Salutations and welcome
 H.E Jessica Alupo – Vice President of the Republic of Uganda
 Colleague Ministers of Agriculture, and Foreign Affairs from the AU Member States
 Your Excellency Amb. Josefa Sacko, African Union Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Development, and your team,
 Representatives of the African Union Institutions
 Representatives of Regional Economic Communities
 Our Development Partners,
 The Media, and
 Distinguished participants

Good morning!
I welcome you all to this second day of the Summit and allow me to first appreciate you all for the eventful discussions we had yesterday during the session of the Ministers of Agriculture.
In a special way, I wish to thank Her Excellency Jessica Alupo- Vice President of the Republic of Uganda for sparing time to be with us today.
Her Excellency has been with us on this journey since February 2024 when the decision to host this Summit in Kampala was made. She has since then been a champion of CAADP in Uganda, and for that, we give
you a round of applause.

During yesterday’s session of the Ministers of Agriculture, I reminded the session that we have little time remaining to achieve the targets we set ourselves in the African Union Agenda 2063. Therefore, it is important that we move into implementation mode of the various strategies and action plans if we are to realize the aspirations of Agenda 2063. It is only through execution of these wonderfully crafted ideas that
we are discussing today that the CAADP can have a meaningful impact on our people.

As I welcome you to this session therefore, I call upon you colleagues to not only advance practical ideas for the transformation of our agricultural sectors and the complementing sectors but also call on you and, through you your respective Heads of State and Government to support implementation of the CAADP Strategy and Action Plan by embedding them into our national development plans, and interventions
by the development partners.

During today’s joint session of the Ministers of Agriculture and Foreign Affairs, the Report of the Ministers of Agriculture, underpinned by the draft CAADP Strategy and Action Plan 2026-35 and Kampala Declaration, will be presented. We are looking forward to very interactive discussions and enriching insights from today’s joint session.

I thank you and wish you fruitful deliberations today noting that the outcomes of these engagements will feed into the Heads of State and Government summit tomorrow.

Thank you