In West Africa, the livestock and meat marketing sector is undergoing major changes. To meet the growing demand for meat, particularly from large urban centres, incentive policies are being put in place and livestock farmers are organising themselves.

To support this momentum, ECOWAS has been implementing since 2018, with the financial support of the Swiss Cooperation, the Programme to support the marketing of livestock/meat in West Africa (PACBAO).

PACBAO aims to find sustainable solutions to the concerns of stakeholders in the sector, which include (i) the mismatch between the supply of livestock and meat and regional demand, (ii) the very high cost for conveying livestock from breeding areas to consumer markets and (iii) the funding constraints faced by private stakeholders.

The multiple actions undertaken by the ECOWAS Commission and its partners, in particular the Swiss Cooperation, focused on (i) building operational capacities of ECOWAS through the Directorate of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Regional Animal Health Centre and the Regional Agency for Agriculture and Food, on expertise in tools development, operational technical support, communication/visibility, accounting and forthcoming installation of two training centres on meat and butchery professions and (ii) providing institutional support to the Confederation of National Federations of the Livestock-Meat Sector of West Africa (COFENABVI-WA).

The programme also funded development initiatives and innovations in three areas, namely (i) intensification of quality slaughter animal production, (ii) modernisation of livestock and meat trade and (iii) strengthening of business links between actors along the chain. A total of 16 field projects with a total cost of more than CFAF 1.5 billion over two years are being implemented in 11 countries and cover various areas of the chain, ranging from genetics, production improvement, breeding and marketing, to organising the production chain, increasing meat availability, fattening, intensifying fodder cultivation, improving producers' income, processing and livestock insurance.

The programme, which ends in June 2023, works in close collaboration and synergy with other regional initiatives such as PRAPS, PREDIP, PEPISAO and PRIDEC