Representatives from the African Union’s programme of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) recently met with members of the U.S. Congress to brief them on the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program. VOA’s Carolyn Turner reports. The NEPAD representatives included Prof. Richard Mkandawire and Mrs. Estherine Lisinge-Fotabong. The briefing was held during the September 2010 UN-MDGs Summit sessions.

By Dr Ibrahim Assane Mayaki - NEPAD CEO

Welcome to the new NEPAD website and to our new blog. This website will be officially launched at a forthcoming continental engagement. But today we took the unusual step of pre-launching the site so that you can give us feedback on what extra information you might want to see on the site.

Click on this link to access the site and experience it firsthand. http://www.nepad.org

Our target audiences have already asked, for example, for information on programmes and projects that we are facilitating and coordinating and in which regions. In other instances, we are also being asked to highlight our successes and to elaborate on our new strategic direction. And, since we are busy working to avail this information, we’ll be posting it on the site.

Please remember that this is a preview of the site, so not everything is up and running in top form. But, the main content is on there and that’s what we want your opinion on. You can give us your feedback by responding to this blog.

So, enjoy the site - we look forward to your comments.

Best wishes,
Dr. Ibrahim Assane Mayaki.
CEO of the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency (NEPAD Agency)

English, French and Portuguese versions follow - Versions anglaise, française et portugaise suivent - Inglês, Francês e Português versões siga

African Civil Society website ‘Our Fish, Our future’ launched
The African Union paper “Fisheries Policy and Governance Reform in Africa” stresses that “a good governance framework is required for the delivery of the strategy, given that many fisheries are potentially extremely valuable assets. This framework should be based on the development of policies, institutions and processes to facilitate the planning, design and implementation of appropriate fisheries development and management arrangements. The fundamental principles of good governance - accountability, transparency and participation - should underpin policy development”.

In order to fully play their role in this reform process and to support the establishment of such a good governance framework, African small-scale fisheries organizations, coastal communities, journalists and NGOs have decided to join forces and to make their voices heard during the first Conference of African Ministers of Fisheries and Aquaculture.

A web portal will back the coverage of the Conference and will assemble information about the various activities that will be held by Civil Society Organizations around the Conference in Banjul, 15th to 23rd September 2010 http://www.camfa-cso.org/EN/

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Lancement site web Société civile africaine ‘Notre poisson, Notre avenir’
Le document de l’Union Africaine « La Réforme de la Gouvernance et de la Politique des Pêches en Afrique » souligne qu’ « un cadre de bonne gouvernance est nécessaire afin d’établir une stratégie, étant donné que de nombreuses pêcheries sont des atouts potentiels de grande valeur. Ce cadre devra être basé sur le développement de politiques, institutions et processus afin de faciliter la planification, l’élaboration et la mise en œuvre de mesures appropriés pour le développement et la gestion des pêches. Les principes fondamentaux de la bonne gouvernance - responsabilité, transparence et participation - devraient venir renforcer le développement des politiques ».

Afin de jouer pleinement leur rôle dans ce processus de réforme et de soutenir la mise en place d’un tel cadre de bonne gouvernance, les organisations de pêche artisanale, les communautés côtières, les journalistes et les ONG africains ont décidé d’unir leurs forces et de faire entendre leurs voix à l’occasion de la première Conférence des Ministres Africains de la Pêche et de l’Aquaculture.

Un portail web appuiera la couverture de la Conférence et rassemblera les informations relatives aux différentes activités tenues par les Organisations de la Société Civile autour de la Conférence à Banjul, du 15 au 23 septembre 2010 http://www.camfa-cso.org/FR/

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Portal das organizacoes da sociadade civil “O nosso Peixe, O nosso futuro

‘O documento da União Africana « A Reforma da Governação e da Polìtica das Pescas em Africa » realça que “um quadro da boa governação é necessàrio para estabelecer uma estratégia, considerando que muitas pescarias são potenciais vantagens de grande valor. Este quadro devera estar baseado no desenvolvimento de polìticas, instituições e processus afim de facilitar a palnificação, a elaboração e a implementação de medidas apropriadas para o desenvolvimento e a gestão das pescas. Os princìpios fondamentais da boa governação - responsabilidade,transparência e participação - deveriam reforçar o desenvolvimento das polìticas”.

Afim de cumprirem pleinamente os seus papeis neste peocessus de reforma e de apoiar a instauração deste quadro de boa governação, as organizações da pesca artesanal, comunidades costeiras, jornalistas e ONGs africanas decidiram unir as suas forças e fazer ouvir as suas vozes na ocasão da Primeira Conferência dos Ministros Africanos da Pesca e Aquicultura.

O site web apoiarà a cobertura da Conferência e também vai compilar as informações relativas às diferentes actividades realizadas pelas organizações da sociedade civil a respeito à Conferência em Banjul, do dia 15 a dia 23 de setembro http://www.camfa-cso.org/PT/

Last week Namibia hosted the 2010 FANRPAN (Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network) Regional Food Security Policy Dialogue, bringing together over 200 African and global policymakers, farmers, agricultural product dealers, scientists, and non-governmental organizations. The purpose of the conference was to address African priorities on food security and climate change and how agricultural development, natural resource management and rural livelihoods will be affected. An annual regional food security policy discussion, this year’s particular focus was on livestock and fisheries policies in the face of climate change.

During the Dialogue the President of Namibia, Hifikepunye Lucas Pohamba, was awarded the 2010 FANRPAN Food Security Policy Leadership Award for his creation of responsible fisheries policies in the country. In Namibia, the fishing industry has grown to be the second biggest export earner of income and has produced 14,000 new jobs in a population of 1.7 million people, supporting not just individuals’ livelihoods but also their communities.

While the fisheries and livestock sectors are now being recognized as a new means for entering markets and generating wealth, they are also the most at risk in the face of climate change. For the 200 million Africans who rely on livestock for their livelihoods (plus the 70 percent of rural poor who keep livestock) and the 10 million Africans dependent on work in fisheries, climate change has serious implications. As climate patterns change so does the spatial distribution of agro-ecological zones and habitats, distribution patters of plant diseases and pests, fish populations and ocean circulation patterns, in addition to the potential for extreme weather events such as drought. All of these factors can have significant impacts on agriculture and food production. Thus the growth of these sectors requires research and collaboration, investments of time, technology, policies and knowledge networks that address these risks.

Africa’s history of underinvestment in agriculture is being addressed by the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Program (CAADP). Agricultural policies and programs dedicated to supporting farmers, according to a July 2010 report by the McKinsey Global Institute, have the potential to create a more secure food supply in the future across Africa, but the effort must be regionally integrated. FANRPAN, a network of researchers, farmers and governments working in 14 Southern African countries, is helping the coordination and implementation of these programs at national and regional levels.

Dr. Lindiwe Majele Sibanda, Chief Executive of FANRPAN, said, “FANRPAN was set up to create a food-secure Africa which can feed itself. To do this, success stories must be understood, replicated and scaled up.” In order to better facilitate regional program replication, coordination and implementation FANRPAN is expanding its network across the continent. At the conference the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was announced as the 14th member of the FANRPAN Network. Through this new DRC affiliate FANRPAN will be able to work with government agencies, farmers, researchers, civil society organizations and the media which, according to Dr Sibanda, “will be vital in FANRPAN’s continued success to create conducive policy environments for Africa’s farmers.”

To read about Nourishing the Planet’s visit with FANRPAN in South Africa see: FANRPAN: Working to connect farmers, researchers, and policy makers in Africa, Acting It Out for Advocacy, and Innovative Ways of Hearing Farmers’ Voices.

AGRF‟s focus is on projects that have taken a systemic (or value-chain) approach to agricultural economic development; projects that have involved partners from different industries within the private sector, as well as partners from the public and aid sectors. In this first issue of the AGRF Update we showcase a project that has worked, been further developed and brings together partners in a new innovative, systemic approach to mitigating the risk of investing in African agriculture.

AGRF is supporting the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzanian (SAGOT) - a public-private initiative to unlock Africa‟s huge agricultural potential. As Salum Shamte, Chairman of the Agricultural Council of Tanzania, says, “the agricultural potential of the Southern corridor is enormous but remains largely dormant or highly underexploited.”

Tanzania is only using one per cent of theoretically irrigable land. Businesses have traditionally not invested into African agriculture because of perceived challenges to doing business in a region without adequate infrastructure or regulatory certainty.. The first initiative - the Beira corridor in Mozambique - is helping farmers cultivate 190,000 hectares of newly-irrigated land, generating new revenues of more than US$1 billion.

Following the success in Mozambique, Tanzania‟s own SAGOT initiative was discussed at a meeting of the African World Economic Forum in Dar es Salaam in May 2010, where government and business leaders agreed to a joint initiative to develop an investment blueprint for the corridor by end of 2010.

SAGOT responds to a call for investment outlined in Tanzania‟s Kilimo Kwanza agricultural policy. Already the African Development Bank has donated US$230m to upgrade trunk roads, including one between Dodoma and Iringa. Fertilizer company Yara intends to invest US$20 million into a dedicated fertilizer terminal at the Dar es Salaam port.

In addition, helping smallholder farmers commercialize and gain access to international markets could create one million new jobs.

To receive a copy of the „concept note‟ on the SAGOT initiative, published in May, please see: www.africacorridors.com

CLick here to download the full document

By Denis Jjuuko

Ouagadougou: The 2010 CAADP Day was held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso with a call for a review of the Maputo Declaration on budgetary commitments of agriculture by including a date by which countries should have allocated at least 10% of their national budgets to agriculture. This call was made by Laurent Sedogo, the agriculture minister of Burkina Faso while opening the CAADP Day.

“There is need to review the Maputo Declaration by including a time frame in which countries should have increased their budget,” minister Sedogo said. He added that Burkina Faso already commits 15% of the national budget to agriculture which  helped it increase production of crops such as rice in 2009 to more than 50% of the 2008 figures. Burkina Faso will be signing the CAADP compact within the next few days.

The CAADP Day with the theme of “Post-Compact CAADP implementation; the African private sector and investments in agriculture” aimed at widening the political space and investment climate for CAADP to agriculture by paying particular attention to the role of the private sector as well as showcasing the work of CAADP.

The CAADP Day took place during the ongoing Agriculture and Science Week organized by the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA).

The head of CAADP, Martin Bwalya in his opening speech emphasized the need for the private sector to play a significant role in the development of agriculture. “African countries should build new bridges and explore new sources of private capital flows into agriculture,” he said.

The over 200 delegates from across the world heard from a panel of experts a bout what is taking place in several African countries in order to attract the private sector.

In Sierra Leone, the government has instituted tax holidays for the private sector involved in the agricultural sector while in Burkina Faso, private banks such as Ecobank are financing the agricultural sector, mainly in the cotton industry. In Kenya, Equity Bank is carrying out financial literacy among farmers thereby bringing them into the banking sector and enabling them develop through small loans.

By Denis Jjuuko

Ouagadougou: If we need agriculture to attract African politicians, it needs to be seen as an issue that can win them votes according to Boaz Blackie Keizire, the Technical Advisor/CAADP Implementation Specialist at the African Union Commission. Keizire was addressing the media at a press conference ahead of the CAADP Day that took place in Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso.

“Politicians need to see the agricultural sector as an election issue. When people are demanding  infrastructural development like roads, agriculture should be included,” he said.

“When agriculture is people-demanded, then the politicians who run the government will put in place programmes that lead to 6% agricultural growth and commit 10% of their budgets to the sector.”

Keizire challenged the media to play a key role. “How can we use agriculture as a champion in raising the politician’s profile?” he asked.

By Denis Jjuuko

Ouagadougou: Kenya, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast will sign CAADP compacts in the next few days  bringing the number of countries that are committed to improving their agriculture to 22 according to Martin Bwalya, head of CAADP at the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency.

Bwalya was addressing the media at a press conference organized ahead of the CAADP Day that took place in Ouagadougou Burkina Faso. CAADP compacts among other areas compel African governments to commit to agriculture by allocating 10% of their national budgets to the sector and challenge countries to attain at least 6% sectoral growth per annum.

Bwalya emphasized the value of knowledge-sharing in the CAADP processes. “What we are emphasizing is the value of knowledge. Supporting farmers should include knowledge dissemination,” he said.

“The value and quality of knowledge and how it is applied is crucial in agricultural development. We need to scale up knowledge dissemination.” He challenged the media to play a greater role in the CAADP processes on the continent.

By Denis Jjuuko

Ouagadougou: Africa is making progress towards achieving   Millennium Development Goal 1 which calls for reducing hunger, according to the Forum for Agricultural Research (FARA) executive secretary Monty Jones. He was  addressing the media at a press conference ahead of the CAADP Day in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

“Forty to fifty years ago, most countries were exporting to each other in Africa and outside the continent. Then the attention was shifted to other areas and we saw a drop in agricultural production. However, since 2000, we have seen significant development in agriculture averaging around 5%,” he said. “This means that most countries are at the threshold of reaching the 6% target set by CAADP.”

“With these increases in agricultural development,”  Mr. Jones said, “Africa will be able to achieve the Millennium Development Goal 1.”  Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are targets set up by the United Nations that countries need to achieve to attain a certain level of development. MDG 1 seeks to end hunger and poverty by the year 2015.

Mr. Jones said that Africa has the resources to take it to the next level of agricultural development. “We have 60% of arable land. How can we invest into this as opposed to asking for aid?” he asked. He added that as researchers in the agricultural field, they need the support of other partners such as the private sector to ensure that farmers get the infrastructure needed to improve their fields.

He also appealed to organizations working in agriculture to share information, especially on the technologies developed in Adrica  through the CAADP processes.