Building Pandemic Resilience in ECOWAS: Integrating Vaccine Certification with Foundational Identity Systems

The document examines how the lack of harmonised digital identification and health information exchange systems in West Africa hindered the ECOWAS free movement regime during the Ebola epidemic and COVID-19 pandemic. It proposes integrating vaccine certification with foundational digital IDs—such as the ECOWAS National Biometric Identity Card (ENBIC) and the West Africa Unique Identification for Regional Integration and Inclusion (WURI) initiative—to create a 'health passport'. Drawing on examples from the EU's Digital COVID Certificate and ASEAN's Universal Verification Mechanism, the author recommends that the ECOWAS Commission and the West African Health Organization (WAHO) develop a regional digital health certification framework that includes members of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) to ensure comprehensive regional health security.

• Public health crises, specifically the 2010s Ebola epidemic and the COVID-19 pandemic, exposed critical weaknesses in the ECOWAS free movement regime, including a lack of harmonised digital identification and a failure to coordinate health security measures, which led to border closures and disrupted economic activity.
• While regional ID initiatives exist, they have not yet achieved full subregional integration for health purposes. The ECOWAS National Biometric Identity Card (ENBIC), adopted in 2014, has been implemented in Senegal (2016) and Ghana (2017), with Nigeria planning a rollout in 2024, but it has not been adopted by all 12 members. Similarly, the WURI partnership with the World Bank is helping Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Togo roll out biometric IDs, yet these have not resulted in a broader health information exchange system.

APA

Mills, L. N. L. (2025). Building Pandemic Resilience in ECOWAS: Integrating Vaccine Certification with Foundational Identity Systems. Africa Policy Research Institute. https://afripoli.org/building-pandemic-resilience-in-ecowas-integrating-vaccine-certification-with-foundational-identity-systems

Chicago

Mills, Leslie Nii Lantey. Building Pandemic Resilience in ECOWAS: Integrating Vaccine Certification with Foundational Identity Systems. Africa Policy Research Institute, 2025. https://afripoli.org/building-pandemic-resilience-in-ecowas-integrating-vaccine-certification-with-foundational-identity-systems.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Mills |first1=Leslie Nii Lantey |title=Building Pandemic Resilience in ECOWAS: Integrating Vaccine Certification with Foundational Identity Systems |publisher=Africa Policy Research Institute |date=11 November 2025 |url=https://afripoli.org/building-pandemic-resilience-in-ecowas-integrating-vaccine-certification-with-foundational-identity-systems |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{mills2025building, author = {Mills, Leslie Nii Lantey}, title = {{Building Pandemic Resilience in ECOWAS: Integrating Vaccine Certification with Foundational Identity Systems}}, institution = {Africa Policy Research Institute}, year = {2025}, month = nov, url = {https://afripoli.org/building-pandemic-resilience-in-ecowas-integrating-vaccine-certification-with-foundational-identity-systems}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }