New Partnership to Strengthen Soil Health and Secure Livelihoods for 1.5 Million Sahelian Farmers
The Soil Values Program and the Regional Hub for Fertilizer and Soil Health for West Africa and the Sahel today announced a formal partnership. They signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to coordinate soil health interventions across West Africa and the Sahel. The partnership will enhance collaboration, minimize duplication of effort, and deliver lasting impact in the region.
This agreement unites the Regional Hub’s technical consortium with the Soil Values Program’s implementation platform in the Sahel. Consortium partners include IITA, IFDC, OCP Africa, APNI, UM6P, and ISRIC.
The collaboration aims to restore 2 million hectares of degraded land and strengthen the livelihoods of 1.5 million smallholder farmers in the region.
The MoU was signed at IITA headquarters in Ibadan by Alain Sy Traoré, Program Director of the Soil Values Program, and Dr. Bernard Vanlauwe, Deputy Director General, Research for Development (R4D), IITA.
The partnership aligns with regional soil health frameworks, including the Lomé Declaration on Fertilizer and Soil Health (2023), the Nairobi Declaration (2024), and the ECOWAS Soil Health Roadmap (2023–2033). It also establishes a framework to operationalize collaboration at scale.
Under the agreement, the Regional Hub will align its 20 technical functions with the Soil Values Program’s nine strategic pillars. This enables integrated planning, shared data systems, and coordinated implementation across countries.
“I firmly believe that together we are far stronger than we are individually. This agreement deepens our collaboration and elevates our shared vision for soil health beyond individual initiatives, positioning us to drive impact at regional and global levels,” said Dr. Bernard Vanlauwe, Deputy Director General, Research for Development (R4D), IITA.
To date, the Regional Hub intentionally moderated its engagement in parts of the Sahel — including Burkina Faso and Niger. The goal was to avoid overlapping with Soil Values Program activities. The MoU resolves that constraint and clarifies roles and responsibilities. Now, both initiatives can confidently expand under a coordinated approach.
“In the past, we deliberately moderated the Hub’s engagement in the Sahel to avoid approaching the same stakeholders with overlapping agendas. This MoU resolves that potential confusion and allows us to move forward in a coordinated and coherent manner,” Dr. Vanlauwe added.
“The true value of this agreement is that it establishes an official, ongoing commitment between our institutions—regardless of leadership changes,” said Alain Sy Traoré, Program Director, Soil Values Program.
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