Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire – 21 June 2022 – A new Regional Integrated Initiative in West and Central Africa entitled ‘Transforming Agrifood Systems in West and Central Africa’(TAFS-WCA) that focuses on nutritious, safe, climate-adapted and market-driven food systems is being unveiled at the Stakeholders Engagement and Launch Workshop in West Africa, 21-22 June 2022, in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
The TAFS-WCA is an initiative of CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food-secure future dedicated to reducing poverty, enhancing food and nutrition security, and improving natural resources.
Although agriculture contributes 30-50% to GDP in WCA and provides income and livelihoods to 70-80% of the population, the sector has not been able to live up to its huge potential to feed the growing population due to climate change effects, among others. The sub-region’s food needs are met to a large extent by relying on food imports.
To address these challenges, the new initiative seeks to respond to WCA’s food and nutritional concerns in an integrated way and achieve agricultural, social and environmental goals at scale. It will support climate-smart agriculture and enhance livelihoods of farmers and agricultural value chain actors, especially youth and women, in six countries in WCA: Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Nigeria and Rwanda.
The expected outcomes include, among others, access of at least 80,000 smallholder households in WCA to climate-resilient, nutritious crop varieties. At least 30% increase in household dietary diversity scores will be attained.