The supreme organ of the Network is the General Assembly; members are the country representatives (one from the public and one from the private sector) of the present member countries.

They are the focal points for transfer of technology, technical development, and regional coordination and information exchange.

The National Coordinators are responsible for initiating, supporting, and maintaining the regionally-approved actions within his/her country where a National Network exists.

The General Assembly of WASNET is scheduled to be held every two years in one of the member countries.

The Steering Committee is composed of 4 elected members (2 from public and 2 from the private sector). The Steering Committee members are elected in a manner that when a Francophone is elected as president, the vice will be an Anglophone and vice versa and when a public sector personnel is elected as a president, the vice will be from the private sector and vice versa. The Steering Committee meets once a year.

Members of the Board of Directors of WASNET are a representative of IITA (implementing institution); of GTZ (executing institution), of CSIR (hosting institution) and of CORAF/ WECARD (regional agricultural policy body). The Board of Directors was formed by the first General Assembly to handle policy related issues that are beyond the scope of the Network Steering Committee.

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) with its long experiences of management of networks in the region provides the technical and scientific management including the regional coordinator for WASNET. The Coordination office serves the Steering Committee and the General Assembly, and coordinates all WASNET activities. It keeps records, reports on network activities, maintains network communications, publishes the Newsletter, provides guidance, supports and technical backstopping to individual countries/lead countries in all regional activities, follows-up and supports network projects by Lead Countries, consultants, etc.

List of activities currently under implementation (by Lead Countries)

• Study seed certification schemes in the region ( Benin)
• Prepare a regional catalogue of seed and field standards ( Burkina Faso)
• Study varietal release mechanism in the region ( Cote d’Ivoire)
• Study seed policies in the region ( Gambia)
• Prepare a directory of available seed in the region ( Ghana)
• Study seed laws in the region ( Niger)
• Prepare regional variety catalogue ( Nigeria)
• Study seed import and export regulations in the region ( Mali)
• Statistics on real needs and production of seed in the regional ( Senegal)
• Prepare a regional directory of seed industry participants ( Togo)

WASNET aims to include all countries in West and Central Africa. However, currently the network is limited to Benin, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo as members. Other countries are on the way to join in near future.

STRATEGIC PLANNING WORKSHOP [Fren][Eng]