks what African electoral systems might learn from it. Writer Diba Kosi Bilinga argues that built-in time limits, long preparation of leaders, cross-cutting political structures, distributed power, and continuous mediation offer lessons for a continent where disputed elections and constitutional amendments have repeatedly extended incumbents' rule.

West African Politics

Senegal’s Moral Battles: How Conservative Groups Reshaped the Political Arena

By Kabir Isa

Senegal's recurring controversies over dance, dress, abortion and family law reflect a long-running argument about moral boundaries that dates back to the colonial-era Code. A scholar writing in The Conversation argues that conservative groups have acquired significant influence in the political arena, and that the country's political class has largely accommodated them. He traces how moralization became a shared electoral language across camps.

West African Politics

ECOWAS Boundary Commissions Meet in The Gambia to Review Border Governance Progress

By Kabir Isa

Heads of national boundary commissions from across West Africa met in The Gambia from 6 to 8 October 2026 to review progress on recommendations from their previous gathering and identify priority follow-up actions. The meeting, convened by the ECOWAS Commission, brought together commission heads alongside representatives of the African Union and development partners including GIZ.