Ongoing initiatives in this sector are mainly financed by the World Bank, FAO, German Cooperation and the Bill and Melinda Gate Foundation.

The Regional Support Project for Irrigation Initiative in the Sahel (PARIIS) for example is a joint initiative coordinated by CILSS, with the support from ECOWAS and UEMOA, to make irrigation in the Sahel a performing sector. Its vision is based on various irrigation solutions adapted to Sahelian context, financed within an institutional framework, with a view to developing sustainable, competitive and inclusive agriculture.

In addition, the West African Food System Resilience Programme (FSRP) piloted by ECOWAS, CILSS and CORAF, seeks to reinforce inherent risks management of regional food systems, improve sustainability of production base in targeted zones and develop regional agricultural markets.

Other initiatives are added to these two projects, such as the analysis of seeds landscape in West Africa, Initiative for Competitive African Rice Initiative (CARI), the 2020-2025 Rice Action Plan and ECOWAS Rice Observatory and the Project for Family Agriculture, regional markets and transborder trade corridors in the Sahel and West Africa.

Strength being achieved through unity, consultations highlighted the need for working together, to achieve greater agricultural production and competitiveness in West Africa.