The first meeting of the Supervisory Board of the Regional Fund for Agriculture and Food (RFAF) was held on October 15, 2020 at the invitation of the ECOWAS Commission and under the chairmanship of Mr Sekou Sangaré, ECOWAS Commissioner for Agriculture, Environment and Water Resources and Chair of the Board.

It enabled the Board members to review and validate the operationalization strategy of the Fund as well as the 2020-2021 interim Annual Work Plan and Budget. The meeting also informed the Council on requests for technical and financial assistance for the operationalization of Fund, the recruitment of financial intermediaries for the “West African Initiative for Climate Smart Agriculture”, WAICSA (West African Initiative for Climate Smart Agriculture) and the choice of pilot countries.

The members of the Board include among others, the ECOWAS Commissioner for Agriculture, Environment and Water Resources, Chair of the Council, the ECOWAS Director for Agriculture and Rural Development, the ECOWAS Commissioner for Finance, the Representative of the Member State chairing the Authority of the ECOWAS Heads of State, the President of EBID or his Representative, the Representative of Producers’ Organizations, the Representative of the Agrofood Private Sector and AFD as Lead Partner of the ECOWAP Donors’ Group.

Created in 2011 at the same time as the Regional Agency for Agriculture and Food, the ECOWAS Regional Fund for Agriculture and Food is one of the main pillars of the overall institutional and financial mechanism of the regional Agricultural Policy, ECOWAP. It is meant to be supplied by the Community's own resources, supplemented by contributions from donors who plan to channel their resources towards regional agricultural programs corresponding to the priorities of ECOWAP. For Commissioner Sangaré, RFAF constitutes the region's instrument of sovereignty. It will facilitate a quick response to the needs of vulnerable populations and to undertake development programs based on the real needs of the Member States.

EBID is responsible for proposing to the ECOWAS Commission a management mechanism for this Fund which includes two major requirements, namely, (i) respond to the specificities and diversity of the financing needs of the agricultural sector in complementarity with the national financing mechanisms and (ii) guarantee good management of funds and ensure transparency in the allocation and use according to internationally recognized management rules.