The ECOWAS Commission, through its Regional Agency for Agriculture and Food (RAAA), launches this Wednesday, 14 April 2021, in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, the 2021 edition of the Annual Info-Stocks meeting of the West Africa Food Security Storage Support Project. The Annual Info-Stocks meeting is a platform for information exchange and discussions with national and regional actors involved in the response to food and nutrition crises and on the operation of the ECOWAS Regional Food and Nutritional Security Reserve.

The main theme of this year's meeting is the management of food insecurity in times of health crisis: challenges for data collection, analysis of the food situation, and the implementation of national response plans by countries and regional actors.

Indeed, the food and nutrition situation in the Sahel and West Africa has never been as critical as it has been in recent years. In 2020, for example, a severe deterioration of this situation was observed under the combined effects of agroclimatic shocks, persistent civil insecurity in the Sahel and in the Lake Chad Basin, inflation in some countries and the health crisis linked to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Discussions during this three-day workshop will focus on (i) the food and nutrition statement in 2020, the projected situation for the lean season of 2021 and the prospects for intervention at the three levels of intervention in 2021, and (ii) the operation of the Regional Food Security Reserve with national and regional actors working on the national response plans to food crises in the Sahel and West African countries.

The anticipated fruitful deliberations of the discussions will make it possible to make recommendations for the 2021 lean season during which more than 27 million people will be food insecure if adequate measures are not taken.