Welcoming the renewed interest in agriculture, Mohamed Béavogui of IFAD focussed his presentation at the second Brussels Briefing on ‘Advancing African agriculture‘ around issues of development effectiveness. His aim was to “see what can be done differently to give meaningful contribution to the process of advancing African agriculture.”
In spite of the constraints presented by other speakers, the West Africa context presents several opportunities, especially in terms of democratization and decentralisation, regional integration, and market liberalization. Even if it is slowly, these things are happening and need to be sustained.
In this picture, IFAD financial support for agriculture in Africa has seen a steady growth in the past ten years, together with the development of an action plan structured around precise trajectories: attention to implementation, policy support and engagement; institutional development and support; and knowledge sharing and innovation.
Mr. Béavogui highlighted the need for more opportunities to exchange knowledge, share lessons and learn from each other – he noted that there’s a lot of innovation taking place across the African continent. A much stronger support to the culture of learning is critical.
It is exactly along these lines that we should build effective partnerships able to support the advancement of African agriculture.
Links:
Summary of presentation (doc format)
See more from the 17 October briefing
