Agricultural e-Gov platform in Africa: how MEDIANET designed a regional data hub for CILSS (ECOAGRIS)
What is the CILSS ECOAGRIS portal?
Launched in October 2025, the integrated CILSS portal with ECOAGRIS is a regional digital platform designed to centralize, analyze, and share agricultural data across several West African countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Chad, and Togo.
Its goal is to improve strategic decision-making regarding food security by placing data at the core of public agricultural policies.
What is MEDIANET’s role in this project?
MEDIANET, a recognized leader in digital transformation and e-gov in Africa, was selected following an international call for tenders to design and develop this data-driven platform aiming to:
- Ensure the interoperability of agricultural systems
- Structure multi-country data flows
- Enable strategic and decision-making data exploitation
Why is this project strategic in Africa?
This project serves as a key lever for digital transformation in West African agriculture, allowing stakeholders to:
- Structure a regional agricultural information system
- Improve public governance
- Strengthen food security
- Facilitate coordination between States and international donors
Context: Digitalizing agriculture at a regional scale
Facing critical challenges in food security, climate change, and agricultural data governance, CILSS launched a structuring project aimed at creating a regional agricultural e-gov platform that functions as a multi-country digital hub capable of transforming agricultural data into a strategic decision-making lever.
The challenge: transitioning to data-driven agricultural governance
The project had to address several major challenges:
- Agricultural data fragmented across countries and institutions
- Lack of a centralized system
- Lack of decision-support analytics tools
- Complexity of regional coordination
- Need for an interoperable and scalable platform
The primary objective was to move from a siloed approach to data-driven regional agricultural governance.
The solution: a data-driven & interoperable e-Gov platform
MEDIANET designed a comprehensive digital architecture structured around several pillars:
1. Integrated CILSS portals
- Single entry point for the ecosystem
- Access to programs, resources, and data
- Multi-profile optimized UX
2. ECOAGRIS: agricultural information system
- Data collection and centralization
- Analytical dashboards
- Decision-support tools
3. Interoperability & Data Exchange
- Connection to national systems
- Secure APIs and data flows
- Format standardization
4. Governance & security
- User role management
- Protection of sensitive data
- Access traceability
5. Tech stack & expertise mobilized
- E-Gov platform development
- Open Data & Data Platforms
- Workflow Management
- API & system integration
- UX/UI Design
- Hosting & evolutionary maintenance
Results: measurable impact & structural transformation
Regional impact
