Reviewed Article pledges to improve their position on statelessness, compared to other regions in Africa and the rest of the world 21. In the spirit of the commitments made by the States in West Africa, UNHCR has doubled its effort to fight this phenomenon in this region. It has particularly focused on building the capacity both of governments and of organizations of civil society, by carrying out advocacy and trainings. UNHCR has also provided technical advice to authorities to address the situation of populations at risk of statelessness as well as stateless persons and find adequate solutions 22. Several regional seminars were organized from 2011-2013 in order to sensitize states on the significance of the issue and to develop their capacity to address it. A major event, which took place in the Gambia in December 2013 gathered National Commissions on Human Rights, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Court of Justice and the judicial and quasi-judicial institutions of the African Union. It resulted in the Banjul Appeal, which lays the foundations for partnership between those institutions and calls upon States and other stakeholders, including the UNHCR and ECOWAS, to take additional steps towards the eradication of statelessness in West Africa. In February 2015, government representatives in charge of nationality issues of the ECOWAS member states met in Abidjan for the regional ministerial conference on statelessness in West Africa jointly organised by UNHCR and ECOWAS. As result of the Nationality and Statelessness in West Africa- Background note retrieved from https://www.unhcr.org/591c20ac7.pdf last visited, 1st July 2019 22 ibid 21 11