CAADP should address food security in Africa - Kagame

14 Dec 2009

KIGALI: Africa has identified the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) as the avenue for addressing the challenges of food security, but both the donors and African governments are yet to fulfill their commitments to CAADP, said Rwandan President Paul Kagame at the start of the two day high-level meeting on CAADP late last week.

In 2003, African leaders signed up to CAADP through which they agreed to allocate ten percent of their national budgets to agriculture and to pursue six percent average annual growth rate at the national level in the agricultural sector.

“Neither Africa nor the development partners have achieved the targets that were set up in 2003,” said Kagame. “There are substantial gaps between pledges and targets. We simply have no option, but to succeed with the CAADP and we all need to re-commit to what is required of us. We need to act on how each country can invest in CAADP and on how partners can support these investments.”

The president was speaking at the start of the Rwanda Post-CAADP Compact High Level Stakeholder Meeting that focused on reviewing the achievements registered so far by Rwanda in terms of the CAADP agenda and also on how to kick-start investments into the country's agricultural sector through the Rwanda Agriculture Sector Plan (PSTA 2) and the related Investment Plan.

“As you all know the hunger situation in Africa is worrying. The World Hunger Report for 2009 indicates that most countries in sub-Saharan Africa are food stressed,” said Tumusiime Rhoda Peace, the Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, at the African Union Commission. “However, excellent outcomes are being witnessed in some countries such as Rwanda, Malawi and recently Sierra Leone which have made significant progress in meeting the CAADP targets.”

The commissioner also stressed that through CAADP at the African Union level, working with RECs, much emphasis will be given for the key element of country-led food and nutrition security strategy, as the alignment of development assistance with the national policy priorities in all AU member states.

The complete speech of the commissioner is available on www.Africa-union.org.

The meeting brought together various policymakers, donors and representatives from the African Union (AU), the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), and other international organisations.

As a programme of the African Union, NEPAD works closely with African governments to implement CAADP, a framework to accelerate economic growth and boost food security through greater investments in agriculture.

According to a review of the Rwanda Investment Plan, Rwanda has increased public spending on agriculture and farmers are also responding positively through increased production and productivity. Still, the country is faced with a close to US$300 million financing gap that needs to be addressed if the country is to maintain the current successes.

Gayle Smith, the special advisor to President Barack Obama of the United States reiterated the US Government's commitment to CAADP.

“We will succeed if we match word with deed,” she advised. She went on to highlight that this success will have to go hand-in-hand with the principles of mutual accountability, engagement, transparency and real tangible commitments to African agriculture.

Speaking on behalf of the development partners, Nick Dyer the director of Policy at the UK's Department for International Development also called upon the donors to step-up to the challenge of taking real action in terms of supporting agriculture in Africa.

Hartwig Schafer, the director of Strategy and Operations and Sustainable Development at the World Bank, reiterated the bank's support to agriculture in Africa through short-term relief and medium-term investments all of which fits in well with September Pittsburgh meeting through which the G20 leaders called upon the World Bank to increase agricultural assistance to low-income countries.

The bank is also supporting CAADP through the recently established US$50 million Multi-Donor Trust Fund which is being used to build the capacity of African institutions to lead and implement the CAADP agenda.

The African Union through its programme of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) works to raise the amount and quality of food that Africa produces, in order to make families more food-secure and exports more profitable. To do this, NEPAD brings together all the organisations involved in Africa's agriculture - and helps them voice their needs and co-ordinate their work. The framework guiding this work is CAADP, developed and led by African nations. Established as part of NEPAD, CAADP was endorsed by the African Union Assembly in July 2003.