Environment

While West Africa possesses a rich natural resource base, weak institutions, poor management, and some of the world’s most pervasive corruption consistently undermine efforts to put its resources to work for the good of its people. USAID programs promote the sound use and management of the region’s natural resources to reduce poverty and promote stability by enhancing regional environmental policy and planning, increasing the quality of and accessibility to critical baseline information and best practices, and improving the transparency, governance, and productivity of natural resources in strategically important areas.

Clean Energy

USAID is investing in the West Africa Power Pool and ECOWAS’s regional center for renewable energy that will enable the transmission of recovered natural gas that would otherwise be flared, hydroelectric power, and eventually solar and wind power. Building an integrated West African Energy market will provide more favorable conditions to develop yet untapped hydro-power in Liberia and Guinea.