112 Rebuilding West Africa’s food potential
An important characteristic of the Plan was its sector-wide approach involving all the agencies and
actors in the consultations for the design and participation of the supervision and implementation of its
activities. The Plan established a Steering Committee with membership of all the principal stakeholders
including relevant government agencies and Ministries POs. One of the priority areas of the Steering
Committee was therefore to enhance the development of POs so as to make them viable economic
units to strengthen their bargaining power and enable them to link up with regional groups.The Steering Committee operates as a multi-stakeholder platform where members can raise, discuss
and resolve issues and bring feedback back to the constituents. The SC is also supported by SAKSS,
whose membership is comprised of representatives from policy and knowledge institutions as well as
Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and the private sector. SAKSS is also linked with West Africa’s regional
platform ReSAKSS. A secretariat and policy dialogue fora also supported the Steering Committee. The
Steering Committee was working towards the formulation of a communications strategy to enhance
prioritizing METASIP and integrating it into plans and budgets of state and non-state actors.Like many other recent programs, METASIP has also adopted a value chain approach with a view
to bring on board all operators and their activities in agricultural value chains to enhance efficiency,
competitiveness and inclusiveness in order to promote transforming smallholder farmers toward a
commercial orientation to modernise and improve their business’s profitability. This required formulating
strategies and approaches to integrate smallholder farmers in the value chain and to develop POs.
They included encouraging the evolution of POs at the grassroots level and intensifying out-grower
schemes. The Government of Ghana has also developed a policy to provide a framework for Public-
Private Partnerships (PPPs) and, with the support of donors, the Ghana Commercial Agricultural Project.
Its objectives are to improve the investment climate for agri-business and developing inclusive PPPs and
enhance smallholder linkages in selected value chains. One key challenge to the implementation of
METASIP includes the mobilisation of funds to enable civil society organizations to to participate actively
and play their expected role in the METASIP process.