Structures

The Peoples’ Forum

This is the supreme organ of WACSOF which is composed of all representatives of CSOs registered with WACSOF. The Forum meets annually, prior to the statutory meetings of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government; to review the activities of the Regional Secretariat; register new members; review the activities of ECOWAS Member States; and make recommendations to the ECOWAS annual Heads of State meetings.

The Executive Committee

The Executive Committee is elected by the Peoples’ Forum and is composed of representatives from all the three (3) language groups of the region. This organ supervises the implementation of policies by the secretariat.

The Regional Secretariat

The Regional secretariat is responsible for the day to day implementation of WACSOF’s envisaged activities. It is composed of the Secretary General, specialised programme units and other operations staff. It is responsible for providing programmatic thrust for thematic groups and to provide the latter with secretariat duties. It is responsible for the expansion of the forum through coordination and networking among National Chapters. Finally, the secretariat serves as a strategic link between West African CSOs and all relevant ECOWAS institutions.

Thematic Groups

The work of the Regional Secretariat is supported by specialised thematic working groups. Among other areas, the following thematic groups are deemed as relevant areas of engagement for WACSOF/ECOWAS and CSOs relationship: Food, Agriculture and Environment; Gender and Women’s rights; Democracy, Governance and Human Rights; Peace and Security; Policy Research; Regional Integration; Economic Development; Trade and Investment.

National Chapters

National Chapters are the representatives of WACSOF in each West African State. The National chapters are comprised of groups or coalitions of the different civil society actors within Member States that are members of WACSOF. WACSOF has a mandate to coordinate the National platform to be established in view of identifying areas of collaboration between civil society as diverse as it is, the private sector, and West African regional organisations such as ECOWAS and UEMOA.