Economic Community of West African States

(redirected from West African Economic Community)
Also found in: Encyclopedia.

Economic Community of West African States

Also called ECOWAS. An organization founded to promote economic integration among 15 countries in West Africa. Institutionally, it is modeled on the European Union, with a Commission, Parliament, and Court of Justice. ECOWAS controls a development bank and works to reduce barriers between member nations. It was founded in 1975.

References in periodicals archive ?

President Kabbah owes his return not to some great power's intervention but to a multinational force serving the 16-nation West African Economic Community, ECOWAS.

The price of making peace

Currently, for instance, there are African troops in Cote d'lvoire, contributed by the West African Economic Community Monitoring Group (ECOMOG).

What Africa wants from Tony Blair: Africa is tired of being handed down readymade solutions to problems that concern it. Africa may be poor, but it doesn't mean it has no sense