Chapter 5 attempts to identify the areas in West Africa that have the greatest potential for cross-border co-operation. It is based upon research that maps seven environmental, socio-economic and political indicators, highlighting the existence of wide spatial disparities between West African regions. The research indicates that the zones with the greatest potential for cross-border co-operation are concentrated in southern Senegambia, along the borders of Burkina Faso, in the Accra-Lagos conurbation, between Niger and Nigeria, and in the north of Cameroon, as these regions present greater cross-border accessibility and border market density than others. In particular, they share natural, agricultural or pastoral resources, do not face significant linguistic divides, and poverty gaps are neither too wide nor too narrow, promoting synergies and movement between countries. From an institutional perspective, it is easier to roll out cross-border programmes in those areas where the relevant borders are well delimited.

Focussing on the institutions operating in West Africa, Chapter 6 examines the diversity of organisations involved in regional integration1. Analyses of cross-border co-operation networks are performed at both the macro level, covering the 15 countries of ECOWAS as well as Cameroon, Chad and Mauritania, and in three specific micro-regions that share resources. The chapter also highlights the formal and informal relationships that exist between institutions, what structural constraints limit their exchanges of information, what the impact of national borders is on the regional construction process, and how these factors, amongst others, have contributed to the differing levels of regional integration evident across West Africa.

Chapter 7 seeks to chart the way in which organisations and individuals are connected within cross-border policy networks in West Africa. One of the major challenges for cross-border co-operation is successfully managing to establish principles and pursue initiatives which transcend specific national characteristics. In doing so, cross-border co-operation brings together organisations with very different objectives and individuals with very different profiles, who must nevertheless work together and achieve mutually acceptable consensuses. Based on the results of a field survey carried out across the West African region, and in the areas of the Senegal River valley, Liptako-Gourma, and the Lake Chad region in particular, the report highlights the actors involved in cross-border co-operation, their formal and informal relationships, the structural constraints limiting their exchanges of information and power, and the impact of national borders on the regional construction process.

Chapter 8 analyses the spatial representations of the actors involved in cross-border co-operation in West Africa. The first part of the chapter uses mental maps to identify areas recognised as priority regions for cross-border co-operation, the extent to which they vary in size depending on the country in which the actors are located and the locus of the cross-border co-operation’s centre of gravity. The second maps the places that are considered as particularly strategic for cooperation between actors within the region itself, while the third section identifies actors which have the potential to be more actively engaged in co-operation activities and discusses the emergence of multi-layered governance in the region. The fourth and concluding section proposes an overview of the co-operation dynamics in place in cross-border areas.