This 28 April 2025, the City of Lomé (Togo) hosted the opening of the steering committees for the ECOWAS Agricultural Policy (ECOWAP) projects and programs. The aim of this annual meeting, which brings together more than seventy institutional players and technical and financial partners from the West African agroforestry and fisheries sector, is to take stock of the implementation of regional projects and programs for 2024.
This regional consultation body is a key forum for accountability, experience sharing and strategic orientation. It enables the ECOWAS Commission, as the regional coordinating body, to review the progress made, identify the obstacles encountered and propose appropriate solutions to improve the effectiveness of public and partnership action in the agricultural sector.
Over the three days discussions, representatives from Member States, regional institutions, producer organizations, development partners and sectoral experts will discuss the results achieved in 2024, in relation to the regional initiatives implemented. Discussions are taking place in a particularly complex regional context, marked by an upsurge in security crises, notably in the Sahel countries, persistent sociopolitical tensions in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, and recurrent climatic shocks compromising access to basic social services.
Despite the constraints, several encouraging results have been recorded, particularly in terms of strengthening the technical capabilities of beneficiaries. They have been able to adopt innovative tools and techniques to improve agricultural productivity and the flow of intraregional trade in agri-food products. However, the lack of synergy among institutions is a major obstacle to achieving the expected results.
Faced with systemic challenges, it is essential to rethink and update the policies, strategies and intervention mechanisms for food, nutrition and pastoral security. With this in mind, the ECOWAS Commission has embarked on a process of revising the Regional Agricultural Policy (ECOWAP) and the Regional Food Security Strategy. The aim of the process is to optimize existing institutional arrangements and promote sustainable and appropriate funding mechanisms, in a context of dwindling resources, both internationally (gradual withdrawal of external aid) and nationally (internal budgetary constraints).
For the Chief of staff, Mr Konlani Dindiogue, representing Togo’s Minister for Agriculture, Village Hydraulics and Rural Development, “despite the many efforts made, the region remains dependent on food imports to meet the needs of its population. It is therefore essential to focus efforts on local development through agro-industrial and local processing sectors that generate jobs for young people”.
The ECOWAS Commissioner for Economic Affairs and Agriculture, Mrs Massandjé Touré-Litsé, the Chair of the Committees, stressed the need for greater coherence and harmonization of interventions. ‘Like in 2024, this year’s Steering Committees command us to think strategically with a view to improving the convergence of actions and initiatives contributing to the implementation of ECOWAP, she stressed.
In this respect, the recommendations of the Technical Monitoring Committees (TMCs) held in November 2024 led to a reorganization of ECOWAP’s priority thematic areas, reducing them from nine to five, namely (i) Improving production and productivity, (ii) Developing animal and fishery resources, (iii) Promoting value chains, regional markets and the competitiveness of agricultural products, (iv) Strengthening food and nutritional resilience, security and sovereignty, and (v) Financing mechanisms, governance and steering of the agricultural policy. The thematic fact sheets prepared for this purpose highlight notable achievements, while also highlighting persistent challenges, such as increased exposure to climatic and security hazards, low level of mechanization in agriculture, and obstacles to free movement of agricultural products.
“Thanks to increased internal funding through the Community levy and partner funds, better institutional coordination and improved governance systems, the region has strengthened its leadership in driving ECOWAP. Nevertheless, the ECOWAS transformation program is still limited by structural challenges, notably excessive dependence on external funding, late legal and policy harmonization, limited interoperability between data systems and insufficient involvement of the private sector“, Commissioner Touré-Litsé added.
The annual regional steering committees for ECOWAP projects and programs constitute a strategic instrument for promoting synergies and complementarities to improve coordination at regional level.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).