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A stronger CORAF at the service of farmers thanks to a strategic partnership with USAID

• With funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Partnership for Agricultural Research, Education and Development in West Africa (PAIRED) began in 2017 with the aim of strengthening CORAF and boosting agriculture in West Africa; 
• Almost at the end of the partnership, the impact, both on the organization and on farmers in West Africa and beyond, is tangible;
• PAIRED has reinvigorated CORAF and positioned us for further strategic partnerships, benefiting millions of people in West and Central Africa.

Like many sub-regional organizations, CORAF's future didn't look too promising a few years ago, but things began to change when a game-changing Cooperation Agreement was signed with the West Africa Regional Mission of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

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Called the Partnership for Agricultural Research, Education and Development in West Africa (PAIRED), the five-year program has been designed to strengthen the organization on the one hand, and on the other, facilitate the scaling-up of technologies and increase the production and availability of quality agricultural inputs for farmers in West Africa.

"PAIRED has been a game-changing program for CORAF and the beneficiaries we serve, and has come at just the right time," acknowledged Dr. Abdou TENKOUANO, CORAF's Executive Director, at the end of a recent meeting with Mr. Daniel Moore and Mr. Matthew Anderson, respectively Mission Director and Director of the Regional Economic Growth Office, at USAID's West Africa Regional Mission.

PAIRED has three components: the main one, institutional reform, and two technical components. One, to ensure the scaling-up of technologies in order to make them visible and demonstrate their impact, and the other, to guarantee access and availability of quality agricultural inputs to farmers.

After more than four (04) years of implementation, the program, which is drawing to a close, has achieved results that amply illustrate its impact on the organization.

Notable results

The first PAIRED component enabled CORAF to carry out a complete reform in terms of governance, financial viability and structural organization.

"All this has been achieved on the basis of the adoption of new instruments such as a new Strategic Plan and a new Operational Plan, which have been supplemented by a resource mobilization plan, a communication plan and a knowledge management plan. These instruments were developed as part of the reform", confided Dr. TENKOUANO.

CORAF emerged a stronger institution, better equipped to carry out its mission of coordinating agricultural research in West and Central Africa, as demonstrated by several audit reports produced in the years that followed.

"We've had three successive audit reports, all of which have resulted in opinions that essentially say that there's nothing to worry about as far as CORAF is concerned, and that we have a clean bill of health".

As for PAIRED component 2, it has established an innovative framework in West Africa that has facilitated the scaling-up of hundreds of technologies and innovations.

Component 3, for its part, has helped to considerably increase the adoption and use of quality agricultural inputs in West Africa, notably through the implementation of harmonized regional regulations for seeds and seedlings, and the strengthening of the private seed sector.

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PAIRED's main achievements from 2017 to 2021
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The road to sustainability

In addition, the successful reforms have paved the way for several other technical and financial partners to place or renew their confidence in CORAF, as demonstrated by their financial contributions to the implementation of CORAF's Strategic Plan.

Since June 2017, CORAF has signed over 30 strategic partnerships. This has been made possible thanks to the impetus given to us by USAID through PAIRED."

Dr Abdou TENKOUANO, Executive Director of CORAF.

These include the Strengthening Networks and Institutional Capacities in Plant Improvement for the Development of Resilient Crops to Meet the Needs of Farmers in West Africa(ABEE) project, the Anticipating and Managing Biological Risks to Strengthen Farmers' Resilience to Climate Change in West and Central Africa(BioRisks) project and the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme ex-Pillar 4(CAADP-XP4) - funded by the European Union through the DeSIRA initiative, the scaling-up of Agricultural Technologies and Innovations to increase the resilience of production systems and family farms in West and Central Africa(TARSPro) project - funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the Food Systems Resilience Program(FSRP) - funded by the World Bank, etc.

Cumulatively, all these subsequent PAIRED projects target several million beneficiaries across West and Central Africa.

"CORAF is certainly strengthened thanks to all these interventions, but it is above all the millions of beneficiaries who are directly and indirectly impacted, and who experience an improvement in their living conditions," emphasizes Dr. TENKOUANO.

PAIRED has been implemented in six West African countries: Benin, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal.

In short, the Cooperative Agreement with USAID has propelled CORAF onto the path of sustainability, making it a stronger instrument for the regional coordination of agricultural research and development. 

"I would like to express CORAF's gratitude to USAID for entrusting us with such an important program, particularly at a time when we were in some way in danger or doomed to disappear," said Dr. TENKOUANO.

Read also:

• PAIRED: Notable results in 2020 despite a "challenging" year
• PAIRED & EnGRAIS review progress and plan activities for 2022
• PAIRED and EnGRAIS Joint Advisory Committee publishes 2021 report