Ghana to benefit from second phase of FSRP-2 world bank financing

Ghana is set to benefit from the second phase of the West Africa regional Food Systems Resilience Program (FSRP-2) financing to increase the country’s preparedness against food insecurity and to improve the resilience of its food systems.

The total amount of $315 million in International Development Association (IDA) financing approved by the World Bank, will benefit some additional 2 million people in Ghana, Chad, and Sierra Leone.

The financing came at a moment when it is projected that approximately 38.3 million people in West Africa are in food security crisis.

“The approval of FSRP-2 and incorporation of Chad, Ghana and Sierra Leone expands impacts not just of national activities, but of targeted spill-over effects from regional activities. We are eager for this innovative program to maximize its reach across West Africa” Boutheina Guermazi, World Bank’s Director for Regional Integration for Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and Northern Africa made it known.

Across the targeted areas in the three countries, FSRP-2 will help to reduce food insecure people by 25%, according to the World Bank.

Access to hydro and agrometeorological advisory services will be extended to over 400,000 food system actors, while nearly 500,000 producers are expected to adopt climate smart agricultural technologies.

Moreover, about 12,000 hectares of land area will benefit from integrated landscape management practices, and intra-regional traded productions in selected value chains will increase by 30%.

“Multiple shocks, driven by climate change and environmental degradation, weaknesses of the food markets, conflicts and insecurity, Covid-19 implications, and the war in Ukraine have further deteriorated food insecurity and inflation across West Africa. FSRP-2 further expands cooperation across the ECOWAS region to ensure food security, now and into the future” Ms. Massandjé Toure-Litse, the Commissioner for Economic Affairs and Agriculture ECOWAS

Scope of the FSRP-2

More specifically, the new financing will help: increase the effectiveness of agriculture and food crises prevention and management and strengthen the capacities to adapt to climate variability and change; strengthen the adaptive capacity of the food system’s productive base and make it sustainable; and  support the regional food market’s integration by linking the beneficiary countries, consolidating their food reserve systems, and strengthening the development of strategic regional value chains.

Ousmane Diagana, World Bank’s Vice-President for Western and Central Africa, said “Facilitating the trade of agricultural goods and inputs within and across national borders in West Africa is a key element to address food insecurity in the region”.

With FSRP-2, the multi-phase FRSP program now amounts to a total of $645 million of IDA (instead of the $570 million initially approved in November 2021).

The first phase of the program (FSRP-1, $330 million, approved in November 2021) launched in June 2022, brought together four countries (Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Togo) and three regional organizations (ECOWAS, the Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS), and the West and Central Africa Council for Agriculture Research and Development, CORAF).

FSRP-1 aimed to implement a broad program to increase agricultural productivity, promote intraregional value chains and trade, and build regional capacity to manage agricultural risk.

It is expected that both FSRP-1 and FSRP-2 will reach a total of 4.35 million direct beneficiaries (including farmers) across West Africa, with focus on women and youth.