The AgrInvest initiative of FAO aims at attracting private investments into agri-food systems aligned with the SDGs by leveraging public funds. Under AgrInvest, FAO is implementing the project “AgrInvest-Food Systems ” (AgrInvest-FS) to foster sustainable investments in agri-food systems in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Niger, which contribute to sustainable economic growth and boost rural employment, particularly for women and youths.
At the end of 2020, as part of the AgrInvest-FS project, FAO organized the workshop “Enabling inclusive and efficient private sector investments in the Burkinabè agri-food systems” in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The event's objectives were to present the project to key stakeholders from the private and the public sectors and collaboratively identify two agri-food value chains to be prioritized with the support of AgrInvest-FS.
To comply with the safety measures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of participants was restricted to 27 attendees.
The event also served to present and validate the first study developed under Burkina Faso's project, the “Political economy analysis of the Burkinabè food systems” carried out in partnership with The European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM).
This analysis proposes rice and aquaculture as the key value chains to be prioritized, given their potential to improve socio-economic outcomes and the sustainability of the country's food systems and their complementarity at the territorial level, particularly in the western regions of Burkina Faso.
As a result of a series of round-table discussions and group work identifying constraints and opportunities in the selected value chains, the participants validated the study and confirmed their interest in prioritizing aquaculture and rice.
“Fish farming is a sector with strong economic and social potential in Burkina Faso. The Government has shown its interest in the sector by formulating a national development strategy for sustainable fisheries and aquaculture for 2025”, pointed out Ms. Huguette Bama, Director-General of the Investment Agency of Burkina Faso (Agence Burkinabè des Investissements) and moderator of the event, during the discussions.
This workshop's results will serve as a basis for a technical study, analyzing the two value chains in greater detail.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of FAO Regional Office for Africa.
