The eight Commissioners of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) were sworn in on 9 May 2017. In accordance with Article 28 of the UEMOA Treaty, the swearing-in ceremony took place at the UEMOA Court of Justice in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The Commission is the Union’s executive body in charge of ensuring the proper functioning of the Union. It is composed of eight members, called Commissioners, who are nationals of UEMOA Member States. Three former Commissioners have been reappointed. Read on

Of the millions of children who do not complete elementary school in West Africa each year, one third suffer from a disability. Their condition means they are confronted with many barriers to education. As part of its inclusive education programme, Handicap International seeks to remove the many barriers to the education of 170 000 children with disabilities in nine West African countries. Read on

Women in West Africa - as in many other parts of the world - remain largely underrepresented in the political sphere. When we look at the national percentages, women occupy only 421 seats in West African parliaments, representing 16.1% of all lawmakers. Twelve out of the 17 West African countries have averages that are below the world average of 23.3%. Senegal is a notable exception. Read on

With the financial support of the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Group for Research and Information on Peace and Security (GRIP) just released an interactive timeline that allows the viewer to retrace and recall the region’s major peace and security events since 2011.You can easily create your own journey and discover information by country (Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Niger and Senegal) or at the regional level. Read on