Considering the growing food insecurity in West Africa and responding to the calls from the meeting of the Food Crisis Prevention Network (RPCA) in April 2024 for urgent action to provide food assistance to more than 50 million people, the ECOWAS Commission has decided to mobilize, under the regional solidarity scheme, part of its regional food security stock to support the six (06) countries most affected by food difficulties, namely Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. The support is estimated at 5,370 tons of cereals.

On 27^th July 2024 in Kano, ECOWAS donated 2,000 tons of cereals (millet, sorghum, and white maize) to the Federal Government of Nigeria to support the country's efforts to assist vulnerable populations. It also availed 4,976.75 tons of cereals to the Nigerian Government as part of technical stock rotation of the Regional Food Security Reserve. Stock rotation is part of normal stock management cycle whereby ECOWAS regularly replaces more than two (02) year old stocks with new ones to ensure that they are always of good quality and fit for human consumption. Similarly, on 17^th September 2024 in Accra, ECOWAS donated 500 tons of cereals (maize, sorghum, millet, and rice) from the Regional Food Security Reserve to the Republic of Ghana as part of the same intervention.

Through this expression of regional solidarity, ECOWAS seeks to support the efforts of the countries most affected by food crisis during the 2024 lean season. The donations will help boost the resilience of the populations affected by the difficult food situation. Upon receiving the donations, both Ghana and Nigeria expressed their gratitude to the ECOWAS Commission for its support and pledged to continue to play an important role in maintaining and growing the Regional Food Security Reserve, as well as replenishing, grain for grain, the stock mobilized in the case of loans. The delivery of cereals to the remaining eligible four countries will be scheduled as soon as possible according to their availability. The Regional Food Reserve also plans to provide 230 tons of fortified flour to Nigeria in collaboration with the ECOWAS Humanitarian Emergency Fund.

As of today, the Regional Food Security Reserve has intervened 21 times between 2017 and September 2024 to support six (06) countries (Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Ghana, Mali, Niger, and Nigeria) for about 60,477 tons of food grains and 205 tons of fortified flour. The Regional Food Security Reserve is the third line of defense of the West African regional food security storage strategy adopted and established by the fifteen (15) Member States on 28^th February 2013 by Supplementary Act to the Revised ECOWAS Treaty.

ECOWAS calls on the Humanitarian Community partners as well as technical and financial partners to contribute to mobilize additional stocks of the Regional Food Security Reserve. ECOWAS remains grateful to the technical and financial partners who have been supporting the implementation of the Regional Food Security Reserve since 2016. Such partners include UEMOA, the European Union, the French Development Agency, the Spanish Cooperation, USAID, and the World Bank.