Avec With financial support from the World Bank and other development partners including the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Global Agriculture and Food Security Programme (GAFSP) and the Global Risk Financing Facility (GRiF), ECOWAS, CILSS and CORAF launched on June 15th, the West Africa’s Food System Resilience Programme (FSRP).

Under the leadership of the ECOWAS Commission, CILSS and CORAF, the FSRP aims at increasing the Region’s capacity to face food insecurity through a regional systemic approach. This innovative programme will simultaneously boost agricultural productivity through a climate-smart agriculture, promote value chains and intra-regional trade and build regional capacities for agricultural risk management.

The first phase of the programme (2022-2026) will be implemented by the three regional organisations, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Togo. This phase will cost more than 330 million US dollars. A second phase to be approved by the Board of Directors of the World Bank for an amount of 315 million US dollars that will include Chad, Ghana and Sierra Leone and a third phase are being finalised.

Throughout the implementation of the first phases, the Programme will benefit other countries through spill over effects. Eventually, the Programme aims to achieve full regional coverage. "Addressing the challenges of food security requires the contributions, alignment and support of all partners, as agriculture is the main driver of West Africa’s development. As such, the ECOWAS Commission is committed to increasing its support to its Member States in this dubious battle and to particularly strengthen the capacities of the Regional Food Security Reserve towards alleviating the suffering of vulnerable populations," Mr Brou, former President of the ECOWAS Commission, explains.

In addition to upgrading national and regional food crisis prevention and management systems, the FSRP countries and regional institutions will work together to build strong agricultural and hydrometeorological information services. In addition, the FSRP will facilitate increased trade across key corridors and support the development of strategic value chains and sub-regional integration.