CAADP processes register tremendous progress in transforming agriculture

This was revealed today by Hon Vangelis Haritatos, Zimbabwe’s Deputy Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water, and Rural Resettlement at the Rainbow Towers Hotel in Harare in his welcome remarks at the 20th edition of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Partnership Platform (PP), and the commemoration of the 15th Africa Day for Food and Nutrition Security (ADFNS) along with the associated Malabo Policy Learning Event (MAPLE).

The three noble events will discuss the nexus between nutrition, food systems, and education, as well as strengthening agri-food systems in Africa in preparation for the upcoming Post Malabo Agenda.

“Since the birth of CAADP through the Maputo Declaration of 2003 followed by the Malabo Declaration of 2014, tremendous progress has been made by the member states in transforming agriculture despite facing various challenges including the effects of climate change, pandemics, geo-political conflicts, global recession, and so on. Whilst the challenges have had a huge impact on the trajectory of the agricultural revolution in Africa, they have also imprinted adaptation strategies through which CAADP gained its momentum.

“In our efforts to be resilient and develop transformative agri-food systems to feed Africa as member states, we implemented CAADP in our different capacities and positive results have been achieved and for that, we must applaud ourselves. However, successive Biennial Review Reports have revealed that all member states have not been on track to achieve CAADP commitments. Distinguished delegates, today we therefore gather to reflect on our achievements for the past two decades and to reflect on them,” Hon Haritatos said.

In a Fire Side Chat titled “Reflections on the performance of the Member States and Regional Economic Communities (RECs), 2015-2022”
,  Joel Okwir, an agricultural economist with the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA), said they have made progress and a great improvement on the CAADP biannual review (BR) process.

“We have collectively implemented several measures to address some of the challenges faced under CAADP. One was the continuous engagement of the covered focal points at the national level, but also other stakeholders. We had to go as far as engaging the technical experts from the statistical agencies in the member states so that we could have a more robust team that would be able to provide the data that would be more accurate and inclusive.

“So we also had with our partners, AUC, and other technical partners, to do capacity building for the focal points. And then also the training specifically for the focal point for data collection. So to address the relevant issues and enhance the ownership, we have a more robust team,” he said.

 

“We came up with the regional agriculture investment plan (RAIP)  in 2017, which is what we are working on. We have been using it as a vehicle to implement and by extension, but also as a vehicle for resource motivation. Now, in terms of the objectives, they very much align, as I said. So we’ve got programs for improving agriculture and competitiveness, markets and trade, private sector investments, and then a reduction of social and economic vulnerability to natural disasters and climate change issues.

“We are using the regional agriculture investment plan to generate resources, which we are using in the main product. We’ve been successful. We’ve got quite several flagship programs that we run, one in climate change. We have come up with several projects in member states, including climate-smart agriculture,” Samikwa said.

 

SADC has funded programs in fisheries, and other multi-million dollar projects that have come up as a result of the strategy under the regional agriculture investment plan.