With the experience of this pilot project, ECOWAS has accumulated important achievements to be part of a global management perspective of plant protection against pests.

In order to address the scourge of fruit flies, which can destroy 50 to 80% of fruit production, ECOWAS and its Member States, with the financial support of the European Union and the French Development Agency, set up a response plan in 2015 through the Project to Support the Regional Plan for Fruit Flies Control.

After four years of a dubious implementation battle, all stakeholders of the project met last July in Dakar, Senegal as part of the project's closing, results capitalization and sharing workshop.

Discussions have shown that the implementation of this project has impacted the mango sector in the beneficiary countries, in particular (i) the establishment of an operational surveillance system in the 32 mango production basins of the beneficiary countries to track fruit flies infestations and the issuance of early warnings, (ii) capacity building for 8517 producers and technicians in integrated pest management techniques and the provision of certified fruit fly management products to producers, (iii) the strengthening of the technical capacities of 1438 representatives of professional organizations of plant health inspectors and their provision of adequate inspection and/or laboratory equipment, and (iv) the establishment, by ministerial or inter-ministerial order, of 11 national committees composed of representatives of the public and private sectors with a national mandate. Applied research activities have made it possible to identify new control methods based on local products that are effective, environmentally friendly and less costly for producers.

These achievements have contributed to a positive and significant impact on the mango sector in the project's beneficiary countries, in particular through (i) a 57% reduction in mango interceptions at Europe's borders and (ii) a 40% increase in mango exports from the ECOWAS region to Europe.

ECOWAS is currently working with its partners to mobilize additional resources to consolidate these achievements, which still remain fragile with greater involvement of the private sector. To this end, the French Development Agency and the European Union have decided to support ECOWAS in defining a second phase with the objective of strengthening and extending the existing surveillance system and supporting the dissemination and appropriation, by small producers, of innovations resulting from applied research.