National stakeholder reviews: To validate strategies and boost sustainable intra-African trade and climate change adaptation in Togo, The Gambia, and Senegal

Three national workshops were organized in Togo, The Gambia, and Senegal to review and validate national green value chain strategies aimed at promoting intra-African trade, sustainable production, and climate change adaptation. These events, held respectively in Lome on October 25–26 2023, Banjul on October 30–31 2023, and Dakar on November 7–8 2023, each brought together around 60 national stakeholders from the government, businesses, support institutions, and academia. They focused on vegetable oils and processed fruit products value chains, identified as two high-potential green value chains for West African countries (Burkina Faso, The Gambia, Senegal, and Togo) participating in the joint UNCTAD-UN ECA project for the inclusion of green initiatives into national AfCFTA implementation strategies.

In all three national workshops, findings from a regional value chain analysis commissioned by UNCTAD were presented to provide participants with an overview of common challenges and opportunities for the development of sustainable and low-carbon West African agrifood value chains. Key issues highlighted by national stakeholders included land ownership regimes, climate-smart agriculture, pre and post-harvest losses, logistics, Non-Tariff Measures and Non-Tariff Barriers, processing, financing, and market information.

The project for the inclusion of green initiatives into national AfCFTA implementation strategies is a joint initiative led by UNCTAD and UN ECA, implemented in twenty countries from all five African sub-regions. Its aim is to assist beneficiary countries in the development of green value chain strategies to promote intra-African trade and climate resilience in the context of the AfCFTA.