ECOWAS Hosts Ministerial Conference On 50 Years Of Gender Equality & Women’s Empowerment At CSW69 In New York

‘Review and appraisal of the implementation of the Bei-jing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome of the 23rd special session of the General Assembly’ is the priority theme of the Commission on the Status of Women, commonly known as the CSW, which is being held from 10 to 21 March 2025 at the United Nations headquarters in New York (USA).

On the sidelines of the event, the ECOWAS Commission’s Department of Human Development and Social Affairs organized on 11th of March in New york, USA, a high-level interactive session under the theme “ECOWAS: 50 years of promoting gender equality and empowering women and girls for sustainable development and effective regional integration in West Africa” with ECOWAS gender ministers, in collaboration with UN Women’s Regional Office for West and Central Africa (UN Women) and the governments of ECOWAS member countries.Technical and financial partners and Civil Society Organizations such as the West African Network of Young Women Leaders (ROAJEF) were also present.

The session, chaired by the Minister of Gender Affairs of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, was attended by the Ministers of Gender and Social Affairs of the Republic of Guinea, the Republic of Sierra Leone, the Republic of Senegal, the Republic of Togo and representatives of the Gender Ministers of the Republic of Benin and the Ivory Coast.

During the event, ECOWAS, ministers, members of Civil Society Organizations, technical and financial partners took stock of the 30 years of implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action in West Africa, with a particular focus on women’s peace and security, the adoption of legislation, women’s economic empowerment and women’s access to basic services.

The ministers also examined and reflected on the implications of the new regional context for the gender equality agenda and identified strategies to strengthen the case for gender equality in member states. To this end, a final communiqué was adopted by the ministers calling on ECOWAS member states to put in place programs tailored to the needs of women and girls, including free education and healthcare, the strengthening of basic social infrastructures and appropriate financial and technical resources to reinforce women’s entrepreneurship, financial and digital inclusion, and the fight against climate change.

Finally, the ministers asked the ECOWAS Commission to set up a system for the annual review of progress, obstacles and challenges to gender equality and women’s empowerment within

ECOWAS, through the holding of an annual preparatory meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women in an ECOWAS member state.

About ECOWAS
The Heads of State and Government of fifteen West African Countries established the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) when they signed the ECOWAS Treaty on the 28th of May 1975 in Lagos, Nigeria.

The Treaty of Lagos was signed by the 15 Heads of State and government of Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Sénégal and Togo, with its stated mission to promote economic integration across the region. The Senegalese President was represented by the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Cabo Verde joined the union in 1977. The only Arabic-speaking Member Mauritania withdrew in December 2000. Mauritania recently signed a new associate-membership agreement in August 2017. On January 29, 2025, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger officially withdrew from ECOWAS.

The current Member States of ECOWAS are Benin, Cabo Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Sénégal and Togo.

Considered one of the pillars of the African Economic Community, ECOWAS was set up to foster the ideal of collective selfsufficiency for its member states. As a trading union, it is also meant to create a single, large trading bloc through economic cooperation.

Integrated economic activities as envisaged in the area that has a combined GDP of $734.8 billion, revolve around but are not limited to industry, transport, telecommunications, energy, agriculture, natural resources, commerce, monetary and financial issues, social as well as cultural matters.

In 2007, ECOWAS Secretariat was transformed into a Commission. The Commission headed by the President, assisted by a Vice President, five Commissioners and the Auditor-General of ECOWAS Institutions, comprising experienced bureaucrats who are providing the leadership in this new orientation.

The ECOWAS budget is essentially financed by revenue collected through the Community tax. The tax was introduced to finance its activities. The rate of the Community levy is set at 0.5% of the CIF value of goods imported from non-ECOWAS countries.

As part of this renewal process, ECOWAS is implementing critical and strategic programmes that will deepen cohesion and progressively eliminate identified barriers to full integration. In this way, the estimated 300 million citizens of the community can ultimately take ownership for the realization of the new vision of moving from an ECOWAS of States to an “ECOWAS of the People: Peace and Prosperity to All” by 2050.