EBAFOSA was formed following the Second Africa EBA for food security conference convened by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) in collaboration with the African Union (AU) Commission and partners in July 2015, where 1200 delegates from Africa adopted the Nairobi Action Agenda and the Constitution, which gave birth to the first ever Africa Ecosystems Based Adaptation for Food Security Assembly (EBAFOSA).

EBAFOSA serves as the continental policy platform to foster and nurture partnerships through branch formation in each African country. Some African countries have since launched their programmes. In Nigeria, the theme for the launch was: ‘Re-shaping Nigeria food security and climate resilience through EBAFOSA”.

EBAFOSA Nigeria national branch secretariat is hosted within the Ministry of Budget and National Planning which is the coordinating Ministry of all Ministries and during the launch the Ministers re-confirm their support to ensure EBAFOSA is integrated into the national budgetary allocations and will become the implementation platform to delivery SDGs, climate change and food security initiatives for Nigeria.

UNDP Nigeria has committed to use the EBAFOSA Policy framework to deliver its work on climate change and food security as well as the SDGs and Agenda 2030. Indeed EBAFOSA is positioned as a platform to support Africa meaningfully achieves SDGs 2, 8, 13, 15 and 17. At the operational level, UNDP Nigeria will work with the EBAFOSA national branch to plan/implement targeted delivering of the SDGs through policy support or demonstration projects that make tangible on the ground impacts and feedback to inform policy.

The buildup of national and regional interest and the mobilization of the national governments, civil societies, together with other stakeholders following the national branch launch provide the type of enabling environment for country and regional EBAFOSA implementation, i.e. partnership building among cross-cutting stakeholders for policy and implementation. The biggest unions including the National Union of Food Beverage Tobacco Employees (NUFBTE); National Union of Hotels and Personal Service Workers (NUHPSW); Food Beverage and Tobacco Senior Staff Association (FOBTOB) and Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions (ASSBIFI) all lauded the initiative.

The launch has provided an opportunity to capitalize on the momentum generated by the interest and heightened awareness on EBAFOSA to mobilize country stakeholders to expedite the stakeholder mobilization and partnership building, critical activities in the EBAFOSA strategy towards actualizing policy and implementation actions for optimizing agro-value chains.

EBAFOSA’s implementation is categorized into three – introductory, growth and maturity. The introductory phase is considered as the most-crucial as it aims to secure commitment of the vital stakeholders, who will be the foundation of EBAFOSA.  The National branch launch has catalyze the environment to work with associations, such as All Farmers Association of Nigeria, women allied organizations, including weather agencies, to make food production sustainable.  EBAFOSA is targeting policy as well as on-the ground demonstration projects that enhance application of EBA driven agriculture, enhance renewable energy access aimed at powering agro-processing, enhancing access to markets - both supply and demand markets by farmers & other agro-actors, and enhancing access to affordable commercial lending to agro-value chains. When fully optimized, Africa’s agro-value chains can ensure not only food security, but build climate resilience, enhance ecosystem capacity and create additional income opportunities and millions of  jobs for youth in the continent