May 10, 2017, Yaoundé, Cameroon – The African Union Commission in collaboration with the NEPAD Planning and Coordination Agency (NPCA) are committed to strengthening commitments to mutual accountability for results and impact towards the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) and the AU 2014 Malabo Declaration on Africa Accelerated Agricultural Growth and Transformation (3AGT).
Mutual accountability for results and impact is a key determining factor for Africa’s development as pointed out in the AU 2014 Malabo Declaration which contains seven key commitments on agricultural transformation, which the AU Heads of State and Government committed to, and in turn tasked the AUC and NEPAD Agency to lead the establishment of the Biennial Review (BR) Mechanism for regular country progress reports to the AU Assembly.

The Biennial Review Mechanism aims to provide a platform for mutual accountability, and peer review that will motivate increased performance by AU Member States to deliver on targets set by the Malabo Declaration, through a well-designed, transparent and performance based Monitoring and Evaluation and Biennial Sector Reporting to the AU Assembly that will in turn trigger evidence based planning and implementation for the expected agricultural growth and transformation in Africa; and ultimately lead to the Africa We Want , as embodied in the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and in particular, to Aspiration 1 of Africa’s Agenda 2063; a prosperous Africa based on inclusive growth and sustainable development.

Following a broad consultation process, the AUC/NPCA, working with Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and technical partners developed a set of 43 indicators based on the Malabo commitments and will have Member States reporting the progress every two years, beginning with a report to the African Leadership in January 2018.

Consequently, the AUC and NEPAD Agency have been capacitating Regional Economic Communities by holding training workshops to provide information on the Biennial Review Mechanism and to train Member States on the technical guidelines to track progress towards the Malabo targets which involving standard country performance-reporting templates.
So far, four trainings have been conducted in West Africa, East Africa and Southern Africa. The fifth training opened today for the Central African region in collaboration with the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).
The training for the preparation of the Biennial Review Report of the Malabo Declaration on Accelerated Agriculture Growth and Transformation in Africa for central African states scheduled from 8th -12 May was officially opened by Mr. Patrick Mvondo Nna , the Secretary General in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of the Republic of Cameroon. The five day training workshop, brought together members of the ECCAS namely: Chad, Angola, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Sao Tome and Principe, and Burundi as well non-Member States such as Madagascar, Comoros and Djibouti.
In his opening remarks Mr. Mvondo Nna reiterated the important task of operationalizing the commitment taken by the AU Heads of State three years ago in Malabo. The process, Mr. Nna added, would enable evaluate the progress in the transformation of Agriculture since the Declaration was made in 2014.
Mr. ABAKAR Mohammed, Head of Agriculture and Food Security at ECCAS also echoed the importance of the workshop in equipping Member States with skills that would enable them understand the parameters and carry out the evaluation at country level.
The African Union Commission representative Mr. Lorka Maurice, thanked all the stakeholders for their active roles in organizing and attending the workshop. Mr. Lorka also thanked partners including AGRA, ReSAKSS and AfricaLead for their support in organizing the training as well as the Government of Cameroon for hosting the event. Mr. Lorka emphasized the key role of Member States in leading the development of Country Reports for the biennial review of the Malabo Declaration implementation.
The next training is slated for Northern African countries during the quarter.

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For more information please contact:

Mr. Maurice Lorka
African Union Commission
Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture
N'Guessanp@africa-union.org

Ms. Carol Jilombo
African Union Commission
Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture
JilomboC@africa-union.org