 Data on migration in West Africa are generally patchy or not available or not of very good quality. There are some good data available from the recent censuses, but one of the problems is that many of the census data sets have not been analysed or reported on. Adjective data exist particularly on labour migration in a number of private and public organisations. These data have generally not been collected, analysed or organised in such a way that they are of use to policy makers. Many people are not registered in much of the sub-Saharan African countries. Many people are not registered through the civil registration systems. So there is no means of identifying who is or isn't an ECOWAS citizen. Obstacles faced by policy makers and data analysts in looking at migration data in West Africa include the fact that many of the population of West Africa, the citizens of West Africa, are able to travel freely by virtue of the free movement protocols, the ECOWAS free movement protocols. Which means there is generally no system in place to collect data systematically on the movements of citizens. As is the case in the European Union, free movement means that generally it is more difficult to collect data on the free movement of the citizens of that region. This is the reason the main obstacle. So the availability and quality of data can be improved through training and capacity building and a re-implementation of the regional guidelines that we've developed for ECOWAS. We developed these guidelines to help build a system of comparable data collection of comparable data across the region, which is going to be useful at a regional level as well as a national level. In the light of the Sustainable Development Goals and the UN's Sustainable Development Agenda for 2030, the notion that no one should be left behind, this regional system should allow the ECOWAS region to prepare and collect and report on comparable data, which will be of use in comparing the region's progress to development with other global regions. In addition, at national level, what can be done is to add additional questions and modules for existing surveys, perhaps if the resources were available to conduct migration surveys across the region. This would be the best way to improve the quality and comparability of data for ECOWAS.