Study on the financing of the agroecological transition in West Africa Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo

Context of the service

The ECOWAS Agroecology Programme (PAE) covers its 15 Member States and aims to promote and disseminate agroecology and ecologically intensive agriculture in order to build resilience to food insecurity and climate change in West Africa.

Commissioned by the Regional Agency for Agriculture and Food (ARAA), the study is part of the fourth component of the EAP, which aims to facilitate exchanges, capitalize on the achievements of field projects, partnerships between farmers' organisations – research centers – training centers, and to contribute to the development of public policies in favor of agroecology.

More specifically, it aims to analyse the financial instruments and mechanisms available to support producers and other agricultural operators in the agro-ecological transition and the sustainable intensification of their production systems.

Services provided

(i) Framing: Creation of a documentary database; Development of the research framework and data collection methods/tools;

(ii) Inventory: Online survey of existing financial mechanisms with key interlocutors in the 15 ECOWAS countries; Interviews with international actors in the financing of the agroecological transition; Country inventory and characterization of financial mechanisms; Creation of a sample of mechanisms to be studied; Drafting of an inventory report and summaries by country;

(iii) Case studies: Data collection on 14 financial mechanisms in 4 countries (Senegal, Togo, Burkina Faso and Ghana) and 3 multi-country mechanisms; In-depth analysis of each of the mechanisms (including success factors and constraints to their scaling up); Writing case study reports;

(iv) Summary: Organization /animation of a regional workshop; Development of recommendations for a regional public financing mechanism for agroecology; Writing a summary report.

Summary of the service

Study on the financing mechanisms for the agroecological transition and sustainable agricultural intensification in West Africa: exhaustive documentary review and development of the research framework; inventory/characterization of existing mechanisms and drafting of country summaries; case studies on a sample of 17 mechanisms, including field missions (Senegal, Togo, Burkina Faso and Ghana); regional restitution workshop and summary report including recommendations to ECOWAS.