BACKGROUND
It all began in March 1987 with a meeting between the directors of fifteen francophone agricultural research institutions of West and Central Africa and Madagascar and their colleagues from French agricultural research institutions namely, the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD), the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) and the Office de recherche scientifique et technique d’Outre-Mer (ORSTOM) now the Development Research Institute (IRD). Together they formed the Conference of African and French leaders of agricultural research institutes (CORAF). The first Executive Secretary of CORAF was Bernard Bachelier and the headquarters of the conference based in Paris. It was during the third Plenary of the institution, held in 1990, in Antananarivo, Madagascar, that the decision to transfer the Secretariat to Dakar, in Senegal, was taken. Another decision, equally important, was taken during this third Plenary: to open CORAF to research institutions of English-speaking and Portuguese-speaking countries and to adopt the principle of regular scientific evaluation of scientific cooperation tools. Lastly, CORAF adopted the charter of Associative Research Networks and Base-Centres and opened up to policy and decision makers, following a Conference of Ministers responsible for agricultural research in West and Central Africa. In March 1992, the Conference was held in Dakar; the Ministers recognized CORAF as a sub-regional organization and approved its Strategic Plan. Four years later, in 1996, the Conference of Ministers of Agriculture in West and Central Africa followed suit by recognizing it as the technical instrument of its research policy. It was in 1995, that the research institutions of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Gambia, Sierra-Leone, Cape-Verde and Guinea Bissau joined CORAF. Consequently, the institution became the Conference of Leaders of Agricultural Research in West and Central Africa. In February 1997, in Bamako, Mali, together with two other sister subregional organizations of sub-Saharan Africa, it established the continental organization, Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA). It was in 1999, that CORAF took on its present name: the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF/WECARD). It has, among its highest authorities, Civil Society and Private Sector. The 15-year Strategic Plan (1999-2014) of CORAF/WECARD adopted in 2000 was reviewed and amended in 2003. Its revision was furthered and expanded during a process which began in November 2006 involving all the stakeholders of the Organization. The new strategy took account of the orientations of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP)) of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the African Union (AU), the objectives of agricultural policies of the Regional Economic Communities and principles of the FARA-led Framework for Africa Agricultural Productivity (FAAP). Economic and GIS Studies, followed by seven international workshops resulted in the development of a new Strategic Plan (2007-2016), and an operational plan (2007-2011) for the first phase of implementation. Both plans were approved in May 2007, in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, by the special General Assembly of CORAF/WECARD, during the 20th anniversary celebrations of the Organization.