The African Public Square (APS) Second Continental Edition at the ECOWAS@50 Conference : Future-proofing Regional Integration in Africa: ECOWAS@50

The African Public Square is pleased to officially announce that the Second Continental African Public Square Debate will be held during the Conference on ECOWAS@50 on  31 October and 1 November 2025  in Abuja, Nigeria. This event is being co-organised by the African Leadership Centre, Amandla Institute and CODESRIA, in collaboration with WATHI.  This edition of the APS open debate asks a core question: Are regional organisations a necessity for regional integration in Africa? The debate will open additional questions: What needs will drive a future ECOWAS of peoples? Can regional integration be achieved without a political community and economic base?

Regional integration in Africa is a story of two worlds: the world of states and the world of people. This is an unintended consequence of a growing distance between the stated regional integration ambitions of governments and the realities of life among their peoples. The drive for integration among people is outpacing their governments and regional organisations’ progress. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) which was among the first in Africa to set the pace for regional integration has had some setbacks in recent years. This year’s celebration of 50 years of ECOWAS provides an opportunity to look back and look forward, imagining what the future of regional integration could be for African peoples. 

Governments pursue regional integration through shared institutions to achieve common goals, not least stability, development and the prosperity of their peoples. Success typically requires organising principles, along with shared norms and a supporting political community with shared values and aspirations. We have seen transitions in norms and values induced by the African Union’s (AU) organising principles from nonintervention in countries’ internal affairs to the principle of non-indifference. Another is the rejection of unconstitutional change in government, which the AU and ECOWAS have pursued with inconsistency. Such distinguishing principles and norms help define the identity of regional organisations as they advance toward integration. 

ECOWAS set the pace in making regional integration a reality in the lives of West African citizens, through free movement of peoples and shared institutions. The ECOWAS Passport has been an important feature of integration in West Africa for several decades. But factors ranging from large scale insecurities, macroeconomic inequalities (hindering the launch of a common currency), geopolitics, and inconsistent application of its own norms, have stalled progress toward integration. 

Meanwhile, African peoples lived experiences continue to drive the quest for regional integration even when it appears to hold no urgency for their governments. Lack of integration does not seem to hinder governments, but it hinders people. Governments and people are driven by different logics. While governments respond to external pressures to tighten border controls, their people welcome porosity of borders – active borderland communities and markets are important connectors of people. While structurally the state remains an incubator of violence, notions of peace and the agency and resilience of the youth support in creating alternatives to violence. While people look for opportunities, most governments impose clear limits on what (young) people can do and their freedom to organize publicly by restricting civic space or closing public spaces. Despite the restrictive environment people continue to work hard to hold the line. Governments are focused on transnational illegalities; their people embrace transnational organising in pursuit of development. And while governments struggle with digital transformation and grapple with the illusive digital sovereignty, their youth innovate through digital technologies.

To be future proof, African regional organisations must work at pace to meet the integration needs of the next generation. 

ECOWAS at 50 years provides an opportunity to reimagine a new future by rethinking approaches to managing the obstacles to integration and considering the profound change occurring among West African peoples, which can accelerate regional integration. In its 2050 vision, ECOWAS projects a transition from an ECOWAS of States to a “fully integrated community of peoples in a peaceful, prosperous region with strong institutions and respect for fundamental freedoms and working towards inclusive and sustainable development.” Making this a reality requires a closing of the distance between people and their governments, and the renewal of a political community in the region. 

APS SECOND CONTINENTAL EDITION DURING THE ECOWAS AT 50 CONFERENCE 

The Second Continental African Public Square will be held during the Conference on ECOWAS at 50 on 31 October and 1 November 2025 in Abuja, Nigeria. Co-hosted by the African Leadership Centre, Amandla Institute and CODESRIA in collaboration with WATHI, this edition of the APS open debate asks a core question: Are regional organisations a necessity for regional integration in Africa? The debate will open additional questions: What needs will drive a future ECOWAS of peoples? Can regional integration be achieved without a political community and economic base? 

ABOUT THE AFRICAN PUBLIC SQUARE (APS) 

The African Leadership Centre established the African Public Square (APS) in 2023 as a platform to harness Africa’s intellectual power and inter-generational agency. 

The APS aims to: 

Speak back to established agendas in the global landscape that place Africa at a disadvantage. 

• Offer new solutions and proposals for re-energising Africa’s normative and response framework, with possibilities for Africa’s renewal. 

• Expand the constituency of actors that speak for Africa when the spaces for engaging state and continental action are closed. 

The APS offers a three-part intervention to raise Africa’s position in the world: 

• A convening platform: to convene new and established voices constituting an intergenerational community of African public intellectuals, catalysing the repositioning of Africa in the global order. 

• An annual high-level (continental) forum – an African/global public debate bringing together prominent African intellectuals along with a variety of interlocutors to frame and propose an alternative framework of engagement on issues of the day shaping Africa’s trajectory. 

• An inter-generational community of African public intellectuals in co-leadership of special interventions that propose new ideas and forms of collaboration for responding to Africa’s challenges and reshaping global engagement to raise Africa’s position in the world.