Young people from across West Africa have formally endorsed the creation of a permanent regional network for youth election observers, following the West Africa Youth Democracy Conference (WAYDC) held in Dakar, Senegal. The conference produced a communiqué backing the West Africa Youth Observers Network (WAYON), a platform designed to serve as a standing body for capacity building, advocacy, and knowledge exchange among young election observers in the region.
WAYON Structure and Anchoring to ECOWAS
According to the communiqué, WAYON will be anchored to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and hosted by the Legis360 Centre for Advocacy, Development and Public Enlightenment Initiative. Samuel Folorunsho, founder and executive director of Legis360, signed the document. The network will operate under a steering committee and focal points in each ECOWAS member state, supported by a digital platform for communication and coordination.
Its core activities will cover election observation training, data collection, and information sharing across member states, with the ECOWAS Commission leading coordination alongside relevant partners. The endorsement drew on a pilot project that embedded 22 young observers from 11 ECOWAS member states into the 2025 presidential election observation mission in Côte d'Ivoire. The communiqué stated that the exercise demonstrated that young people could contribute meaningfully to electoral integrity when given proper preparation and support.
Calls for Legal and Digital Reform
Participants raised concern over the absence of binding frameworks that guarantee youth political participation, pointing to high nomination fees, weak enforcement of inclusion policies, and limited monitoring mechanisms as persistent obstacles. The conference noted that young people make up roughly 70 per cent of West Africa's population, a share expected to grow further by 2035. ECOWAS Election Observation Missions in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, Liberia, Ghana, and Côte d'Ivoire were cited as having documented the structural exclusion of young people from governance and electoral processes on multiple occasions.
To address this, the conference urged West African governments to pass specific legislation including youth quotas, reduced candidacy fees, and campaign spending limits. Political parties were also asked to open their leadership structures and candidate selection processes to young people and women.
AI Framework and Implementation Recommendations
On digital democracy, participants called on ECOWAS to finalise an operational framework governing the use of artificial intelligence by election management bodies, with safeguards against disinformation and deepfakes. Member states were also urged to invest in digital civic education and to oppose internet shutdowns during electoral periods. The communiqué recommended that ECOWAS and its development partners incorporate youth inclusion indicators and the Dakar recommendations into their 2026-2027 work plans, with a biennial review mechanism proposed to track implementation progress.
This conference is supported by the EU Support to ECOWAS on Peace, Security and Governance (EPSG) project, commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), co-funded by the European Union (EU) and the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and co-implemented by GIZ, Expertise France, and FIAP. The endorsement of WAYON marks a concrete step toward institutionalising youth participation in election observation across the region, with the next phase focused on operationalising the network's structure and securing member state commitments to the Dakar recommendations.
