Agence de Presse Ouest-Africaine
Agence de Presse Ouest-Africaine
ECOWAS sent a delegation led by Dr. Babatunde Afolabi to the eighth EU Community of Practice on Peace Mediation in Brussels on 20 and 21 October 2026. The delegation took part in a plenary on advancing peace mediation in an unpredictable world, and ECOWAS said the meeting allowed reflection on challenges including violent extremism, unconstitutional changes of government and interstate disputes.
A study of 644 rice-farming households in Senegal finds that credit access has no significant average effect on adopting improved seed varieties, but is positively linked to adoption and planted area where land tenure is secure, and negatively linked to adoption where it is not.
The ECOWAS Gender Development Centre and Spain's AECID met in Dakar on October 20, 2026, to review their Institutional Support and Obstetric Fistula projects and to discuss new collaboration on the care economy and climate action. The two sides agreed to pursue technical consultations on a second phase of the support project and discussed attending the 10th Global Conference on Obstetric Fistula in Dakar in December.
A film and media scholar examined three K-dramas and found Africa recurring as a place in need of charity, a site of savagery, and a punishment for troubled characters. Osarugue Otebele argues these portrayals function as a scale for measuring South Korea's own development rather than as depictions of the continent.
The Global Burden of Disease 2023 study reports that years lived with disability worldwide rose from 786 million in 2010 to 990 million in 2023, even as life expectancy improved. A rehabilitation researcher argues that Africa's health systems have not expanded services fast enough to support the growing number of people surviving with long-term conditions.
A review of 122 studies finds brief, structured programmes run by trained non-specialists can ease depression and anxiety symptoms among African schoolchildren, but concludes that counselling alone cannot address the conditions behind their distress. The authors argue schools need to sit within wider systems of family, community and health support.
Circular economy researchers argue that repair, reuse and resale are already embedded in everyday economic activity across Africa, and that policies should scale up these practices rather than replace them. Their research maps which countries have banned plastic bags, built e-waste recycling facilities or adopted producer-responsibility rules, and identifies gaps in waste collection, enforcement and support for informal workers.
A modelling study projects that suitable climate for Africa's cave-dwelling long-fingered bats could shrink by 36% to 64% by 2061-2080, and that only about 5% of areas with suitable caves are expected to retain a fit climate. Lead author Mariëtte van der Walt argues conservation planning must ask not just where the climate will suit wildlife, but whether there will be somewhere for it to live.
Research by three environmental scientists finds that cutting air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions together could deliver economic returns far larger than the cost, with some southern African regions seeing about 26 dollars in benefits for every dollar spent. The studies assess 25 proven solutions and 37 areas for action, against a backdrop of close to one million premature deaths in sub-Saharan Africa in 2023.
ECOWAS's Resident Representation in Benin and the ECOWAS National Office conducted a joint field monitoring mission from August 31 to September 5, 2026, visiting 20 sites across seven interventions in 17 municipalities. The mission reported gains in dairy production, youth skills and infrastructure, while flagging challenges around equipment, post-training support and the sustainability of results.
