Abstract:

The Spanish Agency for International Cooperation and Development (AECID) considers that it is necessary to improve the knowledge of the economic and political integration processes at the ECOWAS, especially on those sectors where AECID’s support focuses, namely agriculture and food security, renewable energy and power connectivity and infrastructure.

With regards to these sectors, in the annexes to the full version of this report, the key issues related to the appropriation of and alignment with the regional strategies by the countries prioritized by Spain’s Development Cooperation Policy (Senegal, Mali and Niger), as well as those considered to be of special importance for Spain in the region (Nigeria, Ghana, Cabo Verde and Burkina Faso), can be found.

In the last section of this report we cover the progress made and the obstacles raised in the regional integration processes, with special focus on the above mentioned three sectors, as well as describe the main features of the EU policies and their impact on the regional integration dynamics taking place at the ECOWAS in terms of trade, finance and development.

The information to write this report has been collected from different primary and secondary sources and from interviews conducted with key actors and informants during the fieldwork conducted in Abuja and Brussels.

GARCÍA-LUENGOS, Jesús y SERÓN AIRES, Gema, ECOWAS Regional Integration Processes and Cooperation. Abridged Version, Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo, Madrid, 2014.