ECOWAS, through the Regional Agency for Agriculture and Food (RAAF) organised, on 22 and 23 October 2026 in Dakar, Senegal, the fourth meeting of the Management Committee of the Regional Food Security Reserve (RFSR) under the chairmanship of Senegal’s Minister for Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Livestock, Dr Cheikhou Oumar BA, in the presence of the Commissioner for Economic Affairs and Agriculture, Mr Dehpue Yenpea ZUO.

Over the course of the two-day meeting, the members of the Management Committee reviewed the progress of operations carried out since March 2025, approved the Reserve’s programme of activities and budget for 2027, and took stock of the process of revising the Regional Food Security Stockpiling Strategy.

As the Reserve’s central governing body, the Management Committee provides strategic over-sight of the Regional Food Security Reserve, which is essential for the prevention and manage-ment of food and nutrition crises in West Africa. Its decisions are implemented by the Regional Agency for Agriculture and Food through the Regional Food Security Reserve Division.

The Committee also granted discharge to the Executive Board for its management and ap-proved the operations submitted for its consideration, notably the rotation of a cereal stock in Nigeria and the increase in the quantities of nutritional products to be procured for two coun-tries in the region that had submitted requests.

Following the discussions, the members of the Management Committee called on Member States to strengthen their political and financial commitment, to consolidate their national stocks and to intensify their collaboration with the RRSA. They urged ECOWAS and UEMOA to ensure sustainable funding, accelerate governance reforms, simplify procedures and strengthen coordination, stakeholder engagement and data sharing, in order to improve the effective-ness of responses to food, nutrition and pastoral crises.

Chaired by Dr Cheikhou Oumar BA, Senegal’s Minister for Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Livestock, and attended by the ECOWAS Commissioner for Economic Affairs and Agriculture and the Commissioner for Human Development and Social Affairs, the fourth meeting of the RRSA Management Committee brought together representatives from the twelve ECOWAS Member States, Chad and Mauritania, as well as regional institutions (CILSS, UEMOA and ECO-WAS), producer and livestock farmers’ organisations, civil society and the private sector.

Representatives from other regional institutions also took part in the proceedings as observers. Through this fourth meeting, ECOWAS also aims to consolidate the governance of this regional instrument, enhance the predictability of its interventions and improve its contribution to food and nutritional security for the region’s populations.

About the Regional Food Security Reserve

Established in 2013, the Regional Food Security Reserve is an ECOWAS instrument for community solidarity, de-signed to complement Member States’ efforts in managing food and nutrition crises. It forms part of the Regional Food Security Stockpiling Strategy, adopted in 2012, and contributes to the implementation of the regional agricultural policy, ECOWAP. This strategy is based on three complementary lines of defence : local stocks held by producer organisations, national safety stocks managed by Member States, and the Regional Reserve.

The RFSR has three main objectives: to complement Member States’ efforts to provide rapid and diversified food and nutritional assistance to affected populations; to demonstrate regional solidarity through transparent, equitable and predictable intervention mechanisms; and to contribute to food sovereignty as well as to the political, economic and trade integration of West Africa. Its intervention mechanism benefits ECOWAS member states, as well as Chad and Mauritania.