As part of the activities being implemented through the Italian contribution to the FAO Trust Fund for Food Security and Food Safety, several projects in different countries and regions are following a common strategy. In West Africa this Programme, “Food Security through Commercialization of Agriculture” (FSCA), or «Programme Italien pour la Sécurité Alimentaire» (PISA), was conducted in a group of seven countries (the Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Senegal, and Sierra Leone), in addition to a Regional Coordination project based in Dakar. The Programme has been financed with an overall budget exceeding USD 21 million. The FSCA/PISA was designed and implemented as a pilot scheme, incorporating innovative elements from the design phase onwards:

- considering the incorporation of smallholders in value chains with the aim of transforming subsistence agriculture into commercial agriculture;

-developing the market demand-led approach, focusing on marketing commodities in order to improve the food security of the rural populations;

- adopting a regional dimension, homogeneously steering the countries of the same region, namely West Africa.