Away from the classroom, four translation students from Université Gaston Berger de Saint-Louis, Senegal, are gaining valuable hands-on professional experience through an internship at the ECOWAS Commission under the Pan-African Master’s in Conference Interpreting and Translation (PAMCIT) programme, which is presently chaired by the ECOWAS Commission.

PAMCIT, under the UN-chaired umbrella body IAMLADP, brings together the language services of international organisations based in Africa. The present members are EBID, OIF, United Nations Offices in Nairobi (UNON), AFDB, and ECOWAS Commission. The four students are among six students awarded study scholarships by the ECOWAS Commission under the PAMCIT programme. They are taking advantage of this professional immersion to deepen their understanding of professional translation practice and strengthen their exposure to the realities of the workplace. Through their placement in the Translation Section, they are gaining first-hand experience of professional translation workflows, institutional practices, and the management of real-life translation projects.

As part of the internship programme, the students paid a courtesy visit on Director of Conference and Protocol, Olukemi Robinson-Atabuh, who warmly received them and reaffirmed the ECOWAS Commission’s continued commitment to supporting the PAMCIT programme and its capacity-building objectives, as part of the Community’s commitment to West African youth.

The students were accompanied by Alphousseyni Diamanka, Language Coordinator, and Prosper Freeman, English Language Translation Team Lead.

This high-level meeting once again demonstrated the solid partnership between the EGDC and AECID, as well as their shared determination to advance transformative policies and programs. It confirms a shared vision: placing gender equality, women’s empowerment, and sustainable development at the heart of regional priorities to build a more inclusive, resilient, and prosperous ECOWAS region.