Ten years after the Economic Community of West African States launched its policy on food and agriculture, coordination remains a serious challenge. Several regional initiatives compete with each other at the political and the project levels, in a complex and fragmented institutional context.

This paper is one of a series published by Oxfam in West Africa since 2009 on the effectiveness of aid in the agriculture and food sector. It analyses the West African context and reviews ECOWAP (the ECOWAS Regional Agricultural Policy) by looking at the processes and complex institutional structures currently in place.

The paper suggests a series of recommendations for the main stakeholders aimed at improving donor coordination and strengthening regional institutions so that they can elaborate, implement and finance effective public policies for agriculture.