The WAAPP/PPAAO is organized around the four following components :

Enabling conditions for Regional Cooperation in improved Technologies Generation and Dissemination

This component aims at creating an environment which would facilitate the dissemination and adoption of agricultural technologies and innovation and the implementation of regional regulations such as ECOWAS ones on seeds (animal and vegetal), Pesticides, fertilizers, bio security, etc., the understanding of concepts such as intellectual property, climate change, gender mainstreaming and the development of communication systems.

Establishment of National Centres of Specialization

The component aims at building the capacities of Agricultural research institutions and particularly infrastructural and human training. This capacity strengthening will be done around the creation of a National Centre of Specialization, which will evolve into a Regional Centre of Excellence (REC) to serve the sub-region. There can only be one NCoS on a given commodity in the sub-region. On the basis of the priority crops of the region, nine NCoS were established as follows: irrigated and rain-fed rice for lowlands and plateaus in Mali; mangrove rice in Sierra Leone; roots and tubers in Ghana; fruits and vegetables in Burkina Faso; plantain in Côte d’Ivoire; Maize in Benin; dried cereals in Senegal; Livestock in Niger and aquaculture in Nigeria. The section on training involves not only the research institutions but also universities and agricultural training institutions to enhance synergies among them.

Funding of demand-driven technology Generation and adoption

This component concerns the creation and strengthening of national research funds for development, which will bring together several categories of actors on a competitive basis, to facilitate the adoption of technologies and innovations by the producers. The institutions will also have the opportunity of benefitting from a regional fund coordinated by CORAF/WECARD, which will encourage the institutions of different countries to work together and reach the same goal. This component also deals with questions related to the development of seeds systems to make genetic vegetal and animal material accessible in the countries.

Coordination, Management, Monitoring and Evaluation

The fourth component aims at building the capacities of institutions involved in the implementation of the project at the administrative and financial level, the monitoring, evaluation, learning and information as well as communication management.