By 2050, the impact of the realization of this Vision will be to have fully integrated peoples within ECOWAS, a fully peaceful and prosperous region, with strong institutions that promote the rule of law and respect for fundamental freedoms; all of which will foster inclusive and sustainable development. Through this new Vision, the region aims to reposition itself in the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals while taking into account persistent and emerging challenges. The aim is to contribute to the deepening of the integration process in West Africa, to poverty reduction while ensuring better complementarity of approaches and responses between the various local, national, regional and continental levels. The ECOWAS 2050 Vision is based on five pillars that will determine the broad lines of action for its realisation. The Strategic Orientations that emerge from this Vision are the strategic options that are compatible with both the ECOWAS identity and the reference scenario. They will then be broken down into basic actions and translated into the next ECOWAS Regional Strategic Development Plan.

The pillars of the Vision have been reformulated into strategic objectives. Those long-term objectives are then broken down into Strategic Orientations. The relevance trees method was used to define the Strategic Orientations. The aim of this method is to help in the selection of elementary actions in order to meet the strategic objectives. It is about relating different hierarchical levels of a problem, from the general (Pillar and Strategic Objective) to the specific (Strategic Orientations). In concrete terms, this method consists of breaking down the strategic objectives (Pillars) into Strategic Orientations. This method makes it possible to avoid redundancy, to discover new ideas, to justify the choices made, to improve coherence and finally to structure the objectives and the means. Each Strategic Orientation is broken down into potential action areas to guide planning and the development of the Medium-Term Strategic Framework as well as various action plans.