Ecowas

On 29 May 2025 in Abidjan, during the 7th edition of the Salon de l'Agriculture et des Ressources Animales (SARA), ECOWAS, through its Rice Observatory (ERO), organised a side event on the theme: Improving local rice processing to strengthen competitiveness in West Africa, from paddy to market.

The meeting served as a platform to share valuable information on successful models and investment opportunities available under the regional strategy, as it moves towards adoption at national level in each country. The event was attended by stakeholders from across the rice value chain, including key players and partners in the West African rice sector, such as traders, researchers, private sector actors, policy makers and development partners. It served to raise awareness of the provisions of the roadmap and mobilised technical and financial partnerships.

Officially opened by Mrs Massandjé Touré-Litsé, Commissioner for Economic Affairs and Agriculture of the ECOWAS Commission, this session was marked by a panel moderated by Mr Alain Sy Traoré, Director of Agriculture and Rural Development of ECOWAS. 

The panel brought together various experts and stakeholders who shared their practical knowledge and experiences on how to accelerate the competitiveness and self-sufficiency of the rice sector in West Africa. It was moderated by (i) Mr Mory DIABATE, President of the Interprofessional Rice Organisation of Côte d'Ivoire and President of the national ERO ONRiz-CI section, representing the private sector; (ii) Dr Prem Bindraban, Director of Research at AfricaRice, representing academia and research; (iii) Mr Morou MOUSSA of the World Bank, representing the private sector; and (iv) Mr M. M. BADO of the World Bank. Morou MOUSSA of the African Development Bank, representing development partners and donors; (iv) Mr Hugues GOA of EBID, representing financial and investment institutions; and (v) Dr Yacouba Dembélé, Director General of the Côte d'Ivoire Rice Development Agency, representing the public sector.

The panellists stressed the essential role of financing and policy harmonisation in enabling sector-wide growth. Development banks were urged to invest in infrastructure, facilitate access to working capital and support pro-development policies and research. Intermediaries familiar with the banking sector and agriculture were considered essential to fill sectoral gaps. Public-private partnerships, collective financing models and reforms at national level were all highlighted as essential tools for unlocking investment and promoting the sustainable development of value chains.

Discussions focused on the persistent challenges in terms of production and market access, in particular the high cost of local rice compared to imports, due to poor mechanisation and inadequate post-harvest infrastructure. Emphasis has been placed on promoting scalable technologies for smallholders and cooperatives, such as affordable pre-milling units and small-scale milling equipment. Innovation, when local and adapted to scale, was identified as a key driver of long-term transformation.

The session concluded with a call for enhanced regional coordination, pragmatic public policies and private sector engagement to translate the Regional Rice Roadmap into concrete and effective results in all ECOWAS Member States.

Thanks to the high visibility and mobilising power of SARA, this side event facilitated alignment between public and private stakeholders and gave new impetus to the implementation process of the ECOWAS Rice Observatory Roadmap.

The side event ended with a public rice tasting, during which the different varieties produced in the different West African countries were presented and tasted by the participants, who were able to appreciate their quality, freshness and unique flavour (parboiled, brown, broken and white rice).

From 23 May to 1 June 2025, stakeholders and partners in the agroforestry and fisheries sector gathered in Abidjan for the 7th edition of the Abidjan International Agriculture and Animal Resources Show (SARA), which was officially opened by the Prime Minister of Côte d'Ivoire, HEM Beugré Mambé, at the Abidjan Exhibition Centre.

Invited to this agricultural event by the Government of Côte d'Ivoire, the ECOWAS Delegation was led by Mrs Massandjé TOURE-LITSE, Commissioner for Economic Affairs and Agriculture of the ECOWAS Commission. In the "Institutions and Sponsors" section, ECOWAS shared its achievements in the agricultural sector with the public by running a stand and organising eleven side-events. 

Under the theme "What agri-food processing systems for food sovereignty in Africa?", the 7th edition of SARA was a platform for meetings and exchanges of experience between players in the agricultural, animal resources and fisheries sectors in West Africa.

Taking part in SARA for the second time after the 2023 edition, ECOWAS seized the opportunity to raise its profile and raise awareness of ECOWAS policies and initiatives in the field of regional integration, in relation to agriculture, while promoting regional initiatives in relation to agricultural processing systems to improve food and nutritional security.

At SARA, ECOWAS also took stock of the implementation of its Agricultural Policy (ECOWAP) over the last 20 years and highlighted the results of the programmes and projects contributing to the implementation of the said Policy, as underlined by the ECOWAS Commissioner for Economic Affairs and Agriculture: "Our participation in this major event reflects ECOWAS' strong political will to support Member States in the sustainable transformation of their agricultural and food systems. It also illustrates our determination to make agriculture a driving force for economic development and the creation of decent jobs, particularly for young people and women, and an essential lever for food and nutritional security".

"Driving the food sovereignty agenda in West Africa: 20 years of ECOWAP implementation" was the theme of ECOWAS's second participation at SARA. Through exhibitions, high-level panels and side events, ECOWAS, in collaboration with its Regional Agriculture and Food Agency (RAFA), the Regional Animal Health Centre (RAHC) and its technical and financial partners, highlighted the efforts being made to guarantee food and nutritional security, climate resilience and the sustainability of agricultural systems, in line with the continent's ambitions for food sovereignty.

On 7 May 2025, a joint mission from the World Bank and Dutch Cooperation, major financial partners of the Food System Resilience Programme in West Africa (FSRP), made a field visit to the Central and Plateaux regions in Togo. Three cooperatives that have benefited from FSRP support, in the form of training and equipment donations, were visited in Yaloumbè (Central region), Nyamassila (Plateaux-Est region) and Kpélé Tutu.
In Yaloumbè, a 13-member cooperative specialised in rice production has been trained in Smart Valleys technology, developed by AfricaRice and promoted by the FSRP in Togo. After a year of experimentation, the farmers highlighted the advantages of this approach, including optimised water management thanks to the development of basins in the lowlands, a significant reduction in the number of seed used (1 kg/ha compared with 3 kg/ha previously) and a tripling of yields, from 1.5 tonnes to 5 tonnes per hectare. However, the discussions highlighted several constraints, including the lack of permanent access to water due to the absence of an irrigation system.
In Nyamassila, the women's cooperative specialised in the processing of enriched flours made from moringa and néré benefited from training organised by the FSRP in 2023 on techniques for processing local flours. Thanks to this support, the members of the cooperative have begun to improve their living conditions by becoming real entrepreneurs, now supplying these enriched products to the local hospital and to the elderly.
The 85-member Kpélé Tutu cooperative is dedicated to producing compost and biopesticides, and is actively helping to boost agricultural productivity in the Planned Agricultural Development Zone (ZAAP) in the Plateaux-Est region. The cooperators, trained in the manufacture of these biological inputs, use a large-capacity composter to transform organic waste (plant leaves, peelings, garden waste, etc.) into compost, a natural fertiliser that is particularly beneficial for market garden crops and maize.
Discussions between members of the World Bank mission, comprising Ms Ashwini Sebastian, Regional FSRP Task Team Leader, and Mr Nouhoun Traoré, FSRP Co-TTL at the World Bank Office in Togo, and the Dutch cooperation team, comprising Mr Jeroen Rijniers and Mr Dominic van Asseldonk, and beneficiaries revealed the initial positive impact of the programme's interventions on the living conditions of the target populations. However, the discussions also highlighted additional needs, particularly in terms of irrigation, agri-food processing and storage.
This joint mission was part of the activities to monitor and review the results of the FSRP, financed by the World Bank's International Development Association (IDA), with additional financial support from the Netherlands Cooperation through the Global Agriculture and Food Security Programme (GAFSP).
Discussions continued on 8 May 2025 in Lomé with representatives of the FSRP coordination regional institutions within ECOWAS, CILSS and CORAF.

ECOWAS organised a side event on "Increasing Investment for Rice Self-Sufficiency in West Africa: Opportunities and Challenges" on 3 September, in partnership with the AfDB, JICA, AGRA and the World Bank at the 2024 Forum on Food Systems in Africa held from 2 to 6 September 2024.

More than 300 people including ministers, governors, researchers, rice producers and processors, students and technical and development partners took part in the event, which fostered the formation of strategic partnerships essential to the development and implementation of the comprehensive investment packages in the rice sector identified in the roadmap.

The various presentations helped to identify and remove barriers to investment by understanding these challenges and formulating workable solutions to overcome them.

The side event was organised around two high-level panels: ECOWAS Policy Frameworks and Sustainable Solutions and Financing Sustainable Rice Innovations, to promote dialogue and collaboration between policy-makers, researchers and practitioners to improve policy implementation and impact.

During the first panel, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security of Sierra Leone, Dr Henri Musa Kpaka; the Governor of Jigawa State in Nigeria, HE. Malam Umar A. Mamadi and representatives from the Ministries of Agriculture of Ghana, Benin and Senegal shared their experiences in developing the rice sector. The panellists shared best practices, identified opportunities to enhance sustainability, and recommended solutions to policy gaps and innovative approaches.

The second panel focused on "Financing sustainable rice-growing innovations" in order to unlock investment for a resilient rice-growing sector.  It brought together financiers, private sector players and development partners. Representatives from the AfDB, JICA, AFEX and the World Bank, moderated by Alain Sy Traore, ECOWAS Director of Agriculture and Rural Development, explored potential interventions and sustainable innovations to improve access to finance for farmers and millers to stimulate the development of the rice value chain, and mechanisms to reduce the risks of investments in the rice value chain. The panellists encouraged the introduction of innovative risk reduction schemes to encourage private sector investment and lending by financial institutions.

Participants gained practical knowledge and proven strategies on successful investment models that can be replicated and adapted in different regions.

The organisation of the side event by ECOWAS and its partners at the Forum on Food Systems in Africa (AFS) 2024, provided a key platform to advance agricultural innovation. The forum brought together world leaders, investors and stakeholders to discuss ways to transform food systems across Africa. The event fostered partnerships, shared practical ideas and made concrete recommendations for achieving rice self-sufficiency in West Africa.

By participating in the AFS 2024 Forum, ECOWAS and its partners have amplified their efforts to transform the rice sector and increased the visibility of the ECOWAS Rice Observatory. 

ECOWAS's agricultural policy (ECOWAP) is implemented around five key themes, including the strengthening of food and nutritional resilience, security and sovereignty. Through this theme, ECOWAS aims to ensure sustainable and competitive agriculture to guarantee food sovereignty in West Africa.

To achieve this objective, several initiatives are being implemented for the benefit of the populations of the Sahel and West Africa, including the West Africa Food System Resilience Programme (FSRP/PRSA).

Supported by the World Bank and officially launched in June 2022, FSRP implements activities relating to digital advisory services for the prevention of food crises, the sustainability and adaptation of the productive base and the facilitation of intra-regional trade in West Africa. These activities are coordinated respectively by CILSS, the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF) and ECOWAS, which is responsible for the overall coordination of the programme with eight beneficiary countries: Burkina Faso, Chad, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.

For all these countries, the region is aiming for a 25% reduction in the number of food-insecure people in the areas targeted by the PRSF, with a total of more than 5.5 million beneficiaries, 40% of whom are women.

Despite a difficult context for implementing activities in the field as a result of socio-political and security challenges, significant achievements have been noted. In 2024, a total of 2,344,411 direct beneficiaries, 35% of whom were women, were reached by PRSF activities implemented in 7 countries: Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Sierra Leone, Chad and Togo.  A reduction in the number of people living with food insecurity of almost 22.2% compared to the base year of 2022 has also been observed in the intervention zones of Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Togo.

With regard to access to agrometeorological services, all countries in the Sahelian and Sudano-Sahelian zones have had access to CILSS information on seasonal agricultural forecasts and risk management.

With 221 technologies and innovations disseminated, the actions coordinated by CORAF will enable countries to set up sustainable production and productivity systems to increase producers' incomes.

Under the coordination of ECOWAS, an agricultural trade and markets scorecard (EATM-Scorecard) has been developed and put into operation in five countries (Ghana, Niger, Sierra Leone, Chad and Togo), with the aim of extending it to all countries by 2025.

The various evaluations, both in individual countries and at regional level, have helped to capitalise on good practice and encourage better integration of innovative approaches aimed at improving food security, the resilience of agricultural systems and access to markets.

These developments show that FSRP making progress towards its objectives and making a lasting contribution to food resilience in West Africa and the Sahel.

The ECOWAS Commission, through its rice sector coordination mechanism and its multi-stakeholder platform of actors and partners, the ECOWAS Rice Observatory (ERO), in collaboration with GIZ-MOVE, organized a two-day consultative meeting on gender equity for rice sector development on 18 and 19 March 2025 in Abuja. The meeting brought together over 90 participants from stakeholders in ECOWAS Member States and representatives of ERO country chapters, women's groups and youth organisations, National Rice Development Strategy focal points, policy makers, NGOs and private sector actors across the rice value chain.

For the ECOWAS Commission and its partners, understanding the level of inclusion of women and young people in the rice sector is crucial. To this end, a gender equity review was carried out, revealing that various projects, programmes and policies took gender equity into account, as well as promoting the inclusion of women and young people in agriculture.

The review found that there are no specific strategies and actions to address women's issues in the rice sector. In addition, gender inequality persists, with significantly low representation of women across the value chain, and their strong potential remains untapped. This is due to systemic barriers and challenges such as limited access to land, inputs, credit and technology for those involved in rice production and processing.

At the end of the two days of discussions, the key results achieved included: the successful validation of the gender equity review report with clear recommendations for action; the identification of key elements for the gender equity strategy in the rice sector through a participatory approach during the working sessions; the development of an action plan with concrete activities to promote gender equity in the rice sector and finally the commitment of stakeholders to support the implementation of the proposed activities.

The main recommendations of the meeting were the joint call to develop a gender equity strategy for the rice sector and to establish the ECOWAS Women's Platform in the Rice Sector (PFRC), which will focus on strengthening women's participation along the rice value chain and advocate for policies/programmes that strictly support women's inclusion through a single voice. By boosting women's participation, the PFRC aims to stimulate economic growth and contribute to food security throughout the region. This platform will be replicated at national level and will operate within the framework of the ECOWAS Rice Observatory, rather than as a stand-alone entity.

The discussions and enthusiasm of the stakeholders demonstrated that when women have equal access to resources, agricultural production will increase, benefiting the whole community.

35 Agricultural Trade and Development Experts from Chad, Ghana, Niger, Sierra Leone, Togo, and ECOWAS Commission assembled in Lomé from February 24 to 28, 2025, to analyze and re-port on 2024 data on trade flows in agricultural products in the region.

The meeting is part of the implementation of Component 3 of the West Africa Food System Re-silience Programme (FSRP), which focuses on the integration of regional food markets and trade. Within the framework, an analysis tool, the ECOWAS Agricultural Trade and Markets Scorecard (EATM-Scorecard) has been developed with the support of AKADEMIYA2063 to facili-tate the documentation of intra-regional trade in agri-food products, identify gaps in trade pol-icies and strengthen their implementation at regional level. Through this tool, ECOWAS aims to provide decision-makers with strategic data to guide policy reforms and promote intra-regional trade.

Since February 2024, seven countries – Ghana, Niger, Sierra Leone, Chad, Togo, Burkina Faso, and Mali began implementing the Scorecard. Data collection has been completed in Ghana, Niger, Sierra Leone, Chad, and Togo, marking a crucial step toward the data analysis and vali-dation phase of the project.

The workshop was an opportunity to provide support to the national technical teams. Specifi-cally, participants assessed the data collection process and analyzed the data to identify gaps and missing information, familiarize themselves with the Scorecard platform, and appropriate data analysis tools developed.

In parallel sessions, country and ECOWAS communication specialists worked on adapting the communication strategy and tools linked to the initiative.

The entire process was conducted with oversight from the ECOWAS regional Scorecard team comprising experts from the Trade Directorate, the Agriculture and Rural Development Direc-torate, and the Regional Agency for Agriculture and Food (RAAF/ARAA).

Speaking on behalf of the ECOWAS Commission at the opening of the workshop, Mr. Christo-pher Mensah-Yawson, Program Officer for Trade Development at the Trade Directorate and Manager of the Scorecard at the regional level, stressed the importance of this tool in helping to facilitate intra-regional trade in West Africa, which is still weak between countries, and called for the extension of this tool to other ECOWAS countries not yet involved in the FSRP.

This initiative represents a decisive step towards better integration of agricultural markets and strengthening agri-food trade policies in West Africa. In addition, the Scorecard shall improve the communication of data on agricultural trade, with recommendations for countries to en-hance their performance in the context of agricultural trade.

The first report to be generated using the Scorecard is expected to be published in June 2025 in recognition of 50 years of the existence of ECOWAS

Subsequent to the workshop, the country teams will organize national workshops to validate the Scorecard implementation process and data with the support of the regional team.

From July to early October, a technical monitoring-evaluation team made up of regional coordinators from CILSS, CORAF, ECOWAS and the World Bank carried out monitoring-evaluation support missions in six countries of the West African Food System Resilience Programme (FSRP). The mission, which covered Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Togo, Ghana and Sierra Leone, aimed to improve the FSRP's performance management by harmonising the measurement methods and data sources for the indicators in the programme's results framework.

The main objective was to arrive at a reliable monitoring and evaluation system that would enable the PRSP's performance to be managed in the best possible way. These meetings were of particular benefit to the countries in the first phase of the programme's implementation, now at the half-way stage. They provided an opportunity for national stakeholders to harmonise their understanding of the results framework indicators and to revise the data collection forms used by all the countries.

The discussions took place in a hybrid format, combining face-to-face and online working sessions. They brought together experts from ECOWAS, CORAF, CILSS, the World Bank and the monitoring and evaluation teams of the countries concerned, in addition to the technical partner services involved in implementing the FSRP.

One of the crucial stages of this mission was to carry out a complete review of the indicators in the regional results framework. This included an examination of the results calculated, the calculation formulas applied, the data collected and the collection tools used in each country. This technical work enabled the harmonisation that was essential to guarantee the reliability and comparability of data between the different countries where the programme operates.

The indicators deemed to have priority were examined in detail. These include: (i) ODP2 (Number of programme beneficiaries); (ii) ODP3 (Number of food system actors with access to hydrological and agrometeorological advisory services); (iii) ODP4 (Area of land under sustainable landscape management practices); (iv) ODP5 (Number of producers adopting agricultural technologies and services adapted to climate change); and (v) IRI1 (Percentage of satisfied users with access to climate and agricultural advisory services).

These indicators are at the heart of the evaluation of the progress made by the programme and provide an overview of the initial impact of the interventions on beneficiaries.

At the end of this support mission, the Regional Coordination of the PRSF will have an overview of national data, enabling a more detailed assessment of the overall performance of the programme. This rigorous monitoring is essential to assess the effectiveness of the PRSF's interventions and to ensure greater resilience of food systems in West Africa.

As part of the World Bank's support to strengthen the ECOWAS Regional Food Security Reserve (RRSA) through the GRiF activities of Component 3 of the PRSF, a visit by WILLIS TOWERS WATSON to experts from the RAEA/ECOWAS, particularly those in charge of designing and implementing the risk transfer mechanism (the PIU team), took place from 03 to 05 June 2024 in Lomé/Togo.

Discussions generally focused on the feasibility study for the risk transfer/financing instrument and on the instrument's potential, data and modelling.

After three (03) days of discussions, the WTW consultants and the RAAA experts agreed on the food security factors that should be considered as a priority, on a clearer vision of the type of potential instruments, on the definition and discussion of the type of data needed to assess food security and finally on the type of data/indicators/proxy that will be used to design the trigger index for interventions from the regional reserve.

Together, the ARAA and WTW experts defined the most important steps to be taken to finalise the instrument. It should be noted that these exchanges provided an opportunity for a better understanding of the requirements of the Reserve and ECOWAS with regard to the support mechanism and a clearer understanding of the requirements and preferences of the market (insurers and investors) with regard to these risks and these instruments.

Prior to the Lomé meeting, the RAAA and WTW experts had jointly conducted a holistic risk assessment focusing on the identification and evaluation of the main structural and current drivers of food insecurity in the region, as well as indicators that could be useful, alone or in combination, as proxies for various elements of food insecurity in the ECOWAS region, both at national and regional levels.

WTW has consulted with the ECOWAS Regional Food Security Reserve (RFSR) team to review and reach a common understanding of the various aspects of the RFSR, including financial costs, disbursement history (countries, dates of distribution, food commodities and volume distributed, number of beneficiaries), purchase agreements already in place, and any data gaps and liquidity constraints. WTW will use the information collected to estimate the number of beneficiaries currently reached, the number yet to be reached and the number that could be reached through the implementation of the financial mechanism(s) proposed to extend the scope of the RFSR.

The feasibility study on the risk financing instrument for the ECOWAS Regional Food Security Reserve (RFSR) is a GRiF-funded activity exploring the feasibility of designing and implementing a risk transfer solution for the RFSR to improve the resilience of the regional reserve against the main food insecurity risks. The RFSR responds to food insecurity induced by various sources of food crises, including agro-climatic shocks, socio-political conflicts or crises, health crises (Ebola, Covid-19) and sudden food price shocks. The RFSR is designed to complement national food security response mechanisms.

Such an instrument would be a unique structure, providing a demonstration effect for new financing mechanisms for development. With the right framework, it can catalyse increased funding for the food reserve system, including food stock infrastructure and management, by attracting private capital to complement contributions from donors and ECOWAS member states. A wide range of financial instruments are being considered, from insurance solutions and bonds to commodity options.

Following the meeting in Lomé, future actions include the organisation of a round table between WTW, the GRiF team and insurers to gauge their appetite for the potential instrument, as well as the selection of data and development of the index. 

The regional coordination of the West African Food System Resilience Programme (FSRP) organised a training workshop on gender for inter-professions of regional agri-food value chains from 07 to 09 May 2024 in Accra, Ghana. The overall objective of this workshop is to equip cross-border agri-food inter-professional organisations to take gender and youth dimensions into account in the sustainable development policies, projects and programmes of regional inter-professional organisations, with a view to fostering the emergence of more inclusive regional trade.

Focusing on the specific needs of women and young people, participants highlighted the obstacles encountered in agricultural practice and the main trade facilitation problems encountered at borders, particularly in agri-food trade. They also shared strategic ideas on intra-regional trade, free trade policies and agreements, including operational protocols/instruments; ECOWAS-AfCFTA relations of the AU; women's trade in AfCFTA in relation to market access opportunities and challenges and solutions for a gender-sensitive AfCFTA/protocol on women and youth in AfCFTA).

Participants included the main partners of the inter-professional organisations identified by ECOWAS at regional level, in particular CORAF, gender experts from the FAO, the International Trade Centre (ITC), the ECOWAS Directorate of Agriculture and Rural Development (DADR) and representatives of the regional coordination of the PRSF.

Dr Mariame Maiga, CORAF's regional gender adviser, principal trainer and moderator, developed the two concepts of gender and sex, and highlighted the difference between gender and sex. She summarised the concept of SEX as being a biological factor and GENDER as being a sociological factor. The moderator encouraged question-and-answer exchanges to produce a clear explanation of gender concepts with relevant examples from the participants.

Francesca Distefano, gender and policy expert at the FAO's Africa office (online participant), gave members an overview of the scope of the regional roadmap that was consensually drawn up during the meeting. As a reminder, women play a key role in regional trade and in the development of commercial potential, as producers, processors, traders in various products, cross-border traders, managers and business owners. However, their contribution to agricultural trade and the challenges they face are not always recognised and taken into account in policies, projects and programmes. Most of their specific difficulties are: access to finance, loan opportunities, know-how in drawing up business plans, non-tariff barriers, including road harassment, multiple checkpoints, long delays on the roads and illicit collections, as well as technical barriers, including food safety standards, quality and hygiene, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, sexual harassment, rape and blackmail.

In the light of these factors, the PRSF has drawn up a regional gender action plan with concrete actions to be implemented under component 3 (market and trade) to facilitate access for disadvantaged women and young people to goods, facilities and commercial services.

In order to monitor and evaluate the extent to which gender has been taken into account in the implementation of activities, it has been proposed that the inter-professions of the regional agri-food value chains should finalise their action plans and submit them to the regional authorities.