ECOWAS at 50: Achievements, Challenges, and Opportunities

As the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) prepares to celebrate its 50th anniversary, Her Excellency Damtien Tchintchibidja, Vice-President of the ECOWAS Commission, revisits some of the organization’s major achievements. This includes investments in the region’s energy supply, food security, and human capital development that have strengthened member states and contributed to the region’s economic growth. ECOWAS initiatives like these are enhancing resiliency to violent extremism, transnational organized crime, ongoing economic shocks from the pandemic, and a growing youth bulge.

Akosombo Dam in Ghana is part of ECOWAS’s West Africa Power Pool to integrate the region’s power systems into a unified market to provide regular and reliable energy to citizens. (Photo: WAPP)

In the face of West Africa’s challenges, Vice-President Tchintchibidja sees the region’s peace, security, and prosperity as tied to a more deeply integrated ECOWAS. She calls on the ECOWAS members to continue “harnessing the potential of youth and women” and closing the gender gap and digital divide as a matter of national security—so “you don’t leave half of your team on the bench.”