19th Conference of CILSS Heads of State and Government opens

20 Juillet 2020

Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, July 20  (Infosplusgabon) - The 19th Conference of Heads of State and Government of the Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS) began on Monday by videoconference.

The Burkinabe President, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, who chaired the opening ceremony, said the meeting is taking place in a particular context of health crisis related to COVID-19.

Mr. Kaboré stressed that for more than two years, "I have assumed the exhilarating responsibility of chairing the destiny of our institution, which has been committed for nearly 50 years to carrying out its missions, thanks to its recognized expertise and leadership in its fields of intervention".

"Our joint action has always been guided by our desire to help the countries and populations of the Sahel and West Africa in the quest for sustainable food and nutritional security and the conservation and protection of our natural resources, which are increasingly threatened by climate change," he said.

He recalled that the pooling of efforts and the rapprochement with all regional and sub-regional organizations, particularly ECOWAS, WAEMU, and the G5 Sahel are necessary and indispensable for the effectiveness "of our strategic and political interventions".

He also welcomed the "already convincing results" of the cooperation being built up with these sub-regional organizations, while encouraging the extension of these relations to other regions of the African continent, in particular ECCAS, CEMAC, and NEPAD.

Mr. Kaboré explained that the 19th Conference of Heads of State and Government will examine and endorse the results of the institutional reform of the CILSS, the aim of which is to arrive at a new institutional, organizational, administrative and financial framework, enshrining the renewal of the organization in order to make it more efficient and effective in meeting the needs of States and their hard-working populations.

"The prevention of pests and other crop pests is a major challenge in our common quest for productive, resilient and competitive agriculture," he recommended.

It is within this framework, he added, that CILSS, in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Hydro-Agricultural Development of Burkina Faso, organized a regional conference to take stock of the situation and identify solutions and resources that can be mobilized to counter the invasion of the autumn armyworm in the Sahel and West Africa.

The CILSS was created on 12 September, 1973, following the great droughts that hit the Sahel in the 1970s. It now comprises 13 Member States, including 8 coastal States (Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, Senegal, and Togo), 4 landlocked States (Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, and Chad) and 1 island State (Cape Verde).

The general mandate or objective guiding the action of CILSS is to invest in the search for food security and the fight against the effects of drought and desertification, for a new ecological balance in the Sahel.

FIN/ INFOSPLUSGABON/OPK/GABON2020

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