CCARDESA Hosts First World Bank Implementation Support Mission for Food Systems Resilience Programme

The Centre for Coordination of Agricultural Research and Development for Southern Africa (CCARDESA) hosted on the 19th and 20th of June 2023, the first World Bank Implementation Support Mission (ISM) aimed at assessing progress on the implementation of the Food Systems Resilience Programme (FSRP). This was a virtual mission, which brought together experts from the World Bank led by Mr Timothy Robertson, the Regional Task Team Leader (TTL) based in Washington DC, as well as the FSRP Project Implementation Unit (PIU) at CCARDESA. In his opening remarks, Dr Baitsi Podisi, the Acting CCARDESA Executive Director, thanked the World Bank for their continued support for regional initiatives and pledged CCARDESA’s support in coordinating the programme’s implementation.

FSRP is a six-year World Bank funded Multiphase Programmatic Approach (MPA) aimed at increasing the resilience of food systems and preparedness against food insecurity in the participating countries. In the current arrangement (2022-2028), FSRP is being implemented at country level by the Republic of Madagascar which is facing acute food insecurity due to historic droughts in the south of the country. In late May, the World Bank Group’s Board of Executive Directors approved $903 million in International Development Association (IDA) financing for Comoros ($40 million), Kenya ($150 million), Malawi ($250 million), Somalia ($150 million), Tanzania ($300 million) and the African Union Commission ($13 million) as part of the second and third phases of FSRP.

This ISM highlighted that, CCARDESA being a regional body is also expected to facilitate cross learning between implementing countries (mainly those at SADC level), promote or strengthen knowledge networks and systems to avoid duplication of efforts and resources. The mission also discussed in detail the status of implementation of the first 18 months Workplan and budget covering specific project components such as technical, monitoring and evaluation, environmental and social safeguards, knowledge management, procurement, and finance.