Its membership comprises all ECOWAS countries (Benin, Cape Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea- Bissau, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Liberia, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Senegal, and Togo) plus Mauritania. As an initiative created by and for West African countries, it is driven by the needs of its members and strongly rooted in the sub-region