COMMUNIQUE OF ECOAGRIS INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK

ESTABLISHMENT AND INDICATORS VALIDATION

WORKSHOP HELD AT ROCKVIEW HOTEL,
ABUJA FROM 25TH TO 29TH JANUARY, 2016

1.0 Preamble

1.1 In response to the global food crisis of December 2008, the European Union
initiated the "Food Facility" (EUFF) for a period of 3 years, from 2009 to 2011.
Within the framework of this food facility, a regional program for food facility
entitled "Food Facility Programme UEFIDA-ECOWAS" was established. The
pilot phase of this program is presently being implemented in Benin, Burkina
Faso, Cte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Niger and Senegal by ECOWAS and IFAD.
The UEFIDA-ECOWAS Food Facility Programme focuses on three
components one of which is the ECOAGRIS (Component 3).

ECOAGRIS is the information on the Agricultural Sector of ECOWAS system

designed to be a dynamic tool for monitoring agriculture in West Africa.

1.2 The purpose of ECOAGRIS is to enable decision makers in the region to use
reliable information system for better policy formulation using robust
monitoring of policies and strategies for agricultural development.

1.3 Consequently, the FMARD, in collaboration with FAO and CILSS

organized a 5-day workshop from 25 29th, January 2016 at Rockview Hotel,
Abuja on the establishment of Institutional framework and validation of
ECOAGRIS indicators for Nigeria. The workshop was attended by participants
drawn from relevant stakeholders and agencies including FMARD (FDA,
FDAE, FDRD, FDF&A, P&PC, FISSD, ALCCMS, NPFS, DAPHS, NAERLS),
FMB&NP, FAO, FMoH, NBS, FEWSNET, FMWR.

2.0 Broad Objective

The broad objective of the workshop is to initiate the establishment of the
Institutional framework and validation of ECOAGRIS indicators for Nigeria.

2.1 The specific objective of the workshop include to:

i. clarify and formalize the expected functions and services of ECOAGRIS
in Nigeria;
ii. clarify the roles of the stakeholders;

iii. identify the organizations relevant for providing the requisite information
needed for the ECOAGRIS platform;
iv. define the operational and management procedures of the ECOAGRIS
program at the national and regional levels for Nigeria;
v. draft the Charter and document needed for the creation, organisation, and
functioning of ECOAGRIS national institutional Framework for Nigeria ;
and
vi. draft the MoU between AGRHYMET and ECOAGRIS National
institutional Framework (ENF) for Nigeria.

2.2 Papers were presented on the ECOAGRIS System and Institutional

framework by the AGHYMET experts and this was followed with serious
review and deliberations by the participants. The draft ECOAGRIS National
framework and MoU were developed.

2.3 The participants were later divided into two groups with each working on
the twelve sub-systems with the view of validating the indicators for each of the
sub-systems.
2.4 Following in-depth deliberation, the workshop came up with the following
recommendations:
i. There is the need to capture additional sub-sectors and other indicators
that were omitted.
ii. Financial management strategies which have been developed as stated in
the project document should be strictly followed to ease bureaucracy and
ensure successful project implementation.
iii. The workshop strongly emphasized the need for government to adhere
to the 2003 Maputo Declaration of devoting 10% of annual budget to
agriculture out of which 1% should be allocated to data generation
iv. The workshop also emphasized the need for the government to make
strong commitment by paying and releasing counterpart funding timely to
ensure ownership and sustainability of the project.
v. It was resolved that the output of the meeting should be circulated to all
stakeholders for further inputs. This will then be followed with higher
level national validation workshop.