Ecowas

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. 

The West Africa Food System Resilience Programme (FSRP) held its first meeting to review the support missions for 2024. The event took place from 15 to 17 May 2024 in Lomé, Togo. Over seventy (70) participants from Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Sierra Leone, Senegal and Togo, as well as from regional institutions (CILSS, CORAF and ECOWAS) and the World Bank, took stock of the implementation of the PRSF according to its implementation principles.

During the three (03) days of discussions, the participants shared information on the various activities carried out over the last six (6) months at national and regional level, while reviewing the challenges linked to the implementation of the FSRP before proposing possible solutions to meet these challenges.

Work focused on (i) parallel sessions between countries and regional organisations on specific topics relating to digital services, integrated landscape management, strengthening regional trade and agricultural markets, the rice value chain and gender; (ii) plenary sessions to review common challenges and propose solutions that could contribute to the successful implementation of the PRSP.

One of the innovations at this regional meeting was the exhibition of products and innovations by the actors and beneficiaries of the FSRP/Togo. Some twenty producers from Togo's main agricultural production zones shared the products generated with the support of the FSRP.

This first summary meeting of the PRSP's support missions for 2024 was a platform for promoting the sharing of knowledge, strengthening coordination between players and defining strategic guidelines for the future of the programme. The first countries (Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Togo) are halfway through the implementation of their activities.

In the field, the PRSF's activities focus primarily on preventing and managing agricultural and food crises, strengthening the resilience of agro-sylvo-pastoral production systems, and facilitating trade in agricultural goods and inputs within and across national borders in West Africa. After two (02) years of implementation, significant results have been noted and the actions carried out in the countries and at regional level have reached a total of 1,281,766 direct beneficiaries in 2023, 37% of whom are women.

Overall, we note that the FSRP is a unique tool that strengthens regional integration through the exchange of technologies and innovations and the mobility of researchers and stakeholders between countries, which will contribute considerably to the implementation of ECOWAP and thus accelerate the transformation of the agricultural sector in the sub-region.

More than 150 participants from West African states and their partners took part in the first General Assembly (GA) of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Rice Observatory, held on 21 and 22 May 2024 in Abuja, Nigeria. During two (02) days of discussions, the GA took stock of the activities carried out and approved a roadmap to accelerate the growth of the rice sector in West Africa.

Established in 2021 to operationalise the ECOWAS Rice Offensive, the ECOWAS Rice Observatory (ERO) coordinates rice sector-related programmes, public/private investments and follow-up policy recommendations for key decision-makers. The main objective of Rice Offensive is to help West Africa achieve rice self-sufficiency by 2030 through profitable, resilient and environmentally sustainable agricultural enterprises that contribute to rural economic growth, poverty reduction and equity for women.

After two (02) years of intense work in the countries and at the regional level, the ERO presented the main achievements and the strategy documents to be approved to its main stakeholders, which are farmers' organisations, processors and millers, traders and distributors, input suppliers, research institutes, government agencies and ministries, development organisations and NGOs, financial institutions, ERO national sections and members of the rice working groups of the ECOWAS Member States.

Discussions focused on the situation of the rice sector in each country, the main initiatives underway to develop the rice value chain, the policy measures adopted in this area, and recommendations for regional action in support of Member States.

At the end of the discussions, the General Assembly approved the regional roadmap for the development of the rice sector in West Africa, while calling for it to be aligned with the national rice development strategies of the countries concerned, taking into account their respective priorities.

The West African sub-region produces around 17 million tonnes of milled rice a year. According to the FAO (2023), per capita rice consumption in West Africa is one of the highest in the world, ranging from 100 to 200 kilograms per person per year, depending on the country. In view of this importance, and to ensure sustainable self-sufficiency in rice production, the GA recommended strengthening and involving the private sector, with a synergy of actions between agri-dealers and input distributors in the countries, as well as the involvement of national and regional banking institutions.

On the sidelines of the GA, the conclusions and recommendations of the ERO's first GA were examined by the Board of Directors, which met on 23 May 2024 to draw up an action plan for their implementation. The Board, chaired by Mr Alain SY TRAORE, ECOWAS Director of Agriculture and Rural Development, includes representatives of scientific partners, development partners, the private sector and countries.

The holding of the first ERO GA is an important milestone in the implementation of the ECOWAS Rice Offensive, which is itself a major framework for the ECOWAS Agricultural Policy (ECOWAP).

"Communication is essential to contribute to the mainstreaming of gender in activities at regional and country level" is one of the main conclusions of Dr Mariame MAIGA, Regional Gender and Social Development Adviser at CORAF and the PRSF, who led the webinar on gender-sensitive communication held on 18 January 2024.

The West African Food System Resilience Programme (FSRP), whose development objective is to increase preparedness against food insecurity and improve the resilience of food systems in participating countries, has made gender a major focus.

With this in mind, all activities carried out both in-country and at regional level must be gender- and youth-sensitive, addressing and responding to the specific needs of disadvantaged groups such as women and young people, as well as other vulnerable groups such as people living with disabilities, widows, orphans, the elderly, climate refugees, and so on.

The FSRP aims to enable vulnerable groups to benefit from the potential of agro-sylvo-pastoral and fisheries value chains as a way of escaping poverty and meeting food needs in the face of climate change.

To achieve this, all FSRP stakeholders are currently being trained in the approaches and mechanisms for taking gender into account in activities.

Some fifteen communications specialists from countries and regional organisations gained a better understanding of the importance of gender-sensitive communications. They were provided with practical tools for integrating a gender perspective into communication plans and activities, while being encouraged to create inclusive and egalitarian messages to promote the FSRP's gender-sensitive branding in the programme's regional institutions and implementing countries.

Using very specific examples and real-life situations, Dr Mariame MAIGA and Ms Adèle KOUASSI, a journalist specialising in gender issues in rural Côte d'Ivoire, began by identifying the obstacles, stigmas and challenges faced by vulnerable people in society and in rural areas.

Above all, the trainers shared concrete examples and cases that advertising and social communications activities help to disseminate, whether consciously or unconsciously.

The Webinar also focused on the mechanisms and approaches for taking gender into account in communication activities, summarised in 6 stages: (i) collecting field data, (ii) formulating the objective of the activity, (iii) identifying target audiences, (iv) choosing the means of communication, (v) developing the message, (vi) planning and budgeting.

In view of the interest shown by participants in this subject and to enable them to carry out practical work, another face-to-face training session is planned for this year.

The Regional Coordination of the PRSF held a working session with a team from the Permanent Secretariat of the West African Association for the Cross-Border Trade of Agro-Sylvo-pastoral and Halieutic Food Products (AOCTAH/WACTAF) in Lomé on Friday 24 November 2023.

Exchanges on the collection of data on trade in agricultural products at border level in support of FSRP countries.

West Africa is characterised by a wide diversity of agricultural products, ranging from cereals (such as millet and maize) to food crops (such as cassava) and livestock products. This offers significant potential for intra-regional trade, which is an important aspect of the region's economic development.

It should be noted, however, that some countries in the region face food security challenges, which may limit their ability to participate fully in intra-regional trade. In addition, quality and safety standards for agricultural products vary from one country to another, which can hamper trade by creating technical barriers.

To help improve intra-regional trade in agricultural products in West Africa, ECOWAS is implementing component 3 of the FSRP to develop value chains and strengthen integration between countries in the West African sub-region by removing barriers to trade.

In order to operationalise the activities on the ground, exchanges have been undertaken with organisations with experience of intra-regional trade in agricultural products, including AOCTAH, whose mandate is to promote solidarity in food and nutritional security and trade in the CILSS and ECOWAS areas.

Areas of collaboration will focus on the use of AOCTAH country focal points to support data collection at borders in PRSP beneficiary countries. In-depth discussions will soon take place to make the partnership effective and to work with the countries.

ECOWAS-AOCTAH collaboration will facilitate trade between countries while promoting standards and rules at borders and in countries to facilitate the marketing of agricultural products within and beyond national borders. 

Stakeholders and partners in the West African food system met in Lomé from 14 to 18 November to launch the local storage memento and finalise the charter on the operation of local stocks in West Africa and the multi-stakeholder framework.

This regional meeting was part of the implementation of the ECOWAS regional storage strategy.  The storage of foodstuffs is a very old practice in rural areas to cope with lean periods marked by food shortages and famine, as well as climatic risks. In this storage system, local stocks are of major importance in the various dimensions of food security, and more particularly (i) in preventing and managing cyclical and cyclical food crises (in deficit areas), including pastoral crises (livestock feed), and (ii) in supplying the market and national and regional food security stocks (in surplus areas).

Despite this importance, the stakeholders and partners did not have any reference documents to guide the success of storage activities at local level.

Coordinated by ECOWAS, the stakeholders have joined forces to develop a local storage handbook, a charter of good practice for local storage operators and a multi-stakeholder intervention framework.

The Lomé meeting was therefore an opportunity to bring together the stakeholders in local storage and to submit the documents drawn up to them for validation and dissemination. That is why Alain SY TRAORE, ECOWAS Director of Agriculture and Rural Development, expressed his satisfaction at seeing this process move forward with significant results thanks to the involvement of everyone. In particular, he praised the involvement of producer organisations: "Producer organisations have taken the lead in the process, both at the political level, with the involvement of regional networks, and at the more technical level, with the considerable investment of their storage managers in the production of these reference tools on local storage.

Faced with the multiple shocks facing the region, leading to an impressive increase in the number of vulnerable people unable to cover their basic needs, ECOWAS is counting on the simultaneous deployment of local storage, national stocks and the Regional Food Security Reserve.

The representative of Togo's Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Rural Development, Colonel AGADAZI Ouro-Koura, welcomed the meeting as a sign of the mobilisation of stakeholders and partners to curb the food crises facing many people in West Africa. In this respect, local storage is a solution to the fight against food insecurity.

At the end of the Lomé meeting, the memento of local storage in West Africa was launched, the charter on the operation of local storage in West Africa was finalised with the involvement of stakeholders, and the process of drawing up a multi-actor intervention framework for local storage was launched.

About Proximity Standards

1. The memento of local storage in West Africa is a reference manual for the region, providing organisations involved in this activity with a clear codification of good practice in all areas relating to their activity, based on their own practical experience. It is written in a language that is easy for organisations to understand, illustrated with simple diagrams, and can be translated into national languages;
2. The charter of best practice for local storage operators is a reference tool produced by capitalising on best practice in the region. It is designed to guide the development of local storage based on accumulated and capitalised knowledge, and to contribute to the gradual structuring of local organisations and their unions, federations and networks. The charter is based on a set of standards that provide minimum guarantees of good management in terms of governance, as well as technical and financial management. The charter concerns all stakeholders involved in the management of food security issues in West Africa. If storage organisations sign up to the charter, it will be easier to mobilise external support and enter into contracts with the two lines of defence.
3. The regional multi-actor intervention framework defines a shared vision of local storage and its place in the overall storage system. It enables national and regional organisations to gain a better understanding of how it works, so that they can fine-tune cooperation arrangements and negotiate contractual relations with public and humanitarian institutions. It takes into account the food-livestock component