Official launch of the Technical Cooperation Programme between ECOWAS and FAO on Gender Responsive National and Regional Agricultural Investment Plans for meeting the Zero Hunger Challenge in the ECOWAS Region

Official launch of the Technical Cooperation Programme between ECOWAS and FAO on

"Gender Responsive National and Regional Agricultural Investment Plans for meeting the Zero Hunger Challenge in the ECOWAS Region"

 

 

Your Excellency Nana Oye Lithur, Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection of Ghana,

Your Excellency Mr. Léon Tanou Kone, Special Representative of the President of ECOWAS to the United Nations,

Your Excellency Maged Abdelaziz, Special Advisor of the UN Secretary on Africa,

Honorable Dr. Fatimata Dia Sow, ECOWASCommissioner for Social Affairs and Gender,

Representatives of sister United Nations organizations, USAID and African Development Bank,

 

Distinguished guests,

 

I am honored to represent FAO and deliver this statement on behalf of Mr. Bukar Tijani, our Assistant Director General and Regional Representative for Africa, at the launch of the ECOWAS-FAO Technical Cooperation Project on ‘Gender Responsive Regional and National Agricultural Investment Plans for achieving Zero Hunger in the ECOWAS region’.

 

This is a very timely initiative.

 

Last year, the global community adopted the 2030 Development Agenda. Achieving gender equality is one of our Sustainable Development Goals. At the same time, given the interlinked nature of the SDGs empowering women will also be crucial to reach the other global goals we have set.

 

This ECOWAS-FAO project is part of the effort to transform our political commitment into results in West Africa. The project will help strengthen gender equality outcomes in the implementation of the ECOWAS Zero Hunger Initiative and Regional Agricultural Investment Plan and support the development of an ECOWAS Action Plan on Gender and Agriculture.

 

It will also provide an opportunity to put into practice gender responsive budgeting for the implementation of ECOWAP, which is the Common Agricultural Policy in the ECOWAS region.

 

 

Distinguished guests,

 

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate ECOWAS for the very strong gender dimensions in the Regional Partnership Pact for the Implementation of the ECOWAP/CAADP 2025, adopted during the International Conference on Agriculture in West Africa, held in November 2015 in Dakar.

 

Women’s empowerment is central to FAO’s mandate to achieve food security and nutrition for all, advance sustainable agricultural productivity and natural resource management, and improve the lives of rural populations.

 

In response to this, FAO has mainstreamed gender in its work, adopting a multi-fold approach to empower women and men, including youth, and support their integration in agricultural value chains. This effort includes integrating gender issues in policy formulation; strengthening capacity building, fostering women’s leadership, enhancing data quality on gender.

 

Distinguished guests,

 

I would like to share some lessons learnt through our various policy assistance and programmatic activities.

• First, when rural women have equal access as men to resources, assets, services and economic opportunities, they become a key driving force against rural poverty, hunger and malnutrition. Therefore, investing in women along agri­cultural value chains is the right and smart thing to do for thriving rural communities and more gender equal societies.
• Second, well-nourished women are more productive, save more, invest more and have healthier children who perform better at school.
• Third, we should create the conditions for women to exert greater decision-making in family farming, food systems, and manage­ment of natural resources.

 

These lessons are a source of inspiration for the implementation of this technical cooperation project with the ECOWAS Commission, while building on other ongoing initiatives that FAO is currently involved in in ECOWAS member States, such as:

 

• The Project ‘Enable women to benefit more equally from agri-food value chains’ covering eight African countries including Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana  focusing on fish processing and cassava value chain development.
• The Joint FAO/IFAD/UN Women/WFP Programme on “Accelerating the Economic Empowerment of Rural Women” covering Liberia and Niger among other countries; FAO is also providing policy assistance to various countries for the effective implementation of the “Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the context of National Food Security” which include strong gender equality provisions. 

 

Let me conclude by saying that the ECOWAS-FAO technical cooperation project of we are launching will reinforce the already strong partnership between our two organizations and give an important contribution to empowering women and supporting their participation in agricultural value chains and food systems.

 

I thank you for your attention.