IOFS Delegation Consultations with Nigerien High-Level Authorities and Other International Organizations

On the sidelines of the Workshop on the Development of Databases on Agricultural Statistics, held on 18-19 May 2022 in Niamey, Republic of Niger, a joint delegation of the Islamic Organization of Food Security (IOFS) and the Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS) were received for different meeting by Nigerien High-level Authorities, including Their Excellencies Mr. Youssouf Mohamed Elmouctar. Minister Delegate to the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, in charge of African Integration, and Mr. Amadou Allahoury Diallo, President’s Special Advisor on Agriculture & Livestock, to exchange views on future bilateral cooperation in follow-up to the official visit H.E. Mr. Yerlan Baidaulet, IOFS Director General, to the Republic of Niger on 16-17 of the current month, as well as the Joint Action Plan signed with H.E. Mr. Abdoulaye Mohamadaou, CILSS Executive Secretary, for holding activities within the framework of celebrating of “2022 IOFS Year of Africa”.

 

At the aforementioned meetings, the IOFS was represented by Dr. Ismail Abdelhamid, Director of Programmes & Projects Office, and Mr. Abdula Manafi Mutualo, Senior Liaison Officer, while CILSS was represented by Director General of Bamako Center, Mr. Mohamed Abdellahi Ebbe, in which the issue of irrigation in agriculture greatly featured in the views exchanged, particularly the need of the Republic of Niger in counting with all concerned partners towards addressing significant challenge that the agriculture sector faces when it comes to water management, especially under climate change that dramatically affects agricultural productivity.

Separately and seizing the presence of Dr. Ali Eissa, Senior Agricultural Economist and Head of Agricultural Integration at the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development (AOAD), in Niamey to attend the aforementioned Workshop, a meeting was held with IOFS and CILSS to deliberate on future tripartite activities to also celebrate “2022 IOFS Year of Africa”.

 

Finally, the IOFS Delegation had extensive discussions with Mr. Modibo Traoré, Head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Niger, on how to strengthen cooperation with United Nations Agencies based in Niger that are active the humanitarian food assistance, and it was agreed that a Joint Plan on Humanitarian Food Security Intervention for Niger would be developed between the IOFS and four (04) UN Agencies, including OCHA, Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), World Food Program (WFP), and United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), and if successful, the same would be implemented in other Sahelian countries, including Chad and Mali.