European Union Delegations in West Africa meet to review and strengthen the NaturAfrica West Africa programme

A year and a half after the programme was launched, the European Commission's Directorate-General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA), the Commission of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) and Delegations of the European Union (EUD) from 13 West African countries met in Brussels from 8 to 11 April to take stock of progress made under the NaturAfrica West Africa regional programme. With support from the B4Life Facilities and Regional Technical Assistance, as well as presentations by various external resource persons, the meeting made it possible to:

• clarify the implementation framework for the programme and its links with the priorities of the EU and WAEMU;
• present and discuss other relevant regional programmes;
• take stock of progress in the signing of contracts and agree on the next steps;
• recall and clarify the consideration of indicators and support tools for monitoring NaturAfrica;
• organise thematic sessions on topics of particular interest (human rights, green economy, communication, sustainable cocoa, transhumance, conservation in times of conflict, etc.);
• inform participants about the preparation of the programme's phase 2 and the most important criteria for identifying future beneficiary landscapes.

This regional meeting was a real success and made it possible to agree on a mobilisation plan for finalising the remaining contracts and to better define the links with the various regional initiatives in order to forge dynamic synergies. The lessons learned from various programmes in sub-Saharan Africa will enable better programme design and more effective implementation. The next milestone will be the programme Steering Committee meeting to be organised by WAEMU by the end of 2025.

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Participants at the EUD meeting in Brussels