Around 150 representatives from governments, regional and international organizations, financial institutions, and civil society gathered in the Ivorian capital, Abidjan, last week. The meeting focused on improving youth employment and advancing women's economic empowerment through a new initiative called the Abidjan Call. According to a United Nations statement released on Saturday, October 3, the text specifically addresses challenges in rural, border, and conflict-affected areas in West Africa and the Sahel. The signatories recommended increasing investments in these goals, including strengthening technical and vocational training, apprenticeships, and digital skills. They also emphasized the need for better access to credit, markets, and value chains for enterprises led by women and youth. The document also promotes greater inclusion of these groups in peace processes and decision-making bodies, monitoring of commitments, and regional coordination. Informal employment remains widespread in West Africa, with a large part of the youth finding few formal opportunities. In the eight countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA), independent work accounted for 70.1% of positions held by those aged 15 to 29, according to a recent analysis by the International Labour Organization (ILO). In Ghana, the informal private sector remains the main provider of activities, with 90.3% of the total according to the 2025 data from the Ghana Statistical Service. In Nigeria, informality reaches 92.3% of all employment and 98% of those held by the youth, according to the same organization, up to 99.1% among young women. The Abidjan Call continues a regional framework dedicated to youth, peace, and security. It takes up the orientations of the United Nations Security Council resolutions 1325 and 2250, the Agenda 2030, the African Union's Agenda 2063, and the United Nations Integrated Strategy for the Sahel. It also follows the annual youth forums of the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS), which produced the Abuja Call in 2021, the Mindelo Call in 2023, and the Dakar Pact in 2025. It remains to be seen how these orientations will be concretely implemented. For now, the document does not set a dedicated regional budget, nor does it set employment creation targets, the number of people to be trained, or a common implementation schedule.