ECOWAS Beyond the States: Rethinking How Civil Society Is Shaping Regional Governance in West Africa

This is an in-person event.

Monday, 19 January 2026 from 14.00 until 15.30

Over the past three and a half decades, the idea of civil society has become increasingly central to the discourse on regionalism, particularly within the analytical lens of the New Regionalism Approach (NRA). Across Africa and beyond, scholars have examined the multifaceted roles of civil society as partners, legitimators, resisters and even manipulators in regional governance. Yet, the literature still lacks a robust conceptual framework for understanding how civil society actors emerge within regional spaces, operate across multi-level structures, exercise agency, and shape societal outcomes through their regional engagements.

This seminar draws from Dele Kogbe’s recently published book, Rethinking Civil Society Regionalism in Africa (Routledge, 2023), which introduces a novel analytical framework for interrogating these dynamics. As a Visiting Research Fellow at UNU-CRIS, Dr. Kogbe will present key insights from his research, highlighting the transformative potential of civil society in redefining regional governance beyond state-centric paradigms in West Africa and share perspectives on the findings of his book.

Keywords: Comparative Regionalism, Regional Civil Society, ECOWAS, African regionalism.

Speaker:

Dele Kogbe is currently a visiting research fellow at UNU-CRIS. He previously taught in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Dundee (2015–2019). He served as Co-Convenor of the British International Studies Association (BISA) Working Group on Africa and International Affairs, Co-Founder of the Dundee Africa Research Network (DARN), Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Administration of Nigeria, Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK), Member of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Visiting Fellow at the University of South Wales, UK and an Adjunct Faculty member of the Public Service Institute of Nigeria, Abuja.
 

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