In this report, an account of the main discussion items is reflected, as well as analyses and proposals made for the improvement of rice self-sufficiency policies in West Africa. The first section summarizes an inaugural conference on the challenges and prospects of rice self-sufficiency policies in West-Africa. Following onto this is presentations and discussions related on topics of interest identified during the Dakar ECOWAS meeting on the rice sector held in Dakar in November 2015 and summarized in a document entitled “The Dakar Declaration”. Essentially, these topics focus on the concerns related to the gender approaches in rice development strategies, the design and implementation of the policies and incentive mechanisms and the development of partnerships among stakeholders. The value chain policies and industrialization models fill the second section of the report. The presentation of concrete cases in Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal is subjected to analyses and proposals with regards to possible improvements and scale-ups. The report investigates the sector’s innovative modes of financing and contractualization among the value chain stakeholders through experiences and initiatives implemented in Nigeria and Senegal in the third section. The specific case of the public-private partnership models experimented in the three case study countries are analyzed and discussed in the fourth section of the report.
