Goal:

Enhance food security, economic growth, resilience, and poverty reduction in West Africa through an integrated common market

Life of Program:

5/2015 – 5/2020

Total USAID Funding:

$5,600,000

Geographic Focus:

Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo

The Food Across Borders Program (ProFAB) grew out of the USAID-sponsored Food Across Borders Conference in January 2013. Participants agreed on a region-wide technical agenda, referred to as the Accra Agenda, which identified primary barriers to trade in staple agricultural commodities. Public and private sector representatives highlighted five central barriers: road harassment, export restrictions, rules of origin, clarity of sanitary/phyto-sanitary veterinary regulations, and taxation. Hub Rural and CILSS have played an important role in building the foundation for launching ProFAB as part of the Accra Agenda.

Program Description

ProFAB increases food security and economic growth by expanding the volume and value of intra-regional agricultural trade. The program supports a variety of activities contributing to a more integrated common market in West Africa. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) house the ProFAB observatory and incorporate ProFAB results and outcomes into their regional policy efforts.  ECOWAS, WAEMU, and USAID led the ProFAB steering committee. Hub Rural contains a coordination unit among the partners, including civil society, research, private sector and producer organizations.

Program Objectives

• Formulate and implement effective regional policies and strategies to address primary barriers to regional agricultural trade
• Expand access to reliable information on cross-border trade data and regulatory requirements
• Strengthen results-oriented trade advocacy platforms

Key African Partners:

ECOWAS, WAEMU, Permanent Intergovernmental Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS)

Key Implementing Partners:

CILSS, Lead Implementing Partner, with:
Hub Rural, Borderless Alliance, Environmental Development Action in the Third World - African Center for Trade, Integration and Development (ENDA-CACID)