ECOWAS,EU,AND BRITISH COUNCIL WEBINAR ON SUSTAINABLE ENERGY UNDER THE EU-ECOWAS Scholarship Programme

The European Union (EU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) reaffirmed their commitment to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7), ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all in West Africa.

West Africa's energy sector faces numerous challenges, including inadequate grid access, poor infrastructure maintenance, energy affordability inequities, lack of homegrown technology, high renewable energy costs, ineffective policies, insufficient investment incentives, inefficient regulation, limited investment in renewable energy, and a shortage of skilled personnel.

The programme organized a scholarship webinar, on 26 February 2025 where scholars collaborated with experts in sustainable energy to discuss challenges and solutions for ensuring clean and affordable energy in West Africa, aligning with SDG7. The scholars crafted questions based on the key challenges facing the sector and posed them to panelists, leveraging their expertise to inform the development of specific, actionable goals.

To address these challenges, the EU-ECOWAS scholarship programme aims to enhance human development capacity in the region by providing scholarships to university graduates, focusing on young professionals in ECOWAS member states and Mauritania. This initiative seeks to equip them with the knowledge, skills, and experience required to meet the growing demand for specialists in sustainable energy.

The EU and ECOWAS are committed to working together to address the energy challenges facing West Africa, promoting sustainable energy development, and achieving SDG7. Following the webinar, the EU and ECOWAS will finalize a section outlining concrete countermeasures to tackle the existing challenges in the sector ¹.