As part of its mandate to promote free, transparent, and credible elections in West Africa, the ECOWAS Network of Electoral Commissions (ECONEC) is organizing its annual symposium on 12 and 13 November 2025 in Dakar, Senegal, on the theme “Harnessing Artificial Intelligence for Electoral Integrity”. This year’s event is co-organized with Yiaga Africa and will be followed by the Network’s 11th General Assembly.
The symposium aims to provide a platform for informed debates that will help West African Electoral Management Bodies (EMBs) carefully examine the integration and responsible use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in their work in order to strengthen the integrity of elections in the region. The General Assembly, for its part, will afford ECONEC members the opportunity to a new Steering Committee to oversee the affairs of the Network for the next two years.
Participants at the event include the ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security, the Chairpersons and members of ECONEC-member EMBs, the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) directors of ECONEC-member EMBs, thematic experts, representatives of civil society organizations (CSOs), the media and technical partners involved in electoral assistance, including the African Union (AU), the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), the Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa (EISA), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The ECOWAS Network of Electoral Commissions( ECONEC) is the umbrella organization of EMBs in West Africa. The network was created in February 2008 to promote free, fair and credible elections. Its creation was inspired by the ECOWAS Declaration of Political Principles, which was adopted by the ECOWAS Conference of Heads of State and Government in 1991.
