The Centre for Coordination of Agricultural Research and Development for Southern Africa (CCARDESA) hosted the second World Bank Implementation Support Mission (ISM) for the Food Systems Resilience Programme (FSRP) for Eastern and Southern Africa on the 5th of February 2024. This ISM, which was conducted as a hybrid event, was to assess CCARDESA’s performance in the implementation of the programme since the completion of the first mission in June 2023.
The CCARDESA team was led by the Executive Director and Head of Mission, Prof Cliff Sibusiso Dlamini. In his opening remarks, Prof Dlamini highlighted the pivotal role of FSRP in improving climate change adaptation and transformational livelihood in the entire SADC region. He also emphasized the need to bring on board the new countries who joined late last year through high level engagements. “Given the high expectations from this programme by the Council of Ministers responsible for Agriculture and Food Security, Fisheries and Aquaculture, I have taken the responsibility to lead the discussions with the leadership of these countries so that from 2024 going forward, we may start having joint planning and review sessions with Country PIUs”, remarked Prof Dlamini.
It is worth noting that, FSRP is a regional and multiphase World Bank funded initiative, which started with the Republic of Madagascar and CCARDESA in the SADC region and has now evolved to include Tanzania, Malawi and Comoros. Additional countries from the SADC region and beyond are expected to join this programme, which is aimed at increasing resilience of food systems and preparedness against food insecurity in the participating countries.
The World Bank, as the funding entity, has the mandate to periodically review the implementation of FSRP workplan and budget and provide recommendations to ensure the attainment of project development objective. Led by the Regional Task Team Leader (TTL), Timothy D Robertson, the Bank expressed its satisfaction with CCARDESA’s performance, and the effort applied to address key action points that were agreed in the last mission. The Bank was also in full support of CCARDESA’s 2024 workplan, which will see the organization embarking on strategic impactful activities, including the establishment of an agricultural regional trade and market score card, development of a regional curriculum for Farmer Field Schools on climate smart agriculture, facilitating studies on water and water resources management policies, and supporting the domestication by member states of the SADC harmonized seed regulatory system.
