Regional Forum on Agroecology and Organic Agriculture in West Africa: promoting the development of sustainable food systems | www.l-integration.com – INTEGRATION
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PH:DR: Promote the development of sustainable food systems with a view to strengthening food sovereignty in West Africa,
This four-day forum, which opens on Monday, October 21, 2024, in Abuja, Nigeria, brings together key stakeholders from various sectors in the region, including farmers’ organisations, civil society and the private sector , non-governmental organizations regional and international organizations , public organizations as well as policy makers and researchers.
Its aim is to promote the development of sustainable food systems with the intention of strengthening food sovereignty in West Africa, by implementing sustainable public policies and interventions, based on the best practices of agroecology, organic farming and climate smart agriculture.
The debates will focus, among other things, on the sustainable management of land and natural resources, strategies to strengthen the resilience of agricultural systems in the face of climate change, the adoption of agroecological and organic practices by farmers and support for policies to transform. towards environmentally friendly agriculture.
This forum will also be an opportunity for participants to share successful experiences and local innovations in sustainable agriculture, to discuss developments and achievements in agroecology and organic agriculture, to reflect on funding mechanisms and the financial instruments available, not forgetting the policies to be rethinking to respond to the challenges of food and nutritional sovereignty in West Africa.
It is common knowledge that West Africa faces major challenges, such as structural food and nutrition insecurity, adverse effects of climate change, salinization and physicochemical degradation of agricultural lands even as the growing uncertainty that weakens production systems.
Initiated by the Alliance for Agroecology in West Africa (3AO), and the West African Organic Network ie the West African Organic Network (WAfrONet), in collaboration with ActionAid Nigeria and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the meeting focusing on the theme ” Financing the transformation of sustainable food and nutrition systems for food sovereignty in West Africa through organic agriculture, agroecology and climate smart agriculture: what policies, mechanisms and instruments? »
For the Director of Agriculture and Rural Development of the ECOWAS Commission, Alain Sy Traoré, this theme is about the regional community and the ECOWAS Member States, in the sense that agroecology, organic agriculture and climate smart agriculture will not deliver’ the desired effects if financial. flows to support their graduation remain as weak as they are at present.
Speaking on behalf of the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Dr Oumar Alieu Touray, and the Commissioner in charge of Economic Affairs and Agriculture, Ms Massandjé Touré-Litsé, Alain Sy Traoré pointed out that financing resilience agriculture is a major challenge for ECOWAS member states, which cannot their needs for implementing commitments made at the international level, in terms of adaptation and mitigation, be covered by their budgetary resources only.
Given the inadequacy of domestic funding to face the challenges posed by climate change, mobilizing and strengthening the absorption capacity of available international funding dedicated to climate action will need to be the subject of greater smart collaboration, he recommended.
“ECOWAS is committed alongside its Member States and to support them in making climate a priority of political action in the region, in accordance with its Vision 2050, based on the observation that the effects of climate change cross-border and only together. that these States can meet this challenge. Alone we go faster, together we go further,” said Mr Traoré.
He encouraged the participants to have fruitful exchanges and make relevant recommendations to policy makers and development partners, in order to increase policies and strategies that consider agroecology, organic agriculture and climate smart agriculture and finance their scale up.
On his part, the Director of Policy Planning and Coordination, Ibrahim Tanimu, representing Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, invited West African citizens to produce what they eat and eat what they eat produce.
For him, eating local is the only possible alternative that can allow West Africa to achieve food self-sufficiency.
Please note that this forum benefits from technical and financial support from partners such as ECOWAS, the European Union, the French Development Agency (AFD), the Adaptation Fund (FA), the West African Development Bank (BOAD), the Green Climate Fund and Action – Support.