Benin, October 2019
National Validation of Benin’s NRDS-2
After holding two Working Weeks in Cotonou and Ouidah on NRDS revision; the Task Force members, with CARD Secretariat assistance, produced a NRDS-2 final draft for validation by stakeholders at the national level. The draft was further fine-tuned by the Task Force and CARD consultant by making final adjustments to the document, before circulating to the stakeholders for validation.
NRDS-2 National Validation Workshop
NRDS-2 national validation took place in Cotonou on the 30th of October 2019 in the presence of about 60 participants from public and private institutions, and international development partners. NRDS-2 Focal Point, Mr. Affo Ousmane made Power point presentations on the NRDS-2 at the meeting. Workshop participants asked questions and provided several suggestions for improving the document for finalization. Key elements of Logical Framework for rice sector development in Benin were confirmed by the participants during national validation:
– Vision: “By 2025, local rice production will largely cover Beninese consumption needs and will be competitive on the national and regional markets”.
– Overall objectives: To improve rice value chains performance and to enable them to contribute to food and nutrition security and economic development in Benin.
– Specific objectives: OS1: Improve sustainability of rice productivity and production by Agricultural Development Cluster; OS2: Ensure competitiveness and access of local rice to national and regional markets; OS3: Strengthen the organizational, institutional and legal frameworks of the rice sector.
Among the several observations and suggestions made by the participants, it is worth noting the need to add: (i) a summary of the evaluation of the NRDS-1 that was funded by FAO and (ii) a table of key indicators of the logical framework for monitoring and evaluation of the progress under the NRDS-2 implementation.
Results of CARD’s support to NRDS Task force works are: (i) NRDS-2 document was finalized and validated by Benin’s rice sector stakeholders and (ii) Capacity of national managers within the Task Force was strengthened.
Next step will involve mobilization of the necessary financial resources for NRDS-2 implementation.
(The above photos: The participants at the NRDS-2 National validation workshop)
