Alain Sy Traore is Director, Agriculture and Rural Development having been confirmed in July 2014. He was born on the 22nd of July 1969 in Burkina Faso.

Traore is a qualified engineer, holding an Ingenieur in Rural Development with specialisation in Agronomy at the Rural Development Institute, University of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso 1996. Earlier in 1995, he bagged a Maitrise in Rural Development & Technical Science also specialising in Agronomy from the University of Ouagadougou. Prior to that, in 1992, he had a Deug combining biology and geology in the faculty of Science and Technics, University of Ouagadougou.

Before joining ECOWAS Commission in 2008, Mr. Traore had over sixteen years’ experience as an advisor and project manager, affiliated with international agencies and institutions.

He began his career at ECOWAS as Head of Division, Production chains & Markets of the Directorate of Agriculture and Rural Development. Over the years as the Directorate’s focal point, he handled files on budgetary planning, reports, representation and negotiation with donors and technical partners.

Apart from project formulation and monitoring, Traore is among others, charged with coordinating all of the activities of the Directorate and implementation of performance-based budgeting.

Added to these is the responsibility of mobilising funds for the implementation of ECOWAP as well as coordination of the support of technical and financial partners to the ECOWAP.