ABSTRACT
ECOWAS practitioners rely on their ability to draw from distinct institutional cultures to reinforce convergence practices and to discern who and what relationships matter to regional governance. Despite ECOWAS’s innovations and push to include more regional stakeholders into the region-building project, West African regional governance still has gaps and challenges. The foundational ideas and practices of ECOWAS’s founding reflect how the institution and the actors therein understand ECOWAS’ reason for being. The convergence process differs between peace and security practitioners and health practitioners, who are limited in their capacity to implement decisions. The processes of convergence and agency advance our understanding of what is relevant to West African regional governance, why issues are framed as they are, and how ECOWAS as an institution can endure political, social, and economic volatility.
