Youth, sport and volunteering: the Director of the CDJS calls for collective action
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has opened a regional workshop in Dakar dedicated to the consolidation, validation and adoption of its future regional policies on sport, youth and volunteering. This meeting brings together experts from member states, ECOWAS institutions and technical and financial partners around a common objective: to provide the region with ambitious strategic frameworks tailored to current challenges.
À At the opening of the proceedings, the Director of the ECOWAS Centre for Youth and Sports Development (CDJS/ECOWAS), His Excellency Francis Chuks NJOAGUANI, welcomed this decisive step in the process of strengthening Community policies in support of human development.
Participants are invited to examine three major strategic documents: the draft ECOWAS Sports Policy and its Strategic Action Plan 2026–2035, the draft ECOWAS Youth Policy accompanied by its Strategic Action Plan 2026–2035, and the draft Strategic Policy Document for the ECOWAS Volunteers Programme and its Action Plan 2026–2035.
In his address, the Director of the CDJS emphasised the complementary nature of these three documents, which reflect ECOWAS’s vision of a more integrated, more resilient West Africa driven by its youth. According to him, these policies recognise sport as a powerful driver of social cohesion, economic development and the promotion of citizenship, whilst placing young people at the heart of the region’s economic, social and institutional transformations. They also enshrine volunteering as a strategic tool for regional solidarity, civic participation and strengthening community resilience.
Addressing the experts, His Excellency Francis Chuks NJOAGUANI emphasised the responsibility they bear in improving these documents. He invited them to carry out a rigorous technical analysis to ensure the documents’ consistency with ECOWAS’s Vision 2050, their strategic relevance and their operational feasibility. The recommendations made during the workshop will help to enrich the texts prior to their review and adoption by the Ministers of Youth and Sport of the Member States.
The Director of the CDJS also highlighted the particular importance of the ECOWAS Volunteers Programme, which he described as one of the most emblematic initiatives for regional integration through youth. Since its inception, this programme has offered many young West Africans the opportunity to put their skills to work for development, peace and solidarity, both in their home countries and in other Member States.
He noted that the new strategic policy document will help to consolidate the programme’s achievements, strengthen its governance, increase its impact in member states and adapt its work to the new challenges facing the region.
À Through this workshop, ECOWAS reaffirms its ambition to equip West Africa with modern, inclusive and results-oriented regional policies. The conclusions of the workshop will serve as the basis for the adoption of these strategic instruments, which will guide the Community’s actions in the fields of sport, youth and volunteering for the period 2026–2035.