Your Excellencies, Honourable Ministers, Distinguished Delegates, Partners, Youth Representatives, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good morning.

Allow me to start with warm regards from the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, H.E. Mahmoud Ali Youssouf. On his behalf, it is both a privilege and a solemn duty to welcome you to the 21st CAADP Partnership Platform Meeting and the 16th Edition of the Africa Day for Food and Nutrition Security. Today is both a gathering defining moment for Africa’s agricultural future. We meet here in Kigali, a city that symbolizes what is possible when commitment, vision, and collective action align. Rwanda’s performance in all the CAADP Biennial Reviews is living proof that transformation happens when political will is matched with practical implementation.

H.E. President Paul Kagame once said, “Agriculture is not just about food. It is about dignity, prosperity, and the future of our continent.” This captures the heart of why we are here. Agriculture is the backbone of Africa’s economies, the soul of our communities, and the pathway to shared prosperity. The African Union’s 2025 theme “Year of Reparations: Justice for Africans & People of African Descent through Reparations” gives our work deeper meaning. Reparations are about righting the wrongs of the past; transforming the present and securing a future built on dignity, sovereignty, and justice.

Fifteen years ago, our Heads of State and Government declared Africa Day for Food and Nutrition Security in Kampala, driven by a simple but powerful conviction: that Africa must feed itself, and no child should go to bed hungry. We have made important progress since then. Political commitments have deepened. Regional coordination has strengthened. Innovation has expanded. Yet the challenge before us remains urgent and profound. More than 280 million Africans face hunger today, and nearly one in five children is stunted due to chronic malnutrition. Africa accounts for over half of the global increase in undernourishment, while climate change threatens to reduce agricultural yields by up to 20 percent in some regions by 2050.

The economic stakes are equally high. Food inflation has exceeded 30 percent in some countries. If current trends continue, Africa’s food import bill could surpass USD 150 billion annually by 2030, weakening fiscal space and undermining sovereignty. Malnutrition already costs African economies up to 11 percent of GDP each year, holding back development and human potential. These statistics represent children’s futures, farmers’ livelihoods, and the well-being of communities across the continent.

This is why the 2025 theme of reparations resonates powerfully with our mission. Africa’s food systems bear the deep imprint of a history shaped by colonial extraction and structural inequities. True reparative justice must therefore also mean reclaiming control over our food systems, restoring the dignity of our farmers, and creating fairer trade and investment pathways. Reparations are not only about financial restitution; they are about empowering Africans to build sovereign, resilient food systems that serve our people first.

This year’s CAADP Partnership Platform coincides with the adoption of two landmark frameworks: the CAADP Kampala Declaration and the CAADP Strategy and Action Plan 2026–2035. These frameworks lay out a bold and practical vision for the future of Africa’s agrifood systems, ensuring that food security, nutrition, and food safety remain central to the continent’s development agenda. They chart a transformative path that places inclusion, innovation, and accountability at the core of action. This is particularly symbolic as this gathering is the last under the Malabo era.

A crucial part of this transformation is protecting Africa’s agricultural biodiversity. Globally, 75 percent of crop diversity has disappeared over the past century. Africa is home to more than 2,000 indigenous crops, yet only a few dominate markets and value chains. This erosion weakens our resilience to drought, pests, and climate shocks, and undermines both nutrition and cultural heritage. Revitalizing neglected and underutilized species is not nostalgia but a strategic imperative for adaptation, sovereignty, and nutrition security.

Food security, therefore is a technical issue as well as a question of justice. No nation can be truly free if it cannot feed its people. This is why we must centre the smallholder farmers, women, and youth who produce more than 70 percent of the food consumed on the continent. These communities have borne the brunt of systemic exclusion and climate pressures. Empowering them with access to finance, technology, and fair markets is both a moral and economic necessity.

To turn commitments into results, my 100-Day Action Plan endorsed by the 6th Ordinary Session of the Specialised Technical Committee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment provides a concrete roadmap. It focuses on soil mapping and fertility management to build stronger foundations for food production; fertilizer development to reduce dependency; seed bank development and biodiversity protection to safeguard our genetic wealth; blue economy promotion to harness inland and coastal resources; and climate resilience building to ensure our systems endure shocks. This plan will be advanced through close collaboration between Member States, Regional Economic Communities, development partners, civil society, and the private sector.

Ending hunger and malnutrition is a development priority as well as a matter of justice and dignity. The CAADP PP Meeting provides a space to align political leadership with technical solutions, to forge financing coalitions, and to advance a shared agenda grounded in African agency. We cannot afford to delay. By 2050, one in every four people in the world will live in Africa. Our agrifood market will be worth more than USD 1 trillion, representing both a tremendous opportunity and a serious responsibility. If we act boldly, with vision and unity, we can build a resilient, just, and sovereign food system that nourishes every African and transforms our continent’s place in the global economy.

Let us make this decade the turning point. Let us ensure that the Year of Reparations is as symbolic, as is catalytic: a moment when Africa reclaims its food systems, restores dignity to its people, and sets a course for a just and prosperous future.

Thank you for your kind attention.