As part of the implementation of the Agricultural Trade and Markets Scorecard for West Africa and the Sahel (EATM-SCORECARD) in Ghana, Niger, Sierra Leone, Chad and Togo, under the coordination of ECOWAS, national stakeholders met to exchange and validate the data collected with a view to integrating them into the platform.
These national sessions, organised from 20 to 27 March 2025 with the support of ECOWAS and AKADEMIYA2063, were part of the process of making SCORECARD operational at both national and regional levels, with the aim of facilitating trade in agricultural products within and between the countries of West Africa and the Sahel.
After the data collected in 2024 had been analysed and reconciled at a regional meeting held in February 2025 in Lomé, national stakeholders made up of traders, agricultural producers, customs officers, forwarding agents, transporters and processors met to validate the data from surveys carried out at targeted border points in each country.
During the various workshops, the heads of components 3 of the West Africa Food System Resilience Programme (FSRP) and technical experts from the SCORECARD national teams presented the methodology and operation of the regional mechanism, with particular emphasis on the national process, including the collection of primary and secondary data.
Through group work and plenary sessions, participants were able to examine and validate the values generated for each of the 19 country profile indicators. In addition, the main communication actions to be undertaken around SCORECARD and country performance were discussed.
In all the countries concerned, the plenary adopted the consolidated data to produce the Scoreboard indicators. They also agreed on innovative and sustainable mechanisms to ensure regular production of the information needed to monitor performance in implementing regional policies and regulations. This approach is an essential lever for increasing the volume of intra-regional trade in West Africa and the Sahel.
Finally, in each country, ECOWAS and AKADEMIYA2063 experts took an active part in the work, reaffirming their commitment to supporting the Member States in the success of this process, which will contribute to strengthening trade of agricultural products to improve food security in the region.
