The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission, through its Regional Agency for Agriculture and Food (ARAA), with support from the European Union (EU) and the Spanish Agency for International Development Co-operation (AECID), convened a high-level Regional Policy Dialogue from November 13 to 14, 2025 in Abuja, Nigeria.
The two-day meeting brought together government officials, researchers, private sector representatives, and development partners to ensure that scientific evidence informs agricultural policy-making across West Africa and the Sahel.
Organised under the PRISMA Programme, a joint EU and AECID initiative implemented by ARAA, Enabel, AECID, and LuxDev, the dialogue provided a platform to share lessons from four years of implementation and explore how PRISMA tools, data, and innovations can be incorporated into national and regional policies. Focus areas included strengthening livestock systems, improving food safety, and boosting the resilience of agro-pastoral communities.
In his welcome address, Dr Peter Alike, Director of the Technical Office of the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Livestock Development, reaffirmed Nigeria’s commitment to co-ordinated regional efforts to address pastoral resource scarcity, feed quality, climate shocks, and emerging zoonotic threats. “Aligning national strategies with solid regional scientific evidence is key to safeguarding food and nutrition security and building resilient livelihoods for farmers and pastoralists,” he said.
Konlani Kanfitin, Acting Executive Director of ARAA, emphasised the need to turn research findings into concrete policy action. “PRISMA is one of the most comprehensive programmes supporting transformation in the agro-pastoral sector,” he said. “This dialogue allows us to consolidate lessons learned, identify practical policy options, and work with Member States to scale up tested innovations so they are integrated into national policies and regional strategies.”
Elmounzer Ag Jiddou, Acting Country Director for Enabel in Niger, highlighted the importance of sustained evidence-based collaboration. “The true measure of success will be our collective ability to embed these results so that policymakers, service providers, and local actors continue to use them well beyond the life of the programme,” he noted.
Santiago Ormeno Garcia, General Coordinator of the Spanish Cooperation with ECOWAS, reaffirmed AECID’s ongoing commitment. “PRISMA shows that when research, institutions, and communities collaborate, practical solutions can be developed to improve animal health, feed quality, and public health outcomes,” he said.
Over the two days, participants reviewed advances in pastoral resource mapping, livestock feed governance, drought-risk insurance, and strategies to reduce aflatoxin contamination in feed and milk. Discussions also focused on documenting lessons learned, identifying priority policy measures for Member States, and agreeing on ways to integrate PRISMA results into national planning frameworks and ECOWAS agricultural policies sustainably.
The event will conclude with the adoption of a regional roadmap outlining how PRISMA innovations and recommendations can be advanced through national reforms, regional harmonisation, and targeted advocacy. The roadmap aims to enhance coordination between governments, technical agencies, and development partners, while keeping the voices of producers and pastoral communities central to decision-making.
By leveraging both scientific evidence and field experience to guide policy, the dialogue underscores ECOWAS’ commitment to agricultural transformation, food and nutrition security, and the objectives of ECOWAS Vision 2050 for a safer, more resilient, and prosperous West Africa.
The ECOWAS PRISMA Project, implemented in Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali, aims to transform agro-pastoral systems, making them more productive, resilient, and healthy in the face of climate change. The programme focuses on improving pastoral resource management, increasing access to quality livestock feed, and reducing zoonotic diseases in the dairy sector, while ensuring research findings reach both policymakers and local stakeholders.
–ChannelAfrica/ECOWAS–
