West Africa aims for food security and value chain development
West African countries have resolved to promote food security and value chain development in order to strengthen regional integration and sustainable growth.
This resolve was reached at a Regional Forum in Dakar, Senegal as part of efforts to strengthen the partnership for sustainable development between the United Nations system’s entities and a coalition of West African bodies.
The Director of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa’s Sub-Regional Office for West Africa (ECA/SRO-WA), Mr. Ngone Diop, stated that “the warning sign triggered in April by the Food Crisis Prevention Network (FCPN), with nearly 42.5 million people concerned by the food and nutrition crisis in the Sahel and West Africa during the hunger gap (June-August 2023), is a call out for us to take both immediate and medium- to long-term actions”.
To achieve this, Ngone Diop said “the ECA is recommending new financial resources mobilization and value chains development”.
In her presentation, World Food Programme’s (WFP’s) Deputy Regional Director for West Africa, Mrs. Evelyn Etti, noted that “we need to leverage our collective analytical capacity to provide lasting solutions to systemic problems hindering the development of sustainable food systems”.
She went on to state that the WFP is “committed to strengthening and broadening our collaboration by combining our evidence-generation efforts to better support governments and regional organizations, and co-advocating for the uptake of research results for policy-making”.
ECOWAS Commission’s, Mr Abdoulaye Zonon, lamented that “the West African region continues experiencing the mere consequences of the COVID19 and the Ukrainian crisis, which have been characterized by a considerable slowdown in economic growth, negatively impacting the well-being of the population while at the same time undermining the equilibrium of certain countries facing political instability”.
This development he said has resulted in the ECOWAS being called upon “more than ever to fulfil its mandate of coordinating socio-economic development initiatives in the region”.
Mr. Souleymane Diallo, Coordinator of the Directorate General for Planning and Economic Policies at the Ministry of the Economy, Planning and Cooperation of Senegal, remarked that “Senegal is always committed to being at the front line to support the efforts for deepening regional integration, both at continental and regional level”.
