CAADP 10 YEARS ON:
DIALOGUE TO IMPROVE IMPLEMENTATION, COORDINATION AND
ALIGNMENT WITH NATIONAL AGRICULTURE INVESTMENT PLANS (NAIP)

Statement by Her Excellency Tumusiime Rhoda Peace, Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture on the occasion of the Special Meeting of the Agriculture Development Working Group (ADWG) Leaders and CAADP Managers of NAIPs on Country Post-Compact and Investment Plan Implementation

VENUE: Medium Conference Hall
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Dates: February 11-13, 2013

Honorable Minister of Agriculture of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia;

Honourable Sam Sesay, Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of Sierra Leone;

Honourable Minister of the Republic of Mozambique;

Distinguished Representatives of Development Partners both from Headquarters and from countries;

Chair of the CAADP Partners Group, the EU;

Permanent Secretaries from AU Member States and their representatives;

Officials of the Commission of the African Union and the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency and other partner institutions

I welcome you most warmly and I present to you best wishes for a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

I wish to begin by registering the appreciation of the African Union Commission to the leadership of AU Member States - and especially the decision-makers at political level, particularly the Heads of State and Government and the Ministers and also the Leaders at technical level, notably the Permanent Secretaries, most of them represented here today. We applaud you for your personal contribution to the progress made in advancing agricultural development efforts in your respective countries and on the continent as a whole through the over-arching framework, the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP).

You really deserve to be commended because we know that advancing agricultural transformation through CAADP as an instrument was not easy in almost all AU Member States but you remained focused. For example, it was not automatic for countries to see the added value of CAADP and signing of Compacts and, therefore, this explained the initial slow buy-in from most Member States. I must say, though, that the experiences were diverse. Those countries that showed interest but raised a series of challenging questions on the efficacy of CAADP in their own efforts were later to become early and fast adopters while those that moved straight to embrace CAADP met challenges of advancing the efforts. Either way, it was no easy task but what is exhilarating is that Member States stayed the course and you were at the core of driving this process thereby demonstrating ownership and leadership.

And, as such, the lessons and experiences you created and accumulated have since shaped the current progress and with no doubt, the continent is on course to real transformation through agriculture. Bravo.

We are now proud of the fact that from 1 CAADP country compact in 2007 to now 40 compacts and most of these accompanied by credible national investment plans under implementation is a sign that the commitments that our Heads of State and Government made in 2003 in Mapuo, Mozambiqueare being taken seriously with your sustained support.

So, in reality, your countries’ experiences of CAADP implementation have not only shaped the progress registered in the last ten years but are also helping to clarify goals, actions and targets for the next decade.

On the whole, the performance of agriculture in our economies has recently been remarkable. However, we have to recognise the fact that we have yet to achieve the CAADP agricultural GDP growth target of 6 per cent and nearly a quarter of our populations are vulnerable to the challenges of malnutrition. We obviously need to sustain the momentum of raising agricultural growth, but also must ensure that we put in place a robust system of social protection that productively integrates vulnerable social groups into the growth agenda. I know that a number of AU Member States including the host, Ethiopia, have done this. Your guidance on this and other issues will be most welcome.
While significant progress has been made, we need to make sure that we build from this progress to actions and results and to create wealth, jobs and guarantee food and nutrition security through increased agricultural productivity, competitiveness, trade and as an instrument for regional and continental integration. Now that we are here together we would like to see how we can collectively and vigorously ensure that compliance by Members States and Regional Economic Communities to CAADP goals and targets gets heighted if we are to achieve the gains enshrined in the African agricultural transformation agenda. As Pan African Institutions, AUC, NPCA, RECs and others, we have noticed that we need to reach out more to foster better and faster compliance with the commitments made by our Heads of State and Government. This is part of our broader role and mandate.

In furtherance of this drive, the 2014 AU Year of Agriculture and Food Security declared in July 2012 and launched in January 2014 by the Assembly of the Heads of State and Government of the African Union was a huge opportunity by all Member States to determine that the next 6 months are used to effectively discuss inherent issues and propose concrete goals, actions and targets for advancing agricultural development for the next decade.

It is remarkable that the continued celebrations of the 50th Anniversary of the OAU/AU are going to overlap at least for the next six months, with the commemoration of the 2014 AU Year of Agriculture and Food Security. It is also remarkable that we commemorate the Year of Agriculture and Food Security at a time when we are deliberating on the thrust of the African Union Agenda 2063: “A Shared Strategic Framework for Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Development”. The agenda of agricultural transformation is strategically positioned to provide enormous opportunities for inclusive and sustainable development in Africa.
As stated by His Excellency Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, President of Mauritania at the launch of the Year, ‘‘for most of our countries, agriculture, indeed, constitutes the development battlefield where we can win the war on poverty, hunger and indignity’’.

The Chair of the Union further assured that ‘‘Agriculture has been and will continue to be at the centre of economic and also political stability in Africa’’. If this were not to be the case, hungry stomachs, unemployed youth and poor citizens would end up influencing hungry and poverty-induce anger and, thus, fuel more political conflicts in our countries. Food is a political issue. It is, therefore, imperative that for us to overcome most of these conflicts on our continent, we must invest in agriculture. Agricultural development will certainly also be complemented by industrialization. Nevertheless, as Africa pushes for industrilaisation to generate the desired benefits, we must remember that Africa’s potential and comperative advantage is, and will continue to be, in agriculture-based industrialization.

This is why we are meeting today as part of those commitments our leaders made recently. All African stakeholders and in equal opportunities are, therefore, requested and expected to be part of this broad-based dialogue. This meeting is part of the preparations for specific actions for the next decade and for consideration by our Leaders who will meet at the June/July 2014 Summit to make concrete decisions on agricultural transformation for the next decade in the context of the Africa Agenda 2063 premised on the 50 years of existence of the OAU/AU. It is, therefore, our responsibility to ensure that the views of stakeholders are solicited and submitted to be reflected in those decisions. The African leaders have launched a strategic “Public Campaign” to target all national stakeholders on the continent so that the people of Africa can learn and capitalize on the gains that have been realized and the progress made through CAADP.

During this consultative period, we must strengthen the partnership between CAADP outcomes and the Results Framework that will be outlined to you later in this meeting and with a commitment to measure results that will demonstrate impact on reducing hunger and malnutrition, creating jobs and raising incomes of our population and other critical issues.

We will also commit this period to conducting a well-facilitated dialogue with Africa’s strategic partners – to demonstrate more commitment to coordination, alignment, harmonization, of national priorities and ensure mutual accountability for the desired results and impact.

As you will notice from the agenda of the meeting, we need to make sure we discuss how to effectively implement our national investments plans so laboriously formulated. You did put in a lot; we must see how we can harvest results. We want to be concrete on what are the inherent issues and challenges but also propose concrete solutions. As countries, there are a lot of experiences and lessons that can be leant and shared amongst you and, therefore, your meeting today is as critical. Some of these will relate to how to concretely identify policy problems and put in place concrete policy actions to respond to them. Others will be on how to effectively establish and operationalize institutions for better service delivery and appreciating issues and challenges of inter- and intra-institutional coordination. More challenges have also been on donor coordination, harmonization and alignment to country priorities and commitments. This meeting, therefore, will help us to propose solutions to such issues and develop a guide to better support countries in their implementation efforts in a more robust fashion.

Since our focus is on implementation for results and impact, we will emphasize some key instruments to help us achieve this objective and will largely focus on monitoring and reporting progress in line with jointly agreed commitments and targets as well as mutual accountability. We will be discussing how instruments like the Joint Sector Reviews will better characterize our CAADP roll-out in countries to make sure that resources, policies and institutions get in better position to deliver these results and impact.
As I conclude, let me emphasise that the 2014 Year will be one that we should all seize as an opportunity to reflect on the journey we had taken together over the last decade or so, evaluate the current state of affairs, and chart the way forward for the next decade on the agenda of “Transforming Africa’s Agriculture for Shared Prosperity and Improved Livelihoods, through harnessing opportunities for inclusive growth and sustainable development”. This is the theme we have chosen for this year.
Transformation through sustained inclusive agriculture growth for shared prosperity and improved lives and livelihoods, as a key plank of Africa socio-economic development strategies in the next decade must address the concerns of:
a. Increased agriculture production, productivity and value addition;
b. Functioning agricultural markets at both national and regional levels;
c. Increased investment financing, both public and private, along structured agriculture value chains;
d. The challenges of ending hunger in Africa by 2025 as committed to by our Heads of State and Government; and
e. Building resilience to address vulnerability to risks.
These are packed; they need to be unpacked.
Such a structural transformation should not only enable Africa feed itself, but also contribute significantly to overall economic growth and job creation, and to turning the continent into a major player in the global agri-food economy.
As we look forward to our Ministers and later Heads of State and Government’s lively and productive debate on the theme come next Ordinary Session of the Assembly, we encourage and invite Member States and Regional Economic Communities to take a lead in organising actions and events as part of the yearlong commemorations and dialogue for the way forward.

Let me end here by thanking you for your attention and wishing you successful deliberations.