2023-08-04 07:46:17
Regional market for agro-pastoral products
Read the Bamako Call for West African Integration
From July 26 to 27, 2023, several countries of the West African region and the Sahel held, in Bamako, the 1st edition of the International Conference on Markets and Regional Integration in the Sahel and West Africa. For these two days of work, the participants, after reviewing issues related to cross-border trade, infrastructure and the business climate in West African and Sahelian states, made several recommendations as well as commitments. Read the Appeal to this effect.
S.T.
Call from Bamako
“Let us mobilize together an ambitious effort to build a resilient regional market for agro-pastoral products in the face of multidimensional shocks including civil insecurity, pandemics, climate change, disruptions linked to international crises”.
WE, the Representatives of States and Governments of CILSS member countries and West Africa, are meeting in Bamako, under the hospitality of the Government of the Republic of Mali, the Permanent Interstate Committee for the Fight against Drought in the Sahel (CILSS), alongside Representatives of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA), sub-regional research institutions such as the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development / West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF / WECARD), regional and continental financial institutions, producer organizations, private actors, partners international technical organizations, with the aim of strengthening the resilience of the regional market for agro-silvopastoral products in West Africa and the Sahel in the face of multidimensional shocks including civil insecurity, pandemics, climate change, disruptions linked to international crises
CONSIDERING THAT:
the combination of multidimensional shocks (climate change, conflicts, civil insecurity, effects of the fight against the Covid19 pandemic and economic extensions of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis), led to market and trade disruptions which led to a situation of food and nutritional insecurity in our sub-region. the combination of structural and economic challenges facing our sub-region has been unique with significant impacts on our trade, our economies and the life of our societies.
NOTING THAT: The responses of our States to these challenges, in particular through administrative measures of border closures, bans and quotas on exports of agro-silvo-pastoral products, have lacked consultation and coordination and have contributed to the disruption of supplies of our markets. the implementation of the regulations relating to cross-border exchanges remains a source of many uncertainties that affect their commercial transactions; The costs of transporting goods between countries, uncertainties about the time required for the transit of goods, exceptionally long delays and road hassles affect the competitiveness of our trade in agro-silvo-pastoral products; The shortcomings of current information and alert mechanisms and systems on commercial transactions do not allow us to anticipate challenges such as civil insecurity, pandemics, climate change, crisis-related disruptions international;
RECOGNIZING: The significant efforts made in terms of regional integration of trade in agro-silvo-pastoral products in our sub-region through ECOWAS, UEMOA, CILSS and sub-regional professional and inter-professional organizations with the support of technical and financial partners . The existence of regional institutional arrangements for integration capable of being improved to take on the current major challenges. The establishment of ZLECAF is a major opportunity that provides a platform to coordinate investments in regional infrastructure, reduce tariff and non-tariff barriers, and harmonize and simplify regulatory and institutional procedures.
UNANIMOUSLY AFFIRM THAT: We must stop suffering crises without anticipating. We must consult each other in the sub-regional space before taking national political, strategic and operational decisions that affect the fluidity of trade in our sub-region. We must continue to reduce the structural constraints to our trade linked to the shortcomings of our regulatory texts, the weaknesses and shortcomings of our infrastructures and markets.
Let’s launch a so-called Bamako call for a commitment from all stakeholders TO OUR COUNTRIES:
– to contribute financially to the construction of a regional mechanism for strategic and operational monitoring, for anticipating the impact of the various crises on the market and regional exchanges of agro-silvo-pastoral products.
– to increase their investment efforts in the agro-silvo-pastoral value chains to increase the food supply in order to take full advantage of the commercial opportunities offered by the ZLECAF and to reverse the trend of trade in favor of our sub-region.
– to increase their efforts to invest in national market and trade infrastructures. to regional economic and technical integration organizations (ECOWAS, Uemoa, CILSS):
– to contribute to the establishment by CILSS of a regional mechanism for strategic and operational monitoring, anticipation of the impact of the various crises on the market and regional exchanges of agro-silvo-pastoral products;
– to harmonize the strategies and programs put in place by the countries in response to the challenges of civil insecurity, pandemics, climate change, disturbances linked to international crises in order to limit the distortions induced by uncoordinated administrative measures at the such as prohibitions, quotas and border closures.
– to support the realization of investments of a regional nature generating the public goods essential to the development of trade and exchanges of agro-silvo-pastoral products in our sub-region (infrastructure, logistics, transport, markets).
– To better organize and strengthen the capacities of socio-professional organizations for greater inclusiveness in the facilitation and fluidification of regional trade. TO CIVIL SOCIETY, INCLUDING ASSOCIATIONS OF AGROSILVOPASTORAL PRODUCTS TRADE PROFESSIONALS
– to participate in the establishment and operationalization by CILSS of a regional mechanism for strategic and operational monitoring, anticipation of the impact of the various crises on the market and regional exchanges of agro-silvo-pastoral products.
– to consult regularly with governments and regional economic integration organizations in order to take full advantage of trade opportunities.
– to develop the capacities of their networks of grouped purchase of inputs and sub-regional distribution.
TO TECHNICAL AND FINANCIAL PARTNERS
– To respond to our requests for the mobilization of their resources, at the appropriate level and for the necessary duration, in favor of:
the establishment by CILSS of a regional mechanism for strategic and operational monitoring, for anticipating the impact of the various crises on the market and regional trade in agro-silvo-pastoral products.
the realization of investments of a regional nature generating the public goods essential to the development of trade and exchanges of agro-silvo-pastoral products in our sub-region (infrastructure, logistics, transport, markets).
Done in Bamako, July 27, 2023
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QA August 4, 2023
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