2019 was a special year for the Gorée Institute, Centre for Democracy, Development and Culture in Africa, full of challenges and hope. Indeed, the Institute carried out its programmes in an African context profoundly marked by electoral challenges in many countries, especially in West Africa. It was a year that was also characterized in the subregion by a security crisis, with the resurgence of terrorist attacks in the Sahel and Nigeria as a palpable indicator, not to mention the scourge of migration and its impact on security.

Various events took place during the year 2019 in West Africa that reinforce the ultimate conviction that there is a need to disseminate and propagate the values of the Gorée Institute as extensively as possible. In this year, seven countries of the West African sub-region organized presidential and/or legislative elections (Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria and Senegal). Six countries (Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Niger and Togo) are organizing elections in 2020.