Organizational Setting

The FAO Sub-Regional office for West Africa (SFW) responsible for developing, promoting and implementing FAO agreed strategies to help countries and sub-regional organizations address food security, nutrition, agriculture and rural development priorities in West Africa. The Office has a multidisciplinary team of technical experts, in agriculture, forestry, fisheries, land and water, and pastoralism, who provide technical support to the 15 member countries of ECOWAS in their fight against poverty and the promotion of food and nutritional security; as well as to a wider 17 member countries of the Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS) in strengthening the resilience of the Sahel countries.

There is growing international recognition that the agricultural sectors (including crops, forestry, fisheries and aquaculture and livestock) play a central role in responding to climate change, as these sectors are among the foremost priorities in the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) submitted by African countries under the UNFCCC. In this regard, SFW Strategy has as one of its priority areas “Sustainable Management of the Environment and Natural Resources (SMENR)” that intends to support countries address issues related to climate change mitigation and adaptation, the preservation of biodiversity, and the collection, management and sharing on the environment and natural resources data in the sub-region.

SFW is increasingly receiving requests from countries in West Africa for providing technical support in the development of concept notes and project proposals to key environmental donors (GCF and GEF and Adaptation Fund) as well as their implementation. As an accredited agency to the GEF, GCF and Adaptation Fund, FAO intends to expand its portfolio to assist countries in fulfilling their ambitions on climate action, notably, with UNFCCC, as well as the NDCs in the Paris Agreement.

The portfolio of SFW comprises more