Thirty agricultural stakeholders from Anglophone West Africa are meeting at a workshop in Accra to deliberate on reducing rural poverty in the West African sub-region.
Organised by the FIDAFRIQUE project of the West Africa Rural Foundation (WARF), the participants from Ghana, Nigeria and The Gambia are also working on connecting people, organisations and networks for sharing experiences and innovation on rural poverty reduction strategies and programmes.
The FIDAFRIQUE project is funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and it is aimed at promoting the sharing and dissemination of innovations and knowledge for rural poverty reduction in sub-Saharan Africa.
In a speech read on his behalf at the opening session, the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Mr Kwesi Ahwoi, said the need to intensify the fight against poverty had become urgent and more pressing lately in the face of the recent world food crisis that threatened political stability.
He said the devastating effect of climate change had the potential to derail all the efforts made by African governments towards national development.
“It is a global concern and we must all put our shoulders to the wheel to address it, otherwise it will derail all the efforts we are making,” he stated..
Expatiating on the FIDAFRIQUE project, Mr Abdou Fall, the co-ordinator of the project, said it was intended to increase the development effectiveness of IFAD-financed projects and programmes.
He said the WARF was a non-profit organisation and recipient of the IFAD grant responsible for network administration and financial management of activities in West and Central Africa.
He said in eastern and southern Africa, WARF had contracted the African Rural and Agricultural Credit Association (AFRACA) to host the co-ordination unit for relevant elements aimed at improving policy dialogue processes and knowledge drawn from such project and programme experiences for decision makers.
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