The ECOWAS Youth and Sports Development Centre (CDJS/ECOWAS) was established in Accra (Ghana) by Decision A/Dec.13/01/05 of 19/01/2005 of the Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS, meeting in their 28th Ordinary Session.
The decision concerned the transformation of the Conference of Ministers of Youth and Sports into the ECOWAS Youth and Sports Development Centre.
CDJS/ECOWAS is a specialized ECOWAS agency for Youth and Sports, whose mission is to initiate, develop, coordinate, monitor and implement programmes relating to youth development within the Community.

The Conference of Heads of State and Government justified its decision to create CDJS/ECOWAS by the need to:

• Provide a permanent institutional framework within the Community through which issues related to youth and sports activities in the sub-region can be developed and promoted.
• Foster the engagement of young people in the ECOWAS integration process.
• Enable the Commission to achieve its Peace and Security objectives
• Help mobilize the Youth and Sports sectors as part of Regional integration.

The ECOWAS Youth and Sports Development Centre (CDJS/ECOWAS) is one of the Directorates of the Department of Social Affairs and Gender of the ECOWAS Commission. It is based in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) and benefits from a headquarters agreement signed between the Burkinabe authorities and the ECOWAS Commission.

Decision N° A/DEC 13/01/2005 of 19 January 2005 adopted the organizational chart of CDJS/ECOWAS, made up of four Divisions (Youth, Sports, Administration and Finance, and ICT). However, since 2008, the Centre's structure has changed following the transfer to it of the ECOWAS Volunteers Programme (PVC), previously hosted within the Department of Political Affairs, Peace and Security (CPAPS) of the Commission.

Sport occupies a prominent place in the socio-economic life of the Community and has immense potential to foster regional integration, particularly through policies and programmes aimed at child development and well-being.

ECOWAS' Sports Policy was adopted in 2010 by the Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS. The vision of the sports policy is to "make Sport a key sector of the population's socio-economic life, a driver of human development, peaceful coexistence and regional integration".

In line with the objectives, ECOWAS and its action plan, the Youth and Sports Development Centre implements activities aimed at developing regional cooperation and human development. These activities also carry strong visibility value for the ECOWAS Commission and other Community Institutions.

What sports activities does CDJS/ECOWAS organise? CDJS/ECOWAS organises:

• The ECOWAS African Wrestling Tournament (TOLAC)
• The annual Dakar African wrestling tournament
• The ECOWAS International Cycling Tour (TCIC)
• The ECOWAS Games (held every two years, alternating with the ECOWAS International Cycling Tour);
• Capacity-building sessions for sports stakeholders
• Financial and technical support for the activities of regional and national sports associations and federations.

The Centre's youth programmes and activities are based on the ECOWAS Strategic Action Plan on Youth, adopted by the Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS at their 35th Summit held in Abuja, Nigeria, on 19 December 2008.

This policy aims to empower young people and promote their involvement in all areas of society. It also aims to guarantee every young person (men and women) the possibility of reaching their full potential as an individual and an active participant in the development and regional integration of ECOWAS.

The objectives of the CDJS/ECOWAS Youth Programme are:

• Increase the employability of young people in the ECOWAS region
• Promote youth entrepreneurship
• Improve and diversify youth training modules
• Support young project holders in seeking financing
• Help young people become self-employed.
• Volunteers Programme.

The Volunteers' Mission

The programme's overall objective is to develop a regional volunteer programme in which ECOWAS youth are united in their conviction that peace and reconciliation can be used as development tools to consolidate peace in their country and in the sub-region. The Programme mobilizes volunteers across West Africa and is committed to promoting ECOWAS ideals and strategies, including unity, peace, democracy, sustainable development and regional integration. The PVC promotes the professional expertise and skills of Community citizens for sustainable development and greater social impact under the themes of solidarity, unity, hope and dreams.

The role of Volunteers therefore includes:

• Strengthening the capacities of local organizations to help them develop and implement the projects and programmes in which volunteers participate
• Promoting a culture of peace
• Promoting gender equality;
• Establishing and supporting partnerships between communities;
• Networking and collaborating with other development partners
• Providing expertise and technical support to host communities.

How are volunteers recruited?

The skills offered to host institutions are gathered on a call/offer basis. Host countries and institutions indicate the type of skills they need to support efforts in the field of peace and development, and the Programme meets this demand by identifying, selecting and recruiting qualified volunteers in the region.
The pilot phase (2010-2015) deployed volunteers mainly in post-conflict countries. The permanent phase, launched in January 2017, extended coverage to all ECOWAS Member States. As a prerequisite, no international volunteer could serve in their own country. In the new permanent phase, Volunteers can now be recruited to serve in their own country.

Through the founding decision, the Centre is called upon to:

• Be a permanent institutional framework within the community through which issues related to Youth and sports activities can be promoted and developed in the region
• Foster the engagement of young people in the integration process.

These include, among others:

• The existence of a Department responsible for Social Affairs and Gender within the ECOWAS Commission.
• The creation of the Youth and Sports Development Centre (CDJS/ECOWAS)
• The creation of the ECOWAS Centre for Gender Development
• The ECOWAS Youth Policy and Action Plan.
• The ECOWAS Sports Policy (2010-2020)
• The Protocol on Free Movement of Persons
• The signing of the African Youth Charter

And the list is not exhaustive.

This mainly concerns the Community Development Programme (PCD) project, launched in 2010, which was structured around the following five (5) points:

• Diagnosis of development and regional integration
• Strategic direction of the PCD
• Analysis of priority areas
• Inventory and prioritization of projects
• Implementation and management arrangements for the PCD

The approach aimed to be participatory, and the PCD had made room for Young people through the financing of their business projects. CDJS was a stakeholder in the discussions and hoped to see this programme come to fruition.