Economic Community of West African States

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS; also known as CEDEAO in French and Portuguese) is a regional political and economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa. Collectively, these countries comprise an area of , and in 2019 had an estimated population of over 387 million. Considered one of the pillar regional blocs of the continent-wide African Economic Community (AEC), the stated goal of ECOWAS is to achieve "collective self-sufficiency" for its member states by creating a single large trade bloc by building a full economic and trading union. The union was established on 28 May 1975, with the signing of the Treaty of Lagos, with its stated mission to promote economic integration across the region. A revised version of the treaty was agreed and signed on 24 July 1993 in Cotonou. ECOWAS also serves as a peacekeeping force in the region, with member states occasionally sending joint military forces to intervene in the bloc's member countries at times of political instability and unrest. As of February 2017, ECOWAS has 15 member states; eight of these are French-speaking, five are English-speaking, and two Portuguese-speaking. All current members joined the community as founding members in May 1975, except Cape Verde which joined in 1977. The only former member of ECOWAS is Arabic-speaking Mauritania, which was also one of the founding members in 1975 and decided to withdraw in December 2000. Mauritania recently signed a new associate-membership agreement in August 2017. Morocco officially requested to join ECOWAS in February 2017. The application was endorsed in principle at the summit of heads of state in June 2017, but Morocco's bid for membership was stalled. Mali was suspended from ECOWAS on 30 May 2021, following its second military coup within nine months. Guinea was also suspended on 8 September 2021, shortly after a military coup took place in the country. Sanctions were placed on both countries on 16 September.

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Contributing to the Quality of PV Solar Modules in West Africa

In this work, we present the set up of a testing facility for photovoltaic (PV) modules and other PV system components in Dakar, Senegal. This creation is the result of a collaboration between the Polytechnic Schools of Dakar (ESP) and Lausanne (EPFL) aiming at improving the quality of PV systems by selecting components with sufficient quality. This testing center should also contribute to the education of all actors involved in the PV sector and contribute to research activities on the aging and failure mode analysis of PV modules exposed to sub-Saharian climates such as the hot semiarid climate of Dakar region but also those of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) region, including Senegal.

WIP GmbH2019

Analysis of the West African Power Pool (WAPP) and its development potential

First of all, it is necessary to specify that this study is an academic work carried out by a student. The hypothesis and the line of reasoning that aect the results obtained are proposed in the context of a master thesis. Electricity supply is a big challenge for West Africa. Indeed, the state members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) face many problem of electricity as their production and distribution systems are not enough developed and reliable. A good and reliable electricity supply could allow to develop the industries and improve the attractiveness of the region. The purpose of the West African Power Pool (WAPP) is to develop the electricity sector in West Africa and guarantee a reliable and continuous electricity supply at a competitive cost. Creating an open market for the whole region seems to be the best strategy to achieve these goals. This kind of market could decrease the electricity price by the wholesale purchase of energy, a better resources management and the building of large centralized power plants. Investors can be attracted to invest in new power plants and develop the sector. The objective of the study is to analyze the benets of dierent electricity supply strategies for each country. An autarkic strategy for which each country use its local plants to produce electricity. An open market strategy for which the region is considered as a unique area with an open market.A part of independence strategy for which an open market is in place but the importing countries should produce a certain part of their electricity locally. Moreover a strategy introducing renewables technologies is assessed to evaluate the economical impact on an open market of these technologies. To evaluate these strategies, the expansion of the power pool is planned and evaluate on an economical point of view. The existing power pool is consider and candidate plants are added depending on the strategy and the country. In West Africa, the mainly used plants are thermal plants using natural gas, heavy fuel or diesel and some hydroelectric plants. The expansion is optimized using the software PLANELEC by the minimization of the net present cost (NPC). The economical evaluation is made on the NPC and the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE). The results demonstrate that the open market strategy provides the lowest LCOE. So all the countries will benet the creation of a market. The most used technology are combined cycle power plants and gas turbines using natural gas as a fuel. The renewable energy strategy will slightly increase the LCOE of the open market as these technologies are more expensive.

2019

African Union

The African Union (AU) is a continental union consisting of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa. The AU was announced in the Sirte Declaration in Sirte, Libya, on 9 September 1999, calling for the establishment of the African Union. The bloc was founded on 26 May 2001 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and launched on 9 July 2002 in Durban, South Africa. The intention of the AU was to replace the Organization of African Unity (OAU), established on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa by 32 signatory governments; the OAU was disbanded on 9 July 2002.

Economic Community of West African States

Ivory Coast

Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is the port city of Abidjan. It borders Guinea to the northwest, Liberia to the west, Mali to the northwest, Burkina Faso to the northeast, Ghana to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea (Atlantic Ocean) to the south.

Untitled HUM-226: Sustainable development A

Tessellation: SMLM Data Analysis

Explores tessellation for SMLM data analysis, covering Voronoi segmentation and colocalization principles, applications in various fields, and integration of quantification methods.