How the media support regional integration in West Africa

In order to achieve peace and stability and increase prosperity over the long term, nations must cooperate with one another. For executives from business and politics in the West of Africa, the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) offers great potential support of regional integration. ECOWAS has, however, not received much attention from the wider public in its member states. This is due in part to insufficient knowledge and understanding of the community’s goals, its structure and possible role in the regional integration process.

The media are primarily responsible for informing the public about ECOWAS and reporting in detail on its background and tasks. This is why Inwent’s International Institute for Journalism (IIJ) offers a two-week training course each year on ECOWAS and reporting on regional integration in Accra, Ghana. The programme seeks to improve journalists’ understanding of regional political and economic integration concepts. Explaining the role of ECOWAS, its history, institutions and tasks is a main focus of the course. This results in improved media resonance in the region on the development of ECOWAS and increased acceptance among the area’s citizens.

D+C online: Good journalism helps build institutions 

Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)