AU Demands More Focus on National Agriculture Investment Project.

By Tandong Ccalistus Jong

In Libreville, Gabon

    The African Union Commission has urged member states to accelerate the implementation of the national agricultural investment plans in order to achieve the CAADP/Malabo goals and targets. 

The call was made at the 14th Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Partnership Platform (PP) meeting, recently organised by the African Union Commission (AUC) and the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency (NPCA), in Libreville, Gabon.  

      Opening the meeting, Gabonese Prime Minister, H.E Emmanuel Issoze Ngondet acknowledged the importance of countries mutual accountability as indicated for in the Biennial Review Report. 

     On her part, the African Union Commission Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, H.E Josefa Sacko, urged African member states to continue to champion the implementation of agricultural investments at national and Regional levels. 

    To her, this would facilitate the creation of policies and enable environment to allow for evidence-based action plans to be implemented by various stakeholders. Africa still spends around US$35 billion each year on food imports. This number may rise above US$110 billion by 2025 due to rapid population growth, changes in dietary habits and the increasingly severe impacts of climate change.  So in order to achieve the commitment of ending hunger in Africa by 2025, Africans have to make every effort to triple intra-African trade in agricultural commodities and services, which is one of the goals of the 2014 Malabo Declaration. Compared with other world regions, intra-African food trade is dismally low. 

    According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the world population will reach 9.1 billion by 2050, and to feed that number of people, global food production will need to grow by 70%. For Africa, which is projected to be home to about 2 billion people by then, farm productivity must accelerate at a faster rate than the global average to avoid continued mass hunger. 

   The first African Union Biennial Review Report on Malabo implementation, and the NAIPs Toolkit, was launched and distributed to participants during the 14^thCAADP PP as working tools for Member States with Regional Scorecards showing that, only two regions are On track (Eastern & Southern Africa Regions) why three are Not on track (Central, Northern & West Africa Regions) and the report also revealed that only 20 of the 47 Member States that reported are on track towards achieving the commitments set out in the Malabo Declaration.

    Rwanda led the top 10 best performers with a score of 6.1, followed by Mali (5.6), Morocco (5.5), Ethiopia (5.3), Togo (4.9), Malawi (4.9), Kenya (4.8), Mauritania (4.8), Burundi (4.7), and Uganda (4.5). With more than 300 million young Africans due to enter the job market over the next 15 years, there is an urgent need to focus on agriculture as a source, not just of food, but also of employment and economic growth.

"The African Continental Free Trade Area: Moving African integration further forward".

by Dr Ibrahim Assane Mayaki

Twenty years ago, I hoped for an Africa that would draw closer and forge forward boldly, despite a bag of mixed fortunes. Rwanda had just been blighted by genocide; the ubiquitous coup d’état still reared its ugly head in West Africa; although a tentative calm prevailed in Central Africa, political tensions simmered below the surface; Zaïre was in the throes of the ‘first Congo war’; the civil war in Somalia grew in magnitude and intensity; Ethiopia began an experiment in state-led macroeconomic planning; a democratic South Africa rose from the ashes of Apartheid, a veritable validation of the OAU’s ultimate goal of political liberation for Africa.

An interim period of positive change ensued, a growth fuelled by new media including the Internet, greater multiculturalism and a stronger attachment to democratic principles.

In March 2018, 44 of the 55 African Union Heads of State and Government enacted the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement (AfCFTA) in Kigali, Rwanda at its 10th Extraordinary Session, under the able leadership of H.E. President Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger, with H.E. President Paul Kagame of Rwanda as current AU Chairperson and H.E. Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson of the AU Commission. Once in force AfCFTA will be the largest trade zone in the world, increase intra-African trade by 52% by the year 2022, remove tariffs on 90% of goods, liberalise services and tackle other barriers to intra-African trade, such as long delays at border posts. 

The end of colonialism in the early 1960s created 55 African countries which cut arbitrarily across ethnic, cultural and traditional boundaries. They established the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) to promote unity and solidarity on one hand yet emphasised territorial sovereignty on the other. This hamstrung the OAU insofar as national affairs were concerned, and helped create regional economic blocks or communities (RECs) in the mid-1970s.

RECs engendered political and economic integration. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the East African Community (EAC) signed agreements for the free movement of goods, services and people. There are now 8 AU-recognised RECs and a number of sub-regional bodies that are actively pursuing Africa’s integration agenda.

In 1991 the Abuja Treaty established the African Economic Community (AEC), building on RECs for integration. At the 2001 OAU Summit, African Heads of States and Government adopted the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) as a further vector to accelerate African economic co-operation and integration. The Summit recognised the importance of OAU input into REC programme planning and implementation. In 2002, the Constitutive Act of the AU was adopted in Lomé, Togo, formally replacing the OAU.

These milestones show that African economic integration is best pursued on a regional basis. Rethinking Africa’s priorities is urgently called for. In this regard Agenda 2063, a consolidated strategy for sustained political and economic integration and prosperity, was launched by African Heads of State and Government at the 50th Anniversary of African Unity in 2013. Agenda 2063’s first Ten-Year Implementation Plan (2013-2023) draws heavily on NEPAD’s experiences. Beyond these broad strokes in development priorities and programmes, African development must be translated into concrete action.

While business and consumer confidence have improved, investment, trade and productivity have not. This has a direct impact on both foreign and domestic investments in Africa, particularly in infrastructure. As the world’s second-fastest growing region, Africa holds much promise for those willing to invest time to study our local economies and identify opportunities presented by a booming middle class with an endless appetite for consumables.

Although the Africa Report 2017 shows that virtually all countries plan large infrastructure projects and understand the need to industrialise, Africa cannot afford to be an ‘investment risk’ for infrastructure projects that advance sustainable inclusive development.

To this end, the AU-NEPAD Continental Business Network (CBN) continues to de-risk infrastructure projects in order to attract financing, especially through Pension and Sovereign Wealth Funds. In September 2017, NEPAD and the CBN initiated an Africa-led and Africa-owned campaign to increase African asset owners’ contributions to African infrastructure from approximately 1.5% of their assets under management (AUM) to 5% of AUM. By using financial resources available on the continent and strengthening public-private partnerships, infrastructure investments should increase. The CBN has called for a more strategic engagement with domestic institutional investors in support of this campaign.

The AfCTA, is a monumental step for Africa; another significant milestone in Africa’s integration process. I have to however aptly point out that the AfCFTA was signed in Kigali the capital that experienced complete turmoil some 24 years ago but is now poised to become the futuristic “Wakanda.”

Dr Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, a former Prime Minister of Niger, is the current CEO of the African Union’s NEPAD Agency.

"Niger Hosts Conference On Restoration Of Deforested Land".

The second African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative meeting held in Niamey, September 26-28, in partnership with the Government of Niger. 

The event, organised by NEPAD Agency in its role as AFR100 Secretariat and supported by BMZ, IUCN, World Resources Institute, WRI, the World Bank and the Global Landscapes Forum, GLF. African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative, AFR100, Annual Partnership Meeting, is an annual continental forum which brings together leadership from 24 AFR100 partner countries, restoration champions, private sector operators, Regional Economic Communities, RECs, Farmers’ Organisations, Civil Society and technical partners from around the world. The meeting aims to engage participating countries in harmonising and reaching the goal of restoring 100 million hectares of degraded and deforested land by 2030.

AFR100 connects political partners — participating African nations — with technical and financial support to scale up restoration on the ground and capture associated benefits for food security, climate change resilience, and poverty alleviation. This year’s theme: “Common Ground for Action – From Commitment to Implementation”, seeks to raise the level of awareness of the importance of restoration, review success stories and enhance a greater level of participation of the public and related agencies in the environmental sector which is critical, following the launch of the AFR100 Initiative in 2015 and the emphasis placed by African countries on Forest Landscape Restoration, FLR. AFR100 will accelerate restoration to enhance food security, increase climate change resilience and mitigation and combat rural poverty.

AFR100 responds to the African Union mandate to bring 100 million hectares of degraded land into restoration by 2030. It complements the African Landscapes Action Plan, ALAP, and the broader LDBA programme of the African Union. AFR100 contributes to the achievement of domestic restoration and sustainable development commitments, the Bonn Challenge, and New York Declaration on Forests among many other targets.

The initiative directly contributes to the Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs, and the Paris Climate Agreement. It builds on the experience and progress achieved through the TerrAfrica Partnership and related landscape restoration efforts.

Tandong Calistus Jong 

Niamey, Niger 

 

“Non-State Actors Strategizes to Boost Agriculture in the Continent”

The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program Non-State Actors Coalition (CNC) members were speaking in Kigali, Rwanda, during their first General Assembly, which spanned from September 13 to 14, 2017 held under the theme: Mobilizing Civil Agency for Africa’s Agricultural Transformation.

Non-Stakeholders at the General Assembly also harped on creating more awareness on the importance of investing in high value nutritive foods and agricultural commodities in order to promote nutrition and food security on the continent, facilitate dialogue among Farmers’ organizations, private business entities and Africa’s academic and research institutions, deliberating on options leading to developing of continental action plan to ending hunger and malnutrition and share best practices and innovations to women’s empowerment, among others. 

The CAADP Non-State Actors Coalition (CNC) is a Continental Coalition that was established in 2014 with the sole aim of satisfying the need for increased and more structured engagement of Non-State Actors (NSAs) in the implementation processes of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP). Accordingly, the CNC was founded on three very well-focused cardinal objectives: creating awareness on CAADP among NSAs for their improved involvement in CAADP implementation at all levels; advocating for policy reforms towards effective CAADP implementation in line with the Malabo Declaration, and; strengthening coordination among NSAs in the CAADP process.  

Towards ensuring the realization of CNC’s noble objectives, several strategies and frameworks have been designed, and are progressively being deployed to facilitate NSA engagement in the CAADP process. The progress made by the CNC in articulating Non-State Actors voice in CAADP implementation processes at all levels cannot be overemphasized. In fact, despite its current formative stage of development, the CNC has progressively asserted itself as a veritable partner in the CAADP process, by increasingly developing programs that complement the efforts made by the African Union Commission, the NEPAD Agency, Member States and Development Partners. As part of this, the coalition has been working across the continent to help deepen the impact of CAADP implementation through different programs and initiatives.

It has done that through sensitization and capacity building activities to create awareness on CAADP, progressively instituting national Platforms Program at the country level, convening Pre-Meetings to the yearly Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Partnership Platform (PP) meetings as well as participating in relevant decision-making and consultative forums with other CAADP Partners. These activities have effectively strengthened coordination between the coalition and other CAADP stakeholders, especially the AUC/ NPCA towards deepening NSAs perspectives in the CAADP implementation process.

TANDONG CALISTUS JONG

Kigali, Rwanda

   

"African Forest Stakeholders Want Sustainable Forest Management"

African Forest stakeholders have pressed for the sustainable management of the continent’s forest.

       The African Forest actors were speaking in Accra, Ghana, during a five day regional workshop organized by the African Forest Forum, AFF, in collaboration with Forestry Research Institute of Ghana, FORIG.

     The workshop, which spanned from July 10 to 14, 2017 held under the theme: “Sharing knowledge and experiences on public and private sector development in forestry and response to climate change and trans-boundary forestry issues”.

   The African Forest Forum is a pan-African non-governmental organization with its headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya.

      It is an association of individuals who share the quest for and commitment to the sustainable management, use and conservation of the forest and tree resources of Africa for the socio- economic wellbeing of its people and for the stability and improvement of its environment.

    The purpose of AFF is to provide a platform and create an enabling environment for independent and objective analysis, advocacy and advice on relevant policy and technical issues pertaining to achieving sustainable management, use and conservation of Africa’s forest and tree resources as part of efforts to reduce poverty, promote gender equality, and economic and social development.

Through all its programmes and activities, AFF seeks to promote the empowerment of all marginalized groups particularly women who continue to be vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and whose representation, priorities and needs are rarely adequately addressed in the forestry sector. AFF with funding from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) is implementing two projects namely “African Forests, People and Climate Change” and “Strengthening Sustainable Forest Management in Africa” respectively.

     Both projects seek to generate and share knowledge and information through partnerships in ways that will provide inputs into policy options and capacity building efforts in order to improve forest management in a manner that better addresses poverty eradication and environmental protection in Africa. Notably, the public and private sector development in forest products industry and role of African forestry private sector in response to climate change remains critical. 

     In this regard more information and knowledge is needed to enable African governments design policies and programmes that would support and strengthen linkages and partnership between public and private sector in forestry.

     There is also need for information to guide African countries to promote integrated and cooperative management of trans-boundary forests, water resources, pests and disease surveillance and international trade in forest products. It is on this understanding that AFF commissioned 21 national studies on public and private sector development in forest products industry in Africa, covering the following countries: Niger,   Burkina Faso,  Senegal,  Nigeria, Ghana,  Kenya,  South  Africa,  Sudan,  Cameroon,  the  Democratic  Republic of   Congo,   Gabon, Uganda,   Mozambique,   Tanzania,   Zambia,   Zimbabwe,   Madagascar,   Rwanda, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire,   and the   Republic of Congo. The AFF workshop brought together over 80 participants drawn from private and public forest sector; governments, non-governmental organizations,  research,  academia,  media  institutions, youth and women based organizations on forestry and climate change in sub-Saharan Africa.

By TANDONG CALISTUS JONG in Accra, Ghana

African Leaders Exhorted for Stronger impact on agriculture!

African leaders have been called upon to assure more accountability on agriculture. The call was made at the 13th Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Partnership Platform (PP) meeting organized by the African Union Commission (AUC) and  the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency (NPCA) from May 31 –June 2, 2017 in Kampala, Uganda under the theme: ‘Strengthening Mutual Accountability to Achieve CAADP/Malabo Goals and Targets’. The meeting called for stronger accountability on continental commitments on agriculture,  and for the realization of the AU Malabo commitments on agriculture through mutual accountability for results and impact. Officially opening the 13th Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Partnership Platform meeting, Ugandan State Minister for Agriculture, Hon. Christopher Kibanzanga assured the meeting, Uganda was committed to mutual accountability saying, “We are here for accountability, we are implementing the Malabo Declaration commitments and we are focused on agriculture to transform our country to a middle income economy. Speaking at the opening session, the AUC’s Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, H.E Josefa Sacko, said “With the awareness that the Malabo Declaration sounded a call for action towards delivery of results and impact, we should, jointly and as individual actors and as Member States, respond to this call through a focus on implementation of concrete actions on the ground and report on progress attained.” The AU Business Plan for CAADP-Malabo implementation, the AU Agribusiness Strategy and Country Agribusiness Partnership Framework, were further launched; as tools to support Member States to mobilize private sector investments in country agriculture, proposing the right coordination mechanisms of the key stakeholders and accounting for actions.

Commissioner Sacko urged all stakeholders to support AU Members States to produce credible biennial review reports, on the basis of which the continental report will be produced, emphasizing that, “Renewed partnerships built on mutual accountability will help governments, the private sector, civil society, farmers and farmers organizations as well as development partners to deliver on results and impact for a transformed Agriculture to reach the targets set by the Malabo Declaration. In addition, the AUC’s Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture (DREA) Director , Dr. Godfrey Bahiigwa emphasized that, The continental biennial report will be based on validated country reports by all stakeholders, including governments, civil society, the private sector and development partners. The theme of this year’s CAADP PP speaks volumes. We are noting with satisfaction that for the first time in history, African leaders have set themselves up for checks and balances to be instituted in Africa’s collective agricultural development efforts, through the Malabo Declaration. Indeed, calling for a Biennial Review mechanism to be put in place to track performance and report progress, both by countries and collectively as a Continent, gives us cause for hope for a better future of governance in Africa,” said Mrs. Estherine Fotabong, NEPAD Director of Programmes. Giving a keynote presentation during the opening session, Dr. Agnes Kalibata, President of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), underscored the role of agriculture in driving inclusive economic growth. “Agriculture is Africa’s surest path to prosperity. Achieving meaningful agriculture transformation requires strong coordination between partners in a countries-led process,” she said. “AGRA is delighted to work with the AUC and the NEPAD Agency in supporting countries to meet their Malabo Declaration commitments which are key to the success of the transformation push,” she added.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the world population will reach 9.1 billion by 2050, and to feed that number of people, global food production will need to grow by 70%. For Africa, which is projected to be home to about 2 billion people by then, farm productivity must accelerate at a faster rate than the global average to avoid continued mass hunger. African governments and other stakeholders have been urged to encourage the youth to embrace agriculture and to let them understand that they could make money from the sector and its value-chains. It should be recalled that the Malabo Declaration requests the African Union Commission (AUC) and the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency (NPCA) in collaboration with partner institutions to:   develop mechanisms that will enhance Africa’s capacity for knowledge and data generation and management, to strengthen evidence based planning and implementation; institutionalize a system for peer review that encourages good performance on achievement of progress made in implementing the provisions of the Declaration and recognize, biennially, exemplary performance through awards;   conduct, on a biennial basis (beginning in 2017), an Agricultural Review Process and, furthermore, launch a process of reporting on progress made, to the AU Assembly of Heads of State and Government with the Inaugural Biennial Report expected at the January 2018 Ordinary Session of the AU Assembly of Heads of State and Government. The 13^th CAADP PP, brought together over 400 leaders from African Governments, including parliamentarians from AU Member States, leaders from international organizations, development partners, private agribusiness firms, farmers, NGOs and civil society organizations.

BY TANDONG CALISTUS JONG

Kampala, Uganda.