Lawmakers from across West Africa have converged on Freetown, Sierra Leone, for an emergency Joint Committee meeting aimed at harmonising laws to protect children in “street situations” and end systemic exploitation.

The five-day summit, which began on Wednesday, comes at a critical time for the region. Rapid urbanisation, economic instability, and recurring humanitarian crises have forced a record number of children onto the streets of West Africa’s major cities, leaving them highly vulnerable to hazardous labour, violence, and substance abuse.

The ECOWAS Parliament warned that while legal frameworks exist on paper, “porous borders” and “inconsistent implementation” have created dangerous protection gaps for children moving between member states.

Sierra Leone: A Regional Blueprint?

The choice of Freetown as the host city is highly symbolic. In 2025, Sierra Leone adopted a revised Child Rights Act, a move that has been hailed as a gold standard for aligning national laws with international safeguards.

Regional lawmakers are expected to use the Sierra Leonean model to address:

• Legislative Gaps: Ensuring that “regional commitments” translate into actual shelters and rehabilitation centres.
• Data Systems: Building a unified tracking system to monitor vulnerable children crossing borders.
• The ‘Parliament on the Move’: In a rare departure from the conference room, MPs will conduct field visits to urban congregation zones, including Freetown’s famous Cotton Tree area and the Don Bosco support facility.

Analysis: Beyond the Paperwork

For decades, ECOWAS has been criticized for being “heavy on policy but light on enforcement.” The Strategic Plan of Action (2019–2030) is an ambitious roadmap, but the reality on the ground in cities like Lagos, Accra, and Dakar remains starkly different.

By focusing on “parliamentary oversight,” this Joint Committee is attempting to hold national governments accountable for their social welfare budgets. The challenge, however, is the “resource constraint.” With many West African nations grappling with debt and inflation, funding for child reintegration programmes often sits at the bottom of the priority list.

A Coordinated Response

The meeting brings together committees on social affairs, legal rights, and security to ensure a multi-faceted approach.

“The knowledge is there,” one regional expert noted, “but the true fortress for these children is the political will to harmonise legal standards so that a child in street situations in Freetown receives the same protection as one in Banjul or Bissau.”

The recommendations from this summit will be presented to the next Ordinary Session of Parliament before being transmitted to the Council of Ministers for final approval.