AGIR for Sahel and West Africa - Main contents

Fighting the root causes of food insecurity and helping to build resilience in West Africa

Yesterday was the 30th anniversary of the Food Crisis Prevention Network; a platform for food and nutrition security in the Sahel and West Africa. The Sahel area in Africa is one of the poorest regions in the world and its people can face huge challenges in accessing food, due to the poor rainfall, failed harvests and rising food prices, with insecurity and terrorism in the region adding to the difficulties.

So on this important anniversary, I met with the Senior Expert Group of the Alliance Global Pour la Resilience (AGIR) au Sahel et en Afrique de l'Ouest; an initiative to help countries in the Sahel to tackle the root causes and the consequences of chronic food insecurity, and above all to help them to build resilience, in order to prevent a similar situation from occurring again.

Strengthening resilience is at the core of successful humanitarian and development policies. The AGIR initiative shows the EU's commitment to putting in place a comprehensive approach, covering development cooperation, humanitarian aid and support to peace and security.

I’m proud to say that the EU is at the heart of this collective commitment to support resilience in Western Africa. I can see how progress has already been made on the ground thanks to our aid: for example the region can provide better early warning systems and our approach takes account of the long term challenges, like the consequences of climate change. As a result, West Africa is now better able to cope with any future crises.

However, it’s also clear that a lot still needs to be done. If I am impressed to see how AGIR has become active in 9 countries of West Africa, I am also looking forward to having even more countries on board. I consider nutrition security in this region as one of the major challenges and I will be closely following up our progress and support for the people of West Africa.