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The World Bank is launching a $570 million multi-phase programmatic intervention to improve the resilience of food systems, promote intra-regional value chains and strengthen regional capacities for agricultural risk management.

WASHINGTON, November 18, 2021 - In West Africa, some four million people will benefit from a new multi-phase regional program that will complement and intensify ongoing actions to reduce food insecurity and improve the resilience of food systems. The Food Systems Resilience Program (FSRP) was approved today by the World Bank's Board of Executive Directors, for a total of $570 million financed by the International Development Association (IDA). 

The first phase of the $330 million program brings together four countries - Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Togo - and three regional organizations: the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS) and the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF). These partners will implement a program to increase agricultural productivity through climate-smart practices, promote value chains and intra-regional trade, and strengthen regional capacities for agricultural risk management.

By investing in these areas and targeting priority territories and regional-scale value chains, the program applies a systemic approach to stimulate virtuous growth cycles and put an end to the classic shock-recovery-shock pattern."

explains Chakib Jenane, Head of Department at the World Bank's Global Centre of Expertise in Agriculture and Food Practices for West and Central Africa.

"By investing in these areas and targeting priority territories and regional-scale value chains, the program applies a systemic approach to stimulate virtuous growth cycles and put an end to the classic shock-recovery-shock pattern," explains Chakib Jenane, Head of Department at the World Bank's Global Centre of Expertise in Agriculture and Food Practices for West and Central Africa.

In West Africa, multiple shocks largely induced by agricultural risks have made food scarcer and more expensive, and exacerbated malnutrition. By 2021, some 27 million West Africans required immediate food assistance due to a combination of drought, poverty, high cereal prices, environmental degradation, forced displacement, weak trade integration and conflict. Worrying forecasts of more frequent extreme weather events, combined with agricultural productivity that is not keeping pace with population growth, mean that long-term sustainable development is under threat.

According to Jean-Claude Kassi Brou, President of the ECOWAS Commission, "It is more effective to ensure the prevention and management of food crises at regional level, in order to mitigate, diversify and transfer production risks, and enable economies of scale. This program fosters greater cooperation to guarantee food security, now and in the future, for the benefit of ECOWAS populations".

In addition to modernizing regional food crisis prevention and management systems, FSRP countries and regional institutions will cooperate to strengthen the pooling of agricultural and hydrometeorological information services, to make them more accessible and useful to decision-makers, farmers, livestock breeders and other stakeholders in the sub-region's food systems. They will also work together to strengthen national and regional agricultural research and the regulatory framework for land governance, in order to avoid, limit and mitigate land degradation. In addition, the FSRP will facilitate the development of trade across key corridors and support the creation of strategic value chains within and between participating countries, as defined by them.

This new program is designed to achieve greater regional impact and progress in food system resilience than could be achieved by several isolated national investments," explains Boutheina Guermazi, Regional Integration Director for Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa at the World Bank. Boutheina Guermazi, Regional Integration Director for Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East and North Africa at the World Bank.. It will be a true regional platform for creating synergies with other initiatives across West Africa".

It is estimated that the FSRP will directly benefit four million people, including farmers (with a particular focus on women and young people), small-scale producers and processors, as well as small and medium-sized farms. The program also aims to reduce gender inequalities in agriculture and reach at least 40% of women.

* TheInternational Development Association (IDA) is the World Bank institution that helps the world's poorest countries. Founded in 1960, it provides grants and low- or no-interest loans to finance projects and programs designed to stimulate economic growth, reduce poverty and improve the lives of the world's poorest people. IDA is one of the main donors to the world's 77 poorest countries, 39 of which are in Africa. Its resources benefit 1.5 billion people. Since its creation, IDA has supported development activities in 113 countries. Annual commitments have averaged $18 billion over the past three years, with some 54% of this amount going to Africa.