Spain will contribute with 5 million Euros to promote food security and sustainable and long term access to food for the most vulnerable population of West Africa.

With that aim, the Secretary of State for International Co-operation and for Latin America, Jesús Gracia, and the Vice President of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission, Toga Macintosh, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding in order to crystallise the Spanish support to the regional policy on agriculture.

The signing of this document took place in Yamousoukro (Côte d’Ivoire), where Jesús Gracia participated in the ECOWAS Heads of State and Government Summit. The Spanish Co-operation leads the technical and financial ECOWAS partners in the agriculture sector and has been actively involved in the design of a European Union project to boost the regional system of food reserves, to the tune of 56 million Euros, which implementation will start in the next few months.

The agreement signed today defines the use of the contribution of Spanish Co-operation, to the tune of five million Euros, the aim of which is to support the work of the recently created ECOWAS Regional Agency for Food and Agriculture (RAFA), and execute the Regional Agricultural Investment Plan (RAIP).

The Spanish contribution will have a bearing, specifically, on the reduction of food vulnerability and the promotion of sustainable and long term access to food in the region. Besides, Spanish Co-operation, through the Spanish Agency for Development Co-operation, will finance the creation, launching and execution of innovative initiatives of social protection systems for the more vulnerable people.

This contribution is added to others already made by Spanish Co-operation in that sector, with the contribution of 150 million Euros through two funds managed by the World Bank, and the financing of a project, to the tune of three million Euros, with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), which offers assistance to West African countries for the formulation and execution of their agricultural policies.

ECOWAS, STRATEGIC PARTNER OF SPANISH CO-OPERATION

The signing of the Memorandum supposes a step further in the consolidation of the Commission of the Economic Community of West African States as a strategic partner of Spanish Co-operation, which trusts on regional integration as driving force of development. With that objective, and apart from the activities mentioned in the area of rural development and food and nutritional security, Spanish Co-operation works with ECOWAS in other sectors like renewable energy, infrastructure or migration and development.