On the sidelines of the regional workshop held in Cotonou in Benin from 5 to 7 November 2018 on Youth Employability in the agro-sylvo-pastoral and fisheries sector in West Africa, the members of the Steering Committee (Ecowas, Roppa, Apess, RBM, Inter-Réseaux) of the regional Producer organizations Support Project (PRAOP) exchanged views on the terms of reference and validated the roadmap for the formulation of a Community Regulatory Framework that will structure the agro-sylvo-pastoral, fisheries and agri-food value chains.

To recall, the West African market for agricultural and food products is undergoing some major changes; mutations that will develop in the coming years. Dominated for a long time by raw products of the vegetable and animal kingdom, its structure is progressively changing with the appearance of more elaborated and standardized transformed products with high added value.

Indeed, the feature of the last twenty years is the development of value chains of agricultural products, livestock and animal products and fisheries. Driven by the industrial and artisanal processing sectors, agri-food value chains are experiencing sustained growth with the appearance of large industrial groups. Most agricultural value chains are witnessing the development of these value chains whose products feed local, national and regional markets.

The objective of this mission is therefore to support the Ecowas Commission in its process of defining a regional Regulatory Framework governing the constitution and operation of multi-stakeholder dialogue platforms of regional agri-food value chains. This definition is key as goods and services market is increasingly governed by business rights, which fall under both the uniform act of OHADA and those defining business in the Anglophones countries. As a result, all national and regional economic organizations, be they companies, consultative frameworks, interprofessional organizations or platforms, are called upon to undergo legal and organizational changes that reconcile the diversity of their existing statutes. with the demands of modern business rights in the West African region.

The formulation process of the Regulatory Framework is scheduled to run into the end of the first quarter of 2019. It is funded by the Swiss Cooperation with the technical assistance of the Hub Rural.