By Ousmane Djibo

Niamey, 30^th September 2009—Niger’s roundtable meetings on the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) successfully ended with the endorsement of the Niger CAADP Compact.

The roundtable meetings which were held from the 29^th to the 30^th of September attracted close to 200 agricultural experts, policymakers, and representatives from farmer organizations, private sectors, development associations and Non-Governmental Organizations’, the Government of Niger, the African Union (AU) / New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and development partners.

The Compact is a mutual commitment between the Government of Niger and the various national, regional and international agencies and organizations to jointly achieve the CAADP Goals.

The Compact was signed by the President of the inter-ministerial committee in charge of the coordination and the implementation of the Rural Development Strategy (SDR) his Honourable Amane Moussa, Minister of Agricultural development, the AU-NEPAD, ECOWAS, a representative of the development partners and representatives from the private sector, farmer organizations and NGO/development association.

Niger is the third country to sign the CAADP compact agreement in the ECOWAS region after Togo and Sierra Leone and the sixth country to do so Africa wide.

“This is clearly a landmark moment in the progress of CAADP. The signing of this Compact highlights not only Niger’s commitment towards poverty eradication through agriculture, but also Africa’s focus on the Maputo declaration and broader global agenda towards issues of food security” said Albadé Abouba, the interim Prime Minister.

As per the 2003 AU Maputo declaration, NEPAD’s Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Program is based on two major principles: the pursuit of a six percent average annual growth rate at the national level in the agricultural sector, and the allocation of ten percent of national budgets to agriculture.

CAADP’s agenda reflects a fundamental shift in the way Africa’s leadership looks at agriculture and its potential contribution to ending poverty, hunger, and malnutrition. The program—fully owned and led by African governments—is at the heart of efforts to achieve growth and national development in line with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

According to Ousmane Djibo, Advisor for Agriculture at NEPAD, Niger’s Compact highlights a shared framework for strategic planning and implementation, and for partnership and development assistance in the country’s Agriculture sector.

“A key aspect of this will include genuine support towards Niger’s National Investment Agricultural Program (NAIP) based on the well elaborated Rural Development Strategy paper for the purposes of designing quality investment programmes that are in line with the country’s priorities”, commented Dr Ousseini Salifou, ECOWAS commissioner for Agriculture, Environment and water resource.

NAIP is a program developed by all stakeholders involved in the CAADP process in Niger as a strategic planning framework for a long term agricultural investment and a platform for cooperation between the partners in the agricultural sector of Niger.

For more information contact: Ousmaned@nepad.org or komlab@nepad.org 

Visit the CAADP Website: http://www.nepad-caadp.net

London, 26^th September 2009 – The UK has signed up to a new action plan that will help lift millions out of poverty and hunger by supporting African governments’ agricultural development strategies.

The plan will ensure that the £1.1 billion the UK committed for global food programmes at the last G8 summit will be deployed in a structured, accountable way. The Department for International Development will work with the international community to deliver strategies to improve agriculture, developed by African countries themselves.

The commitment was made at a high-level event – convened to discuss the G8’s $20 billion of financial commitments to global food production - hosted by Hillary Clinton and Ban Ki Moon in New York.

Speaking at the event Minister for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Ivan Lewis said: “Country-led efforts are being coupled with increased resources from developed country partners in support of country-led plans to improve agricultural growth and food security. For instance, the UK has increased spending on agricultural development to £1.1 billion over the next 3 years.

“This is why in Africa, the UK and most of the donors here support the African Union’s Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme. CAADP provides an African-led framework for ambitious, high quality country-led policies and plans for agriculture and food security. It brings together governments, donors, private sector and other stakeholders. It is about investing wisely to achieve progress on the crucial matter of global food security and ensuring the 1 billion hungry people in 2008 is never repeated, and it sets the agenda for donors to get behind.

“At a meeting in Addis earlier this month CAADP stakeholders reached the Addis Consensus - an agreement on a coordinated approach to supporting the CAADP compacts that are being signed across Africa. At the meeting we agreed practical guidelines for donor support to the CAADP process at a country-level. I am proud the UK played an active role in building such an important consensus.

“Across Africa governments are increasing their political focus on agriculture and food security, this represents an historic opportunity to lift people out of poverty – in Africa 75% of poor people derive their livelihood from agriculture.

“We leave New York with a clear commitment to rapid implementation of the Addis Consensus on the ground, turning our important discussions on the future of food security and agricultural productivity into concrete actions.”

The UK’s Department for International Development has increased its spending on agricultural development to £1.1 billion over the next 3 years, much of which will be targeted on Africa which shows great potential for growth.

The 2008 food crisis saw the number of hungry people exceed 1 billion for the first time in history. Since then, with leadership from the UK, the international community has built commitment and developed plans to reverse this trend and ensure we have enough food for the projected 9 billion people who will share the planet in 2050.

Source: United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) www.dfid.gov.uk/

Farmers also found time to exhbit their produce during the CAADP roundtables in Sierra Leone

FreeTown, 22nd September 2009 — The Government of Sierra Leone has today signed the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Compact, during the country’s roundtable meeting.

“This is an important historical moment not only for Sierra Leone, but for Africa as a whole. We regard CAADP as being pivotal to our poverty and hunger eradication efforts” said Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma, the President of Sierra Leone at the signing of Sierra Leone’s CAADP Compact.

“Agriculture constitutes the backbone of our economy it contributes 45% of our Gross Domestic Product and close to two thirds of our people rely on it for their livelihoods. Therefore, any measures used to improve agriculture are taken seriously by this Government” he added.

The CAADP roundtables, which ran from the 17^th to the 18^th of September 2009, were hosted by the Government of Sierra Leone, the African Union (the AU), the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the Economic Commission for West African States (ECOWAS).

The roundtables are aimed at generating consensus among key stakeholders on Sierra Leone’s agricultural development agenda, forging the necessary partnerships to implement it, and securing commitments and resources from partners to make the necessary investments.

According to Dr. Joseph Sam Sesay, Sierra Leone’s Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security, the CAADP Compact is set on making agriculture the engine for socio-economic growth and development through commercialisation and the promotion of the private sector, including farmers and farmer-based organizations.

Speaking on behalf of the AU-NEPAD, Prof. Richard Mkandawire, an adviser for Agriculture / CAADP at the NEPAD Secretariat recognised the role that has been played by the leadership and people of Sierra Leone in championing the CAADP Agenda.

“We are also pleased to hear that Sierra Leone’s Minister of Finance and Planning is planning to increase the national budget allocation to agriculture in the coming financial year to 9.9%” said Prof. Mkandawire.

The CAADP Compact in Sierra Leone supports a comprehensive agriculture and rural development strategy consistent with the National Sustainable Agriculture Development Plan (NSADP) which emanates from the Agenda for Change – Sierra Leone’s second generation Poverty Reduction Strategy. The Compact will assist in the design and implementation of agriculture investment programmes.

The Compact targets key sub-sectors such as land and water management, rural-urban infrastructure, commercialisation, trade and marketing, resources management and increased agricultural productivity.

Sierra Leone becomes the fifth country to sign the CAADP Compact after Rwanda, Burundi, Togo and Ethiopia.

NEPAD’s Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Program is based on two major principles: the pursuit of a six percent average annual growth rate at the national level in the agricultural sector, and the allocation of ten percent of national budgets to agriculture. The aim of CAADP, which is spearheaded by African governments, is to accelerate agricultural growth and thereby eliminate poverty, which has been steadily increasing throughout the continent over the past two decades.

CAADP’s agenda reflects a fundamental shift in the way Africa’s leadership looks at agriculture and its potential contribution to ending poverty and hunger. The program is the centerpiece of efforts by African countries to achieve growth and poverty reduction in line with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Key signatories to the Compact included Sierra Leone’s Minister of Agriculture, Foresty and Food Security Dr. Joseph Sam Sesay, the Minister of Finance and Economic Development Dr. Samura Kamara, Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources Haja Hafsatu Kabbah, Salifou Qusseini on behalf of ECOWAS and Prof. Richard Mkandawire of AU/NEPAD. Other Signatories were the World Bank’s Engelbert Gudmusson representing development partners, Mr. Charles Mambu representing civil society and Mr. Mohamed Kella on behalf of the private sector.

Addis Ababa, 2 September 2009 – The first Technical Planning Meeting for the Conference of African Ministers of Fisheries and Aquaculture recently took place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with many of the ministers calling for prudent policy reforms in the sector.

According to Dr Abebe Haile Gabriel, who spoke on behalf of the African Union Commissioner (AUC) Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture Tumusiime Rhoda Peace, although the fisheries sector is a key source of income in Africa it is also plagued by many problems that clearly require good policies in order to address them.  

The fisheries sector is an important source of food and nutrition, employment and foreign exchange. However, the sector has many challenges including over-fishing, negative impacts of international trade, climate change and poorly developed aquaculture.

Participants at this engagement included representatives of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), AUC, the Department for International Development (DFID), Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), World Fish Centre, Fisheries Marketing Information and Technical Advisory Services for Fisheries Industry in Southern Africa (INFOSA), Fishery Committee of the West Central Gulf of Guinea (FCWC), representatives from research organisations and institutes, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries in Nigeria, IDDRA LTD, the media, Ministry of Water and Fisheries in Gambia, AUC-InterAfrican Bureau for Animal Resources, NFDS-Botswana and the Lake Victoria Fisheries Organisation.

Despite the challenges, participants agreed that some successes had still been achieved within the past four years - since the 2005 Abuja AU-NEPAD Fish for All Summit 2005.

The key message from the AUC emphasised the need to provide Ministers responsible for fisheries with robust technical advice on viable policy reform pathways.

The outcomes of the meeting will feed into the Conference of African Ministers of Fisheries and Aquaculture that will take place from the 1^st to 4^th December 2009 in the Gambia. The theme for the Ministers Conference is “African Fisheries and Aquaculture: Contributing Towards Africa’s Development and Economic Growth.”

Addis Ababa, 7 September 2009 – “Calls have been made globally for a coherent, consistent and effective mechanism to respond to issues of malnutrition, food insecurity, hunger and poverty in pursuit of MDGs. For Africa, CAADP provides a strategic approach to this call” said Commissioner Rhoda Peace Tumusiime, the African Union Commissioner (AUC) for Rural Economy and Agriculture.

She was speaking at the start of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Donors and Partners which opened today on Monday the 7^th of September 2009, at the United Nations Conference Centre in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

“The restoration of agriculture growth and food security is our own responsibility as Africans. This is what CAADP is about. Ownership, doing things differently and the collective commitment of African leaders towards a new agriculture development agenda” said Prof. Richard Mkandawire, the Agriculture adviser at the New Partnership for Africa’s Development.

Speaking on behalf of the development partners John Barrett of the UK’s Department for International Development advised that this was the time to turn commitment into actions on issues of food security and agriculture.

“Fine words need to turn into action. And, that is what we are here for,” he stressed.

This engagement between AU-NEPAD, agriculture focal points from the regional economic communities, focal points from the national ministries and the development partners comes after many recent global commitments to support food security and agriculture. This includes the commitments made in the L’Aquila Joint Declaration on Global Food Security taken at the G8 in 2009.

At the national and regional levels this engagement comes soon after is the signing of the CAADP Compacts in Togo, Burundi and Ethiopia. Pertinently, it also comes after the AU Heads of State and Government Summit in July 2009 in Sirte, Libya through which African leaders’ renewed their committed themselves to implementing the CAADP agenda.

For more information contact:

Ms. Sihem Kefi, Communications Officer, African Union Commission,

Email: KefiS@africa-union.org / + 251 91 337 7472

Visit the African Union website: http://www.africa-union.org

Dr. Andrew Kanyegirire, CAADP Communications Manager, NEPAD

andrewk@nepad.org  / +27 (0) 83 704 4506

Visit the CAADP website: http://www.nepad-caadp.net