Presentation by Olivier Walther, University of Southern Denmark and University of Florida, at the 2017 European Conference on African Studies (ECAS) in Basel, Switzerland. The presentation took place on 30 June during the special presentation of the SWAC/OECD publication "Cross-border Co-operation and Policy Networks in West Africa".

1. CROSS-BORDER
COOPERATION AND
POLICY NETWORKS
IN WEST AFRICA
Basel, 30 June 2017

3. Source: OECD/SWAC 2017

4. Source: OECD/SWAC 2017

5. WEST AFRICAN POLICY
NETWORKS
Basel, 30 June 2017
Olivier Walther
Associate Professor, University of Southern
Denmark and University of Florida

6. • Who are the policy actors?
• How are they connected?
• What is the impact of borders?

7. • Who are the policy actors?
• How are they connected?
• What is the impact of borders?

8. • A relational approach
• 137 interviews
actortie

9. • Information vs power network
• With whom do you exchange information?
• Who do you think are the most important actors?
• Regional vs local network
• Organizations vs individuals

10. • Are policy makers densely connected or
do they bridge disconnected groups?

11. Regional organizations
• A center-
periphery
network
Source: OECD/SWAC 2017

12. West Africa – Information network
• The role of
information
brokers
Source: OECD/SWAC 2017

13. Lake Chad – Power network
• A fragmented
network
Source: OECD/SWAC 2017

14. • Homophily
• Tendency for similar people to associate
with each other
• Do policy makers exchange
more across borders than
within their country?

15. West Africa – Homophily
• An homophilous
network
Source: OECD/SWAC 2017

16. Liptako Gourma – Homophily
• An homophilous
network
Source: OECD/SWAC 2017

17. • Social structure
• Decentralized networks well adapted to cross-border cooperation
• Border effects
• More pronounced at the regional than local level
• Senegal River – power within OMVS
• Liptako: balanced power relationships, small cities
• Lake Chad: fragmented, unequal distribution of power, institutional
boundaries