Food sovereignty in the Sahel and West Africa

In the Sahel and West Africa food and nutrition crises although they have relatively diminished in severity still persist. Despite all the policies and strategies that have been implemented food dependence on the outside world remains placing Sahelian and West African countries in a state of uncertainty. We believe that food sovereignty is the solution for the future. In 2001 Via Campesina an internationally renowned peasant movement defined food sovereignty as follows: Food sovereignty is the right of peoples to define their own food and agricultural policies to protect and regulate domestic agricultural production and trade in order to achieve their sustainable development goals to determine the extent to which they wish to be self-sufficient and to limit dumping of products on their markets. The countries of the Sahel and West Africa can achieve this by taking the following paths: political will the fight against climate change the transformation of Sahelian and West African agriculture etc.