The African Academy of Languages workshop for demographers and cartographers for the Linguistic Atlas of Africa is well underway at Abidjan, Cote d';;ivoire. The workshop kicked off on Wednesday and is expected to run till November 2nd.

The Linguistic atlas project is expected to produce precise information on the number of languages spoken in the different regions of Africa, which can then be used for planning and educational purposes. The workshop will also be looking to nominate and confirm scientific committee for West Africa; identify statisticians and researchers for field work; discuss data harmonization strategies and set map production plan; budgeting, procurement of software; appoint consultants/GIS expert; set time for collation of data and data processing.

Participants are expected to update information on population and language distribution in their respective countries.

The workshop is expected to bring together Cartographers, statisticians and researchers from the fifteen Member States of ECOWAS and the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, a representative of the Regional Economic Community (ECOWAS), members of the ACALAN Secretariat and representatives of the host country and representatives of UNESCO.