The President of the World Bank Group (WBG), Mr. David Malpass, paid an official visit to Togo from 31 March to 1 April 2023. This visit is part of the process of strengthening the cooperation between the Togolese Republic and the World Bank Group.

An important milestone of the visit was the official reception, on 31 March 2023, of a stock of 60,000 tons of fertilizers, 34,000 of which are funded by the World Bank for an amount of 20 million USD through the West Africa Food System Resilience Programme (FSRP) coordinated at regional level by the ECOWAS Commission.

This support for the 2023/2024 agricultural season is part of the emergency response to the ongoing food and nutrition insecurity in West Africa, with a focus on long-term commitment to a private sector-led regional fertilizer market to improve agricultural productivity and value chains.

Food and nutrition security and fertilizer supply are among the priorities of the Togo-World Bank partnership, which were the subject of in-depth discussions between the Togolese President Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé and David Malpass in Washington in October 2022.

To recall, the Government of Togo has obtained funding of 90 million dollars, representing more than 50 billion CFA francs for the implementation of the FSRP project. The actions undertaken since the official kick-off of the project on 15 June 2022 include, among others:

• capacity building of 116 journalists and broadcasters in meteorology, including 22 women,
• capacity building of 116 journalists and broadcasters in meteorology, including 22 women,
• training of 45 facilitators on the implementation of the Participatory and Integrated Climate Services for Agriculture (PICSA) approach at the farm level,
• acquisition of 34,000 tons of NPK 15 15 15 fertilizer for the 2023-2024 agricultural season to support 100,000 producers, including 25,000 women,
• training of 128 women trainers on the processing of high nutritional value food products (soy, orange-fleshed sweet potatoes) and the preparation of moringa sauces and other vegetables,
• training of 673 women leaders, women from organised groups (cooperatives and other actors) on the processing of food with high nutritional value and the preparation of moringa sauces and other vegetables,
• raining 678 farmers (including 253 women) in organic soil management and rapid composting techniques to be applied on 16,600 ha of consolidated farmland (agricultural zones), and
• administration of 500,000 doses of freeze-dried vaccine to small ruminants in the country's six agricultural regions.

About FSRP

The West Africa Food System Resilience Programme (FSRP) is a multi-phase programmatic approach that was approved by the World Bank Group's Governing Board in November 2021 to address food and nutrition insecurity and strengthen the resilience of food systems in West Africa. Its first phase (US$330 million) came into effect in June 2022 and brings together four countries - Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, and Togo - and three regional organisations: ECOWAS, CILSS and CORAF. Phase 2 ($315 million) includes three more countries - Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Chad. The programme aims to increase agricultural productivity through climate-smart practices, promote intra-regional value chains and trade, build regional capacity for better agricultural risk management, and foster greater cooperation to ensure long-term food security for the people of West Africa. FSRP is coordinated at regional level by the ECOWAS Regional Agency for Agriculture and Food (RAAF).

Kindly find attached the Press Release.