As part of the international online conference organized by the ECOWAS Commission, from April 28 to May 10, 2021, to share its experience of food security storage with its partners and other regions of the world, humanitarian agencies have come together committed to supporting and accompanying the West African food security storage system.
This declaration follows discussions on food reserves and management of recurrent and expansive food, nutritional and pastoral crises in West Africa: achievements, lessons, current challenges and prospects for the regional food security storage strategy.
Humanitarian agencies, in their interventions of April 29, 2021, noted the potential of this storage system to contribute to objective n ° 2 “Zero Hunger” of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and to strengthening the resilience of populations. facing food insecurity in West Africa and the Sahel.
Humanitarian organizations like Pam, Unicef, Oxfam, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, etc.) reaffirmed their commitment to align with the regional food security storage strategy of ECOWAS, by giving priority to building the capacities of local, national and regional institutions for managing food stocks, sharing knowledge, cooperation and coordination of interventions for a better synergy of actions.
They also reaffirmed the complementary role of food security stocks in the overall development policies of agro-sylvo-pastoral and fisheries value chains for food and nutritional security.
Following this declaration of intent from humanitarian organizations, the participants in the Conference exchanged, during a panel moderated by Mr. Alain Sy Traoré, Director of agriculture and rural development of ECOWAS, on “how better integrate the support of the international humanitarian community into the regional response system to food, nutritional and pastoral crises, in order to strengthen their capacities to face risks ”.
The intensification of this Regional Food Security Reserve initiative is an opportunity to support food value chains and inclusive growth in the region.
As a reminder, the general objective of this International Conference is to build the foundations of a renewed multilateral partnership to strengthen mechanisms for alert, prevention, intervention and humanitarian assistance to populations affected by food crises.
It is part of the capitalization of achievements, after five years of implementation by the ECOWAS Commission, of its regional food security storage strategy with the political support of the G20, the financial support of the Union. European Union and technical support from the French Development Agency (AFD) and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), in collaboration with the WAEMU Commission and Cilss.