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Climate change

The European Union and the Agence Française de Développement partner with the Ecowas Commission to promote good practices for sustainable agricultural intensification

In the current context of climate change and variability, the scaling up of production techniques based on good sustainable agroecological practices and agricultural intensification is essential for West African countries.

With this in mind, the European Union (EU) allocated 8.2 million Euros to the Ecowas Commission in 2019 to fund the Project to support the dissemination and implementation of good sustainable agricultural intensification practices (Paiad).

This project aims to strengthen the resilience of the populations in terms of food and nutritional security.

For the implementation of the project, the EU Commission delegated part of its financial contribution to the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) on 19 December 2019.

To finalize these operational arrangements, the Ecowas Commission and AFD signed a financing Convention on 20 March 2020 granting AFD the mandate of implementing delegate of the Main Convention signed between the EU Commission and the Ecowas Commission on 15 March 2019.

Paiad is complementary to a broader program, the Ecowas Agroecology Program, which already has a project under implementation, the Project to support agroecological transition in West Africa (Patae). Patae is funded by AFD amounting to 8 million euros of which 730 thousand euros constitute AFD co-funding for the Paiad project, subject of the current Convention with the Ecowas Commission.

The five-year Paiad project covers the 15 Ecowas Member States and is implemented under the coordination of the Regional Agency for Agriculture and Food (ARAA) with technical assistance of the Association Agronomes et Vétérinaires Sans Frontière (AVSF), Institut de recherche et d'application des méthodes de développement (Iram) and Institut africain pour le développement économique et social (Inades Formation).

The Ecowas Commission, the EU Commission, the Agence Française de Développement and the implementing operator, AVSF and its partners, shall ensure synergy and complementarity between the various activities of the Paiad and Patae projects.