Validation workshop of the implementation strategy and roadmap for the AU Malabo Declaration opens in Addis Ababa

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – November 17, 2014: The African Union Heads of State and Government, at their 23rd Ordinary Session of the Assembly in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, tasked the African Union Commission (AUC) and the NEPAD Planning and Coordination Agency to lead the design of an Implementation Strategy and Roadmap (IS&R) that facilitates the translation of the 2025 Vision and goals of the Africa Accelerated Agricultural Growth and Transformation into concrete results and impact.
Taking the task head on, the AUC, through its Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture (DREA), and the NPCA, are hosting the validation workshop for the IS&R.
The two-day meeting is expected to review the Malabo Declaration commitments, the draft IS&R, and its linkage to the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Results Framework 2015-2025, to share the initial inputs to the strategy provided by AU member States and the feedback on the draft strategy from the thematic expert groups, as well as to review, examine and validate the key elements of the draft IS&R.
Officially opening the workshop, REA Commissioner, H.E Rhoda Peace Tumusiime, informed the participants drawn from AU Member States, the private sector, farmer organizations, civil society, NEPAD, Regional Economic Communities, and development partners, that ISR would provide guidance for systematic, coordinated and harmonised multi-stakeholder and multi-partner implementation arrangements to meet the Malabo commitments. She said it was also aimed to strengthen the systemic capacity of African institutions to implement results-based policies and programs for attainment of the desired results and impact.
“This will be fundamental to realise the vision of a transformed African Agriculture by 2025; the agriculture that will be characterised by its ability to achieve prosperity for improved livelihoods of African citizens; the agriculture that will create jobs for many, particularly youth and women; the agriculture that will provide the example of facilitating a faster intra-African trade; the agriculture that will make most of Africa households resilient to external shocks; the agriculture that will end hunger and contribute to poverty reduction by 2025,” stressed commissioner Tumusiime. “These among others, will characterise the agriculture we want by 2025 in the context of Africa Agenda 2063.”
By adopting the Malabo Declaration, AU leaders committed themselves to a set of actions that would accelerate agricultural growth and transformation across Africa. The Declaration was a recommitment to the principles and values of the CAADP process by the African Union following the 2003 Maputo Declaration as well as additional commitments and targets.
Specifically, they committed to:
 the principles and values of the CAADP process and the 2003 Maputo Declaration
• Including, among other things, the pursuit of agriculture-led growth, cooperation, partnerships and support of country/regional level implementation.
 enhancing investment finance, both public and private, in agriculture
• Allocating at least 10% of public expenditure to agriculture, supporting private investment, and fast-tracking the operationalization of the African Investment Bank.
 ending hunger in Africa by 2025
• Doubling agricultural productivity levels and halving Post-Harvest Losses by 2025, increased agricultural productivity with social protection initiatives, and eliminating child under-nutrition in Africa by 10% and underweight to 5% by 2025.
 ensuring agricultural growth contributes at least 50% to the overall poverty reduction target to:
• Sustain annual agricultural GDP growth of at least 6%;
• Public-private partnerships for at least five priority agricultural commodity value chains;
• Create jobs for at least 30% of youth in the agricultural value chain; and
• Support preferential entry of women and youth in agri-business.
 tripling intra-African trade in agricultural commodities and services
• Tripling intra-African trade in agricultural commodities by 2025, simplifying current trade practices, fast-tracking Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) and transition to a continental Common External Tariff (CET) scheme, increasing investment in markets and trade infrastructure, promoting multi-actor interactions, and promotion of an African common position on agriculture-related international trade negotiations and partnerships.
 enhancing resilience of livelihoods and production systems to climate variability and related risks
• Ensuring that at least 30% of vulnerable farm, pastoral, and fisher households are resilient to climate and weather related risks by 2025, enhancing investments for resilience building initiatives, and mainstream resilience and risk management in our policies, strategies and investment plans.
 mutual accountability to actions and results
• Conducting a biennial Agriculture Review Process, aligning multi-sectorial efforts and multi-institutional platforms, and strengthening national and regional capacities for knowledge and data generation and management.
 strengthening the AUC to support delivery on the commitments
 an expedient process of translating the commitments into results
The draft IS&R will be presented to the AU Policy Organs in January 2015 for consideration and adoption.
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For more information contact:

Mr. Boaz Keizire
African Union Commission
E-mail: KeizireB@africa-union.org

Ms. Carol Jilombo
African Union commission
Jilomboc@africa-union.org
For further information contact
Directorate of Information and Communication | African Union Commission I E-mail: dinfo@african-union.org I Web Site: www.au.int I Addis Ababa | Ethiopia

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