By: Haja Hawa Koroma
The ECOWAS, CILSS and CORAF will jointly launch, the Food Systems Resilience Programme which aims to sustainably reduce food insecurity in West Africa, at Hotel Sarakawa in Lome on Wednesday 15th June 2022. They are embarking on this project with the financial support of the World Bank and other development partners, including the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Global Agriculture & Food Security Programme (GAFSP) and the Global Risk Financing Facility (GRiF).
They are being led by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS) and the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research (CORAF). FSRP’s primary aim is to increase regional preparedness against food insecurity by pursuing a systemic regional- level approach.
This innovative program will simultaneously boost agricultural productivity through climate-smart agriculture; it will promote intraregional value chains and trade, and will build regional capacity to manage agricultural risk.
The first phase of the program (2022-2026), which will be implemented by the three regional organizations and Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, and Togo, amounts to more than USD$400 million. A second phase including Chad, Ghana and Sierra Leone amounting to USD$315 million is scheduled to be approved by the World Bank Board of Directors in July 2022 and a third phase is already being envisioned.
Throughout the implementation of the first phases, the program will also benefit other countries in the region through spill-over effects. Ultimately, the program aims to achieve full regional coverage bringing together stakeholders from within and beyond the region.
The launch event will provide a forum for discussing West Africa’s food security challenges and the solutions brought forward by FSRP. In addition to the launching ceremony with high-level decision-makers and a panel discussion, the event will feature three Lightening Learning Sessions.
These sessions will unpack findings from analytical work of the West Africa Food System Resilience Facility (FSRF), supported by the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and that feeds into the implementation of FSRP.
According to Dr. Jean Claude Kassi Brou, President of the ECOWAS Commission, tackling West Africa’s food security challenges requires the contributions, alignment, and support of all partners as Agriculture is the key driver of West Africa’s development. Therefore, the ECOWAS Commission is committed to increasing its support to its Member States in this dubious battle, and to particularly building the capacities of the Regional Food Security Reserve towards alleviating the sufferings of the needy population.
In addition to upgrading regional food crisis prevention and management systems, FSRP countries and regional institutions will work together to strengthen shared agricultural and hydro meteorological information services. They will also collaborate on strengthening national and regional agricultural research and policy environment for landscape governance to avoid, reduce, and reverse land degradation.
FSRP will also facilitate increased trade across key corridors and will support the development of strategic value chains within and among participating countries as identified by them. About 4.35 million people across West Africa stands to benefit from FSRP (Phase I and Phase II) projects that will complement and enhance ongoing efforts to reduce food insecurity and improve the resilience of food systems.
According to the press statement, the food and nutrition situation of this year is exceptional. Prices of agricultural produce increased from 33 to 37% averagely, compared to quinquennial average with increases reaching up to 50% and more in some places. The already alarming situation is worsened by the effects of recent international geopolitical tensions, particularly the war in Ukraine.
Direct impact on global prices of wheat, maize and fertilisers, of which Ukraine and Russia are major producers and increase in oil prices inducing direct impact on international, regional and national transport costs for all goods and services are some of the consequences and this is expected to cause a generalised inflation.
Some of the participants that are expected in joining the launch event include stakeholders from regional organizations, Member States, development partners, academia and the civil society.
