The intervention of CORAF/WECARD is to support the provision of appropriate innovations and technologies, the definition of strategic-decision making options for policies, institutions and markets, strengthening and coordinating agricultural research, extension and agricultural training and meeting the demand of the target groups in accessing agricultural technology innovations. These agricultural innovations are disseminated through the West Africa Agricultural Productivity Programme (WAAPP).
WAAPP is designed to make agriculture more productive and sustainable, to improve the conditions of life of consumers through the provision of agricultural products at competitive prices and to support regional cooperation in agriculture in West Africa in accordance with action plans for agricultural policy managers of ECOWAS/ECOWAP and the NEPAD/CAADP.
WAAPP aims to generate and accelerate the adoption of improved technologies in key priority areas of agricultural sectors involved in WAAPP, technologies that align with the priorities of the main agricultural priorities of the sub-region. It also aims to provide producers with technologies to enhance and improve the competitiveness of the main speculations in each beneficiary country.
The West African Agricultural Productivity Program (WAAPP) was designed to respond to the challenges of increasing agricultural productivity, which is an important area of the agricultural policies of the Regional Economic Communities (REC) for the implementation of the Pillar IV of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP). It started in 2008 under the auspices of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), with a financial facilitation from the World Bank (WB) and coordinated at sub-regional level by CORAF/WECARD.
The main objective of WAAPP is to contribute to the Country Assistance Strategies (CAS) for member states of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which recognize the increase of agricultural production and regional integration as instruments for the promotion of shared growth and poverty reduction. The WAAPP is a ten years programme implemented in two phases of 5 years each. At the first phase, the objective is to generate and disseminate improved agricultural technologies. On the basis of lessons learnt during the first phase, the second phase focuses on the intensification of the dissemination and adoption of improved technologies in the priority agricultural sectors of the countries benefiting from the program.
The countries which satisfied the eligibility criteria adhered to the program according to the following series: WAAPP A (Ghana, Mali & Senegal), WAAPP B (Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire & Nigeria), WAAPP C (Benin, Gambia, Guinea, Liberia, Niger, Sierra Leone & Togo) and WAAPP D (Mauritania, Cape-Verde & Guinea Bissau) which is in preparation. The countries of the WAAPP A ended their first phase and are at their second.
