3rd FSCA Regional Workshop in Bamako

Countries

Christiane Monsieur

FSCA ComDev Team

FAO, Italy

The third Regional Workshop of the Food Security through Commercialization of Agriculture in West Africa was held on 9 to 11 June 2010 in Bamako, Mali. Now that three months have elapsed, it would be useful to recall the discussions that took place and the main conclusions of the participants, which is even more relevant since both widely relate to the ongoing and upcoming activities of the Programme.

Several Programme actors attended in Bamako: including the FAO Regional Deputy Representative for Africa and Coordinator of the Sub-Regional Office for West Africa, the Representatives and Representatives’ Assistants of FAO, Coordinators and National Directors of national projects, national consultants, officers from FAO headquarters, as well as Representatives of the Italian and Malian authorities, and producers from the two areas of the FSCA project in Mali.

As recalled by the Honourable Minister of Agriculture of Mali during his speech at the opening ceremony, the objectives of the Regional Workshop were to share lessons learned from the implementation of national projects, to examine the common strategy of the PISA Programme and to make decisions on the short-term prospects of the Programme.

The state of progress of each national project was then presented, notably that which concerned the monitoring-evaluation system, the achievements, the lessons learned and the constraints encountered. Similarly, the results of the regional inter-country coordination project were illustrated, in terms of operational management of the projects and improvements to be carried out. In addition, the relevance of a coordination mechanism was discussed.

As a result of the plenary discussions, detailed recommendations were formulated on several essential strategic aspects: (i) the mid-term assessment of FSCA projects, which will be conducted sequentially from October 2010 to January 2011 by a single team in the seven national projects ; (ii) the urgent need to give particular attention to marketing activities; (iii) the implementation and financing of communication activities for development; and (iv) the acceleration of the delivery schedule of the projects.
With respect to the immediate actions to carry out, the national projects were called on to recruit the monitoring and evaluation consultants without delay, while the Inter-country coordination project was responsible for conducting training activities of the national teams in the operational and management issues of the projects, improving the process of sharing lessons learned and best practices between and within the countries. Also, it was recommended to better define the role and responsibilities of the Inter-Country Coordination Unit, which needs to be strengthened to better ensure the operational backstopping missions in the seven countries. The mid-term assessment could play an important role in this regard.
The FSCA Programme is implemented in seven Western African countries according to a fundamental, common theme in the fight against hunger led by FAO: the marketing of agricultural products. In this context, it is easy to understand the importance of synergies and complementarities between the national projects at all levels, and the need for an efficient mechanism to share lessons learned that will consider the achievements, as well as the obstacles encountered and the strategies used to overcome them.

The rich experience of national FSCA projects is a strength, which must contribute to achieving the set objectives for the Programme. In addition, the next regional meeting that will be held next year in The Gambia could become the opportunity to analyse these aspects and to examine the possibilities of organizing a “FSCA Share Fair”. Such an event, which will complement the regional workshop, would allow men and women farmers who benefit from the Programme to have a say and give visibility to the obtained results. All FSCA actors and partners could then have “a taste” of the concrete results obtained in the different countries and discuss practical and technical issues from a regional perspective, by opening the event to civil society, rural organizations, private and public development actors, and technical and financial partners.