The launch of the 4^th Biennial Review (BR) report marks the end of a rigorous 4^th cycle of the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Biennial Review (BR), a  mutual accountability mechanism that tracks progress of the African Union (AU) Member States (MS) in implementing Agriculture Transformation Agenda, it involves a highly participatory data collection, analysis, and learning process that enable countries track, measure and report progress against the Malabo declaration goals.

Presented by Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, who is also the CAADP Champion and endorsed by the assembly of African Heads of State and Government during the 37^th  Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union Heads of State and Government on 17-18 February 2024, the report captures Africa’s agricultural progress on the implementation of the June 2014 Malabo Declaration on Accelerated Agricultural Growth and Transformation for Shared Prosperity and Improved Livelihoods.

Coupled with the launch of the Post-Malabo Agenda Development process Roadmap, with the realisation that the 10-year Implementation action plan of the Malabo Declaration that came into force in June 2014 comes to an end in 2025; the results in the report indicate that despite a significant effort in the implementation of the Malabo Declaration the continent remains largely off-track to achieve the Malabo targets by 2025.   The development of the Post Malabo Agenda provides an opportunity to validate the theory of change, relook at the commitment and outline an agenda, strategy and targets for the next 10 years. The Post Malabo Agenda is expected to retain the strengths of the CAADP agenda adapt to new challenges, like building sustainable food systems, dealing with climate change, and becoming more resilient to various risks and shocks.

In her opening remarks, Her Excellency Ambassador Josefa Sacko commended Member States for collecting credible data despite some existing challenges that need to be addressed to effectively monitor and report on the progress towards the achievement of Malabo goals and the AU Agenda 2063 aspiration on increasing economic growth through agriculture-led development of elimination of hunger and poverty reduction. “Africa committed itself to track progress through the CAADP Biennial Review Process across the seven Malabo commitments highlights country performance against the 46 indicators, however, the results in the 4^th BR cycle indicate that no country is on track to meet all the seven Malabo commitments, although, 26 countries have seen their scores improve since the 3^rd BR Cycle, as such more efforts is needed for us to achieve the Malabo goals by 2025.” she stated.

She further noted that the CAADP Malabo Declaration of June 2024 comes to end by 2025 with less than two (2) years to achieve the objectives set out in the Declaration. Consequently “We need a robust and an evidence-based post-Malabo Roadmap to guide the identification of key priority and targets that will double the acceleration of agricultural transformation on the continent” . The African Union’s post-Malabo approach is to retain CAADP's key principles of African ownership and leadership, inclusiveness, evidence-based taking into consideration the food systems approach while continuously adapting to changing contexts, in the face of climate change and unforeseen shocks.

H.E Ms Nardos Bekele-Thomas, the CEO of AUDA-NEPAD stated that CAADP has been pivotal to the AU Member States in actualising the vision of agricultural transformation that was reinforced with the Malabo Declaration in 2014, with the aim to ensure wealth creation, food security, and sustainable economic growth, thereby propelling Africa towards prosperity. “Thanks to CAADP, we've witnessed impressive gains in agriculture-led growth, improved food and nutrition outcomes, increased trade, and heightened public and private investments in agriculture, this initiative has enhanced national strategy formulation and promoted regional cooperation, allowing us to collectively navigate successes and challenges towards achieving our unified goals” she added.

The 4th cycle of the BR showed slow progress on the continental score for indicators for improved seeds of livestock and crops, soil health, fertilizer, nutrition and post-harvest management. As a continent, we remain off track in meeting the Malabo Targets. “The theme of the 4th BR report, “Highlights on accelerating the implementation of the AfCFTA”, reminds us of the centrality of trade in the development of Agriculture on the continent.  Still, it is of concern that no country is on track to achieve the commitment to “Boosting Intra-African Trade in Agriculture Commodities and Services” despite the ratification of the AfCFTA by most of the Member States. Therefore, fast-tracking the implementation of the AfCFTA as a flagship continental agreement to boost trade should be high on our agenda as policymakers” said H.E Ms Nardos Bekele-Thomas.

The Chairperson of the Donor Partners Coordination group (DPCG), Mr. Odd Eirik Anersen was represented by Ms. Synne Bjoernraa, the Deputy Head of mission at the Norwegian delegation to the African Union delivered a statement on behalf of the DPCG members and stated that achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG2) and Agenda 2030, which strives to end hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture remains a high priority in Africa's regional and national development Agendas. “This transformation is of interest to all the development partners who are keen to see the gains of the CAADP that possess increase momentum. In the next period, as DPCG, we confirm our commitment to support not only the Post-Malabo process, but more significantly, the implementation of the post-Malabo Agenda” she added.

The BR Report and scorecards were presented by Dr. Godfrey Bahiigwa, Director of Agriculture and Rural Development, he highlighted the results and country scores presented in the Africa Agriculture Transformation Scorecard. The results indicate that 49-member states reported, out of which, 19-member states are progressing well, and 30-member states were not on track while 6-member states did not report in the 4th BR Cycle.

The performance was assessed against a benchmark of 9.29 out of 10, with none of the member states were on track, indicating that, Africa is not on-track to meet CAADP goals by 2025. The official launch also presented an opportunity to award best performers of the 4^th BR cycle in line with commitment 7 on Strengthening mutual accountability to actions and results, through the CAADP Result Framework. In this cycle the republic of Rwanda emerged with the best overall score as it was in the previous two cycles. The second overall score was awarded to the Kingdom of Morocco, third overall score to the Arab Republic of Egypt. The most improved score from the previous cycle (the 3^rd) went to Union of Comoros and special mention for best overall performing Region was awarded to Western Africa.

The Post Malabo roadmap was presented by Dr. Janet Edeme, the Head of Rural Development Division and Ag. Head of Agriculture and Food Security. She highlighted that since the adoption of CAADP in 2003 in Maputo as Africa’s policy framework for agricultural transformation, wealth creation, food security and nutrition, economic growth, and prosperity for all and the recommitment to the CAADP that was made in June 2024 through the Malabo declaration, there has been tremendous progress in terms of economic and agricultural growth, improvement in poverty and nutrition outcomes, expansion of agricultural trade, and expansion of public investments in agriculture. Despite the significant progress made during the two decades of implementation of Maputo (2003) and Malabo (2014), immense challenges remain. Therefore, the Post Malabo Agenda provides opportunity to relook and outline the new approaches for Africa transformation. “The Post Malabo Agenda development process is an inclusive and multi-stakeholder consultative process that will embrace research and analysis to generate evidence-based approaches that will inform the technical design and drafting as well as the political mobilization for the next 10 years Agricultural transformation agenda for the continent.

The Call to Action was made by Her Excellency Ambassador Josefa Sacko, reiterating that the continent is NOT on track to achieve the Malabo Commitments, where progress was hampered by multiple crises, which should be addressed through the calls for the need to build a resilient Africa food system. “There is a need for stronger political leadership and commitment at all levels to drive implementation, mutual accountability and, importantly, the financing required to achieve aspirations of CAADP” she said. As the RECs continue to play a critical role in the CAADP implementation, there is need to strengthen their financial and human resource capacities to bolster their contributions to the CAADP. Similarly, African Union and the Member States need to strengthen capacity to improve data quality and incorporating the BR process into the national statistical and monitoring and evaluation systems. 

 For further information, please contact:

Dr. Janet Edeme I Head of Rural Development Division and Ag. Head of Agriculture and Food Security I Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment I African Union Commission I Email: EdemeJ@africa-union.org   

Panduleni Elago I Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment I African Union Commission I Email: ElagoP@africa-union.org

For media inquiries, please contact:

Ms. Peace Lydia Mutuwa I Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment I African Union Commission I Email: mutuwap@africa-union.org

Ms Millicent Kgeledi I AUDA-NEPAD Communications I Email: millicents@nepad.org I Tel: +27 832661829

Mr.  Molalet Tsedeke I Information and Communication Directorate I African Union Commission I Tel: 0911-630631 I Email: molalett@africa-union.org I Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 

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