Special Page Front Page

Key Note Address delivered by H.E Tumusiime Rhoda Peace Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture African Union Commission at the 2nd African Union Private Sector and Agribusiness Forum 5-7 November 2014 Kigali, Rwanda

Honourable Madam Geraldine MUKESHIMANA Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Republic of Rwanda (MINAGRI),

Honourable Mr Tony Nsanganira, Minister of State in charge of Agriculture

Honourable Mr. François KANIMBA, Minister of Trade and Industry,

Honourable Mr. Francis GATARE, Chief Executive Officer, Rwanda Development Board,

Excellences, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is with honour and pleasure that I address you this morning on the 2nd African Private Sector Forum being organised by the African Union Commission in close collaboration with the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency and the Government and the of the people of Republic of Rwanda, our gracious host.

It is indeed encouraging to have this important forum for the African domestic private sector engagement in African agriculture transformation and seek alignment of global private sector partnerships in our continental drive. The African Union values this forum because of the pivotal role that we know the private sector will play in complementing the public sector in advancing African agricultural transformation in the coming decade.

Once again, we would like to extend our sincere appreciation to the Government of the Republic of Rwanda for the active and supportive role you played in putting this event together and for hosting us here in your beautiful city of Kigali. Your demonstrable commitment to the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) process and continued support to the African Union is highly commended and admired. This meeting is in fact one of the key highlights of the 2014 AU Year of Agriculture and Food Security also marking the 10th anniversary of CAADP under the theme “Transforming Africa’s Agriculture for shared prosperity and improved livelihoods: Harnessing Opportunities for Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Development”.

Ladies and Gentlemen, as we are all aware, Agriculture continues to be the key sector for economic development on the African continent, with the agricultural sector accounting for 60-80% of employment, 15-20% of total exports, and 30-40% of GDP. Since most households in Africa depend directly on agricultural operations for their livelihoods and food security, sustained agricultural growth is crucial not only for reducing hunger and malnutrition on the continent but also as a key instrument for our socio-economic development in terms of job creation, improved incomes that guarantee economic growth and shared prosperity. Hence the importance of agriculture cannot be over emphasised and it has been established that returns on investment in agriculture are far higher than in any other sector. We are, therefore, pleased to see the private sector demonstrating interest in investing in agriculture because it makes business sense.

In commemoration of the 2014 AU Year of Agriculture and Food Security, the African Union Commission (AUC), the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency together with other Pan African Institutions, carried out broad based consultations with key stakeholders, including AU Member States, producers, women and youth organizations, and development and technical partners across the continent to review, strategies and set goals, actions and targets for the next decade to 2025 as part of Sustaining our CAADP Momentum.

The climax of the 2014 AU Year of Agriculture and Food Security was marked during the Twenty Third Ordinary Session of the AU Assembly in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, from 26-27 June 2014 during which the Heads of State and Government (HS&G) of the African Union renewed their commitment to CAADP and adopted the Malabo Declaration on Accelerated Agricultural Growth And Transformation for Shared Prosperity And Improved Livelihoods (Doc. Assembly/AU/2(XXIII) . I would like to ensure that all participants here have a copy of this Declaration.

In the Malabo Declaration, African leaders adopted the seven key commitments comprising the AU vision for agricultural transformation in the next decade to 2025 for the Africa Accelerated Agricultural Growth and Transformation (3AGT) focusing on:

(i) upholding the Principles and Values of the CAADP Process
(ii) Enhancing Investment Finance in Agriculture
(iii) Ending Hunger in Africa by 2025
(iv) Halving Poverty by the year 2025, through Inclusive Agricultural Growth and Transformation
(v) Boosting Intra-African Trade in Agricultural commodities and services
(vi) Enhancing Resilience of Livelihoods and Production Systems to Climate Variability and other related risks.
(vii) Commitment to Mutual Accountability to Actions and Results

It is also in the same regard that the AU Assembly tasked the AUC and NEPAD Agency to develop an Implementation Strategy And Roadmap (IS&RM) that facilitates translation of the 2025 vision and goals of Africa Accelerated Agricultural Growth and Transformation into concrete results and impacts, and report to the January 2015 AU Policy Organ Meetings in Addis Ababa for consideration and adoption.

This process is in advanced stages, and it involves the participation of all major stakeholders, including all of us herein gathered to contribute to the development of this Strategy and Roadmap. As we speak, national level consultations are on-going in AU Member States, some of which you might have already been required to also contribute given the value addition you bring in into this drive.

Ladies and Gentlemen, while we remain determined and focused on the African defined, owned and led vision, we are also cognisant of the fact that the future growth on our continent will be impacted on by external trends such as the global race for commodities, among others. With world food production expected to rise by 40% over the next 30 years, Africa will definitely be an important part of the global solution. This is, therefore, an opportunity that Africa must seize.

Also, the analysis made by FAO has indicated that for the world to meet the needs of 9 billion people in the year 2050, the world needs to invest an additional $83 billion on average annually in developing countries’ agriculture. Based on soaring population rates and rising living standards, food production will need to almost double by 2050 in order to satisfy the global demand. From a market perspective, agribusiness is poised for unparalleled global growth and this merits private sector investment to complement public financing in capturing this opportunity for shared prosperity.

In the same context, we are also aware that by 2050, Africa will be home to one- fifth of the world’s population. As you may be aware, not only does the African continent have the world’s fastest growing population but also has the youngest and we should take advantage of this dividends unleashed by the youth budge. This rapid population growth, coupled with a strong trend towards urbanization, among other mega trends, poses a huge challenge but also an economic opportunity for food security and markets. It calls for modernisation and the private sector can play a leading role in this and harness the skills of the youth to drive this.

Once again, considering the recent opportunities realised in the CAADP implementation, with several countries not only having signed Country Compacts but also developed their National Agricultural and Food Security Investment Plans opening up opportunities in the sector-wide development requiring additional financial investments, we are all convinced that only through creative collaboration and public-private partnerships shall we be able to attract adequate and appropriate investments in the agricultural sector that will lead to contribute to our agenda to create the required wealth for African citizens. That is why we are here together.

However for us to achieve these noble goals, we need to transform the agricultural sector. We need to provide the required resources and support our youth and women in the sector to take advantage of the golden opportunities. It is imperative that we treat agriculture as a viable and profitable business. At the same time we need to change our attitude in the way we take agriculture. It should no more be seen as a profession for the less unfortunate but as a niche for prosperity for all, where, for example, we can produce the food that can save the continent form spending the current US40 billion annually on food imports.

Having realised an increasing number of private sector firms that continued to seek strategic business options to partner with African governments and development partners to sustainably support Africa’s agricultural transformation agenda, there is need to scale up and replicate these efforts in a sustainable and all-inclusive manner. And we are sure that together we can get there. Ensuring a food and nutrition secure, poverty free Africa is also a sure way of retaining Africa’s dignity and that is one of the aspirations of the founders of the OAU 50 years ago. That is when we can talk of Pan Africanism and African Renaissance.

Hence, the year 2014, the AU Year of Agriculture and Food Security remains an important milestone in our Agricultural transformation and an opportunity to be seized by all partners in our collective resolve to uphold agriculture and food security as a priority for policy, actions and investments to generate concrete results and impacts on the ground.

We need to diversify our capacities by providing the required incentives for our youths to view agriculture as a profitable venture and to make them competitive by building their capacity to enable them access the available investment resources, production capital and markets and be formidable part of the agricultural value chain.

We have also noted in recent times a good number of youths showing willingness to partner in the various endeavours in the agricultural transformation initiatives. In this regard, we call on our governments once again to continue to create the necessary conducive environment with institutions and policies that foster public private partnership and a level playing field for our youths to continue to engage in this drive.

Ladies and Gentlemen, if we are to take agriculture as a business, then it has to be financed. Unless it is funded to play its role, it will not be able to contribute the much-needed rewards and other multiplier effects on improved food, nutrition, jobs, wealth and social welfare that all citizens of AU Member States are aspiring for. Hence, we must continue to explore catalytic systems of finance and investment options that respond to our local needs, the requirements for our youths and women in general and meet their demands, to energise them further to sustain the momentum for agricultural transformation towards shared prosperity.

Hon Ministers, Ladies and Gentlemen, as we are all aware, our private sector is very diversified but we do not want to see any more our private sector being characterised by marginalisation or fragmentation and its operations being uncoordinated. And, considering that agriculture is multi-dimensional and multi-sectoral, multi-stakeholder collaboration and support remains critical to define the kind of architecture that brings together our private sector in a way that it can coherently engage our governments and partners in the policy and strategic planning processes that also respond to the demands of the transforming sector and modernising continent.

It is good for you and for Africa that opportunities are created for an organised and functional multi-stakeholder agriculture private sector platform that will champion its cause and will respond in a more proactive, coherent and sustainable way, to the investment opportunities I have just outlined.

Also, in recognising the multi-sectoral and multi-institutional nature of the agriculture sector, we need to accord high priority to the critical role played by our women and youths and support them to unleash their potentials to the fullest in driving the agriculture and agribusiness sector and related industry forward.

As the African Union Commission, we will continue to pursue mutually beneficial long-term relationships that we see building between the private sector and our governments that will be based on mutual understanding of incentives, roles and expectations of the public and private sectors for the benefit of African citizens, first and foremost. We will continue to consolidate our efforts in a way that creates win-win situations for all partners and attain shared objectives.

We will also work with our governments and partners to move beyond fears that the private sector is solely associated with exploitation of situations for profit and that the public sector is viewed as inefficient. We will work with all of you to improve trust between public and private sectors by designing transparent partnerships that allow for long-term economic and social value creation with the understanding that the private sector will continue to look at the long-term return on investments and, synergies that would accrue potential benefits for all stakeholders.

As I conclude, permit me once again to say that this forum is happening at an opportune moment as the recommendations and the outcomes here will help to shape the proposed Implementation Strategy and Roadmap that I talked about, to be considered for adoption by the AU Policy Organs come January 2015 that will chart the way forward for Africa’s Agriculture transformation in the next decade.

Once again, as the African Union Commission, we have recommitted ourselves to fostering the CAADP momentum to deliver in an accelerated manner for positive changes towards prosperity that directly impact on livelihoods of African citizens through an inclusive agricultural transformation process.

Thank you and I wish you fruitful deliberations.

Statement by H.E. Dr. Aisha L. Abdullahi, Commissioner for Political Affairs, African Union Commission at The High Level Seminar on the Impact of Conflict on the Rights of Women and Girls in Mali : What Partnership with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR)

Delivered on Her Behalf by
Dr. Salah S. Hammad
Human Rights Expert

Bamako, Mali
28 October 2014

Statement of the African Union Commission Chairperson, HE Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma to the
Meeting on Ebola with the UN Secretary General, World Bank President, delegations from the AfDB and EU Commission

Tuesday 28 October 2014, Small Conference Room 3
AU Conference Centre

 
Excellency, the UN Secretary General Mr. Ban Ki Moon
Excellency, President of the World Bank Dr. Jim Yong Kim
Representatives from the EU Commission, the African Development Bank, the Islamic Development Bank and the UN Family
AUC Deputy Chairperson Erastus Mwencha and fellow Commissioners
AU Directors
Ladies and Gentlemen
We are meeting here at a time when our sisters and brothers in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone are facing grave challenges, as they fight and battle the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), which over the last few months so abruptly halted their path towards development and reconstruction.
The disease, which is not new to the world, and its manifestations in these countries, has caught us by surprise. With the wisdom of hindsight, our responses at all levels - continental, global and national – were slow, and often knee jerk reactions that did not always help the situation.
A few months into this crisis, and based on the experience gained, we know much more and are confident that we must, that we can and that we will, defeat this disease.
We just returned from a visit to Ghana, Cote D’Ivoire Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, along with my brothers Carlos Lopes from the UNECA and Donald Kaberuka from the ADB. During this visit, we met the Presidents, Cabinet Ministers and National Ebola response teams, and in Sierra Leone, with their Parliament.
Wherever we went, we were humbled by the efforts, the determination, the courage and the resilience of the peoples and governments of these countries. They informed us of the multi-sectoral plans they are implementing, with the support of the international community, on treatment, contact tracing, public health education and managing the burial of loved ones.
At the same time, they were very frank about the huge gaps and challenges they face, and therefore on the need for the African Union and the international community to do more, and do it faster.
But we also learnt that Ebola can be prevented, that you can recover from Ebola and that all of us can contribute to the fight against Ebola. We should not give in to the impression of panic that it cannot be prevented or that once you are infected, that it is a death sentence; we can stop transmission and with early treatment, many can survive and have.
Ladies and Gentlemen
Since the first African Ministers of Health meeting in April 2014, which resulted in Member states that previously dealt with the Ebola Virus Disease, sending experts to the countries concerned, the AU’s focus remains on the mobilization of health workers and experts to aid the affected countries.
Africa, right from its days of fighting colonialisation, have relied on solidarity, believing that one country can’t be free, if all Africa is not free. We therefore call on this African solidarity, that no country will be free and healthy, if one country still faces Ebola.
The Peace and Security Council decided in August to send a humanitarian mission to the affected countries. The African Union Support to the Ebola Outbreak in West Africa (ASEOWA) was launched, and the first teams of volunteer health workers sent to Liberia and Sierra Leone, with a further team to Guinea by the end of this month.
Based on this initial deployment, it was clear that we need much greater numbers of health workers, and we appealed to the Heads of State and Government to volunteer more.
We are greatly encouraged by the response of over 1000 health workers pledged to date: from ECOWAS, the East African Community, the DRC, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and others. This is in addition to the in-kind and financial support already provided and pledged by Member states to the governments of the three countries.
We call on other Member Stats that have not yet responded, to do so in the spirit of solidarity. Every African country must send health workers, no matter how small the number, because in the spirit of solidarity it gives strength to our brothers and sisters in the three countries, that we are with them in this fight
We now have to work with the governments concerned and with our African and international partners to ensure that we raise the resources to ensure the effective deployment of these health workers as soon as possible in the three countries. I am glad that we had the discussions with the UNSG and the President of the World Bank this morning on this matter.
Ladies and Gentlemen
We are also mobilizing other sectors of the African communities, such as the African business sector; we are talking to the Confederation of African Football and the cultural sector, to do their bit to contribute towards this joint effort of solidarity. We will be meeting African business on 8 November 2014 in Addis Ababa. We believe that the mobilisation of all sectors of African society for this solidarity efforts are critical, we cannot only rely on our governments.
Since the Emergency Executive Council of the AU of early September 2014, we worked tirelessly to break the isolation of the countries, so that we have flights resuming to Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, with effective screening procedures. We already discussed this matter with Ghana, the Chair of ECOWAS, and with Cote d’Ivore, who has already resumed flights to Guinea and soon to Sierra Leone and Liberia.
As we said at the occasion of the session of the Council: we must not create more adverse conditions for the countries affected than what the disease is already wreaking on them. We will therefore continue work in this regard, including with shipping companies and countries who are refusing docking for ships that have been to the three countries, often to drop much needed supplies and goods.
Finally, working with our African strategic partner institutions, the UNECA and the ADB, we are also looking beyond the Ebola crisis, to ensure that there are plans in place to enable the countries to swiftly recover, and to once more get back on track on the road to ensure development for their people, integration with the continent and shared prosperity for all.
Let me conclude by thanking our partners who are here today at the AU Headquarters, the UN Secretary General, the World Bank President, and representatives from the EU Commission, the ADB and the Islamic Development Bank.
I thank you

MESSAGE BY H.E. DR. AISHA L. ABDULLAHI
COMMISSIONER FOR POLITICAL AFFAIRS
AFRICAN UNION COMMISSION

ON THE OCCASION OF THE COMMEMORATION OF THE AFRICA HUMAN RIGHTS DAY

UNDER THE THEME:
“HUMAN RIGHTS FOR ALL, FOR A PEACEFUL AND SECURE AFRICA”

21 OCTOBER 2014
ADDIS ABABA - ETHIOPIA

The African continent has witnessed decades of numerous human rights challenges resulting from a diverse range of factors, which include, inter alia, war, poverty, impunity, corruption, autocratic governance. It is against this background that Member States of the then Organization of African Unity (OAU), solemnly resolved to promote and safeguard freedom, justice, equality and human dignity in Africa by putting in place instruments to enforce these values.

The African Human and Peoples’ Rights System with its various instruments and mechanisms paved the way for the advancement of human rights promotion and protection in Africa. It also led to the creation of strategic measures to accelerate the attainment of respect for the right to development as well as measures to assist Member States to respond to development as a human rights issue. Such instruments have an undeniable moral force and provide practical guidance to States in their conduct. The value of the African Union Human and Peoples’ Rights Instruments and Mechanisms rests on their recognition, acceptance and effective implementation by Member States and indeed they may be seen as declaratory of broadly accepted goals and principles within the African Community.

The protection and promotion of Human Rights are keys for sustainable development on the continent and are an integral part of the African Shared Values. The promotion and protection of human rights has been a priority for Member States of the African Union and has been articulated as a priority in a number of the AU Instruments and Pronunciations. The principles and objectives of the AU’s Constitutive Act of 2000 emphasise the need to promote and protect human rights on the continent. This Act includes a number of provisions placing human and peoples’ rights on top of the agenda of the organization. In its Article 3 (h), the Act states that African leaders are determined to “promote and protect human and peoples’ rights in accordance with the African Charter on Human and

People’s Rights and other relevant human rights instruments”. In Article 4 (m), the Act commits African leaders to the “respect for democratic principles, human rights, rule of law and good governance”.

The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) was adopted by the OAU on 27 June 1981 and entered into force on 21 October 1986, a day which is celebrated annually as the Africa Human Rights Day. This instrument forms the foundational stone for the African Human and Peoples’ Rights System. The African Charter is unique to other regional human rights instruments in that it not only covers internationally accepted human rights norms and standards, but also recognizes the values and principles that are unique to the African continent. It covers Civil and Political Rights, Economic Social and Cultural Rights, Peoples' and Group Rights as well as a set of duties of the individual to society.

The Africa Human Rights Day is an opportunity for AU Member States to affirm their commitment to the fight against impunity in Africa in conformity with Article 4(h) of the AU Constitutive Act which authorises the Union to intervene within each Member State in cases of war crimes, genocide, mass atrocities and crimes
against humanity. It is on this basis that commemorating Africa Human Rights Day is an opportunity to urge all African Union Member States to honor their obligations under the African Human and Peoples’ Rights System and take all necessary measures to ensure the respect, promotion and protection of all human rights.

This year’s theme of “Human Rights for All, for a Peaceful and Secure Africa” is timely and pertinent. Implicit in the theme is the recognition, on the one hand, that Africa still faces huge challenges of conflict, instability, poverty and diseases; but on the other hand, the theme is reflective of a ray of hope that through the promotion of human and peoples’ rights in Africa, sustainable peace and development can be achieved.

As we commemorate Africa Human Rights Day this year, I wish to reflect on the Decision of the African Union Summit (Assembly/AU/Dec. 423 (XIX)), which mandated the African Union Commission, in close consultation with the AU

Members States and the Regional Economic Communities, to identify Africa’s priorities for the post-2015 Development Agenda. This was followed by the Summit Decision (Assembly/AU/Dec.475(XXI)), of May 2013, which decided to establish a High-Level Committee (HLC) of Heads of State and Government to sensitize and coordinate the activities of African leaders and build regional and inter-continental alliances on the Common African Position (CAP) on the post-2015 Development Agenda.

The CAP highlights substantive issues of importance to Africa and arrives at a consensus on Africa’s key priorities, concerns and strategies to be reflected in the outcomes of the post-2015 negotiation process. The CAP identifies Africa’s development priorities which are grouped into six pillars as follows: (i) structural economic transformation and inclusive growth; (ii) science, technology and innovation; (iii) people-centred development; (iv) environmental sustainability natural resources management, and disaster risk management; (v) peace and security; and (vi) finance and partnerships. Indeed, the post-2015 Development Agenda presents a unique opportunity for Africa to articulate its common priorities, opportunities and challenges.

Going beyond the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), it is important to tackle the necessary instruments and mechanisms required for a new set of wider goals. It is also important to bring the right of the African people to development to the forefront of the negotiations as a human rights issue in order to achieve the social and economic rights stipulated in the global and continental human rights instruments.

Another challenge to note at this point is the lack of political will by the development partners to take full responsibility for addressing the right to development as a human rights issue. In fact, in many cases the debate is not on whether development is a right or not, but it aims at responding to the controversial question of whether development and economic and social rights are competitive or complementary goals. Therefore, the efforts by the AU Members States to develop the Common African Position on post- 2015 Development Agenda, is an accurate conception, which treats the right to development as an economic and social right.

Today, we are all witnesses to the international trend where the indivisibility and interdependency of human rights has become the norm. The notion of justiciability of economic, social and cultural rights which divided the world during the years of the Cold War, is beginning to be embraced by many countries. The concepts of the right to development and the right to peace, hitherto regarded as mere academic talk, have today been admitted as indispensable to the effective enjoyment of all human rights. Africa indeed can and has led the way in shaping the international human rights discourse.

On another hand, I wish to report that the Department of Political Affairs is relentlessly pursuing the implementation of the Action Plan of the Human Rights Strategy for Africa, which was adopted in 2011. The key objective of the Strategy is to address current weaknesses within the human rights system in Africa, as well as to bring about convergences and synergies in the workings of the human rights institutions and actors on the continent. The Strategy focuses on Transitional Justice to deal with issues of post conflict reconstruction, peace and development. The Department of Political Affairs is collaborating with the relevant AU Organs, partners and other stakeholders to finalize the development of an AU Transitional Justice Policy Framework for Africa, which will be endorsed during the June Summit of 2015.

As we commemorate the Africa Human Rights Day, I wish to seize this opportunity to express my sincere condolences to bereaved families and those affected by the Ebola outbreak in the western region of Africa. At the same time, I wish to express appreciation to all who have worked and continue to address this serious health problem with its devastating socio-economic and political ramifications.

The time has come for all stakeholders promoting and protecting human rights on the continent, and in particular, Member States, to take stock of what they have done to establish a culture of respect for human rights on the continent, and what they can do to enhance the enjoyment of human rights and peace in Africa. It is important to bear in mind that there is no peace without respect for human rights, and security and development can only thrive where there is durable peace.

The level of responsibilities varies from one stakeholder to another, but we should always commit ourselves both individually and collectively towards

“Human Rights for All, for a Peaceful and Secure Africa” in the spirit of the

Africa Agenda 2063, Africa’s long-term development vision over the next fifty years.

I thank you.