Agriculture minister presides over ITC sub-regional strategy validation forum

Held at Ocean Bay Hotel under the auspices of the Ministry of Agriculture, the forum was attended by participants from across the sub-region.

The objective of the forum was to provide an opportunity to stakeholders and partners to crosscheck the strategic plan and ensure it was in line with outputs of the planning process outlined.

It was also to validate it for implementation and suggest some critical steps and action to take to ensure an effective implementation of the resulting document.

The workshop was supported by ECOWAS, CORAF, IDRE, FAO, ILRI, FAO and PROGEBBE.

In his official opening remarks, the Agriculture minister said every respecting institution, especially research for development institution like ITC, needs to review its programme and activities every now and then to ensure these programme and activities continue to respond to the needs of their stakeholders.

Minister Owens added that with such activities, the ITC workshop participants could address the institution’s concerns and provide solutions to constraints they may be facing.

The convergence was very timely, he said, adding that it has been a little while since it soul-searched itself and modified its programme.

He said the ITC was established some three decades ago as an international institution with a regional reach, the regional focus being West Africa.

“Since then it has indeed worked with a number of countries in the region and many of them have benefited in one way or another from its research outputs,” he said.

He added that the role of the workshop participants would be to make suggestions on how the new governance structure should be crafted so that it is effective, efficient, and minimally bureaucratic, as well as provide the required enabling environment for the successful implementation of the new 10-year strategic plan.