The EU Commission (DG Regio) has promoted the elaboration of this study within the framework of the European Parliament’s call for putting EU regional policy into a stronger international context and for more cooperation with third countries. The study is aimed to quantify main obstacles for Cross-Border Cooperation (CBC) in West Africa, while highlighting several good opportunities, in order to propose a road map for the next years.
CBC has proven to increase the empowerment of the authorities more closely involved, promoting in this way decentralised governance. Africa is already fulfilling many tasks to achieve a sustained level of CBC and, apart from other major difficulties, many boundaries still need to be delimited and demarcated, a pre-requisite to launch sound CBC strategies. These strategies can add value and offer precious information for mainstreaming programmes implemented at local, national and international level in order to produce a sustainable impact in development processes. In the long term, the strengthening of CBC across (West) African boundaries will have contributed to human development in most dynamic areas.