Brussels Development Briefings

Participants in the second Brussels Briefing on ‘Advancing African agriculture‘ were briefied by Angel Elias Daka of COMESA on the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP). He described its four pillars, its operations, and the current status of its activities.

In particular, the CAADP starts from a recognition that Africa has an enormous amount of land, most of which is being degraded and progressive abandoned. Food insecurity is a primary consequence of this situation. For this reason, the CAADP’s objective is to halve hunger by targeting an annual agricultural growth rate of 6% by 2015. This will be possible only if investment in agriculture will incease to around 10% of annual national budgets.

Its first pillar aims to extend the land area under sustainable land and water management; the second addresses infrastructure issues such as transport and irrigation; the third focuses on food supply and hunger reduction; and the fourth pillar seeks to improve agricultural production through technology adoption.

Operationally, the process begins with a focal point person in national ministries of agriculture. He or she forms a steering committee with representatives of all sectors and actors. This committee leads to a donor conference where options are elaborated and decided and a compact is signed.

The CAADP is operational in all COMESA states with Rwanda the first country to adopt the process. By 2008, all COMESA countries will endorse development programmes through CAADP processes.

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IFAD’s Ides de Willebois told participants at the second Brussels Briefing on ‘Advancing African agriculture‘ that increasing the productivity of small holders remains the main challenge.

Despite the fact that most poor people live in rural areas, he noted that ODA for agriculture has drastically declined since the 1980s. This also clearly contradicts evidence showing that investment in agriculture, especially in Africa, is 2 to 3 times more effective in poverty alleviation when compared to non-agricultural investments.

He agreed with other speakers that agriculture it is indeed growing in Africa – despite a series of constraints such as climate change, soil fertility, infrastructure, mechanization, and marketing. Nevertheless, this growth is most often related to increased use of new land instead of more productive used of existing agricultural land.

To address this productivity challenge, it is essential to work on coordination among donors and aid effectiveness, also involving new partners such as foundations in supporting agriculture.

Ides de Willebois shares his main points and the role of IFAD in supporting African agriculture

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Representing the European Food security group of Concord, Gerhard Schmalbruch brought the perspectives of European civil society organisations to the second Brussels Briefing on ‘Advancing African agriculture‘.

According to Mr. Schmalbruch, the “AAA” initiative is welcomed, presenting important elements in the analysis of African problems and the role of agriculture for poverty alleviation. Nevertheless, there are some specific elements which still need to be stressed and addressed with more emphasis.

First, there needs to be stronger support for small scale farming, which is an important part of the informal sector. Second, while the AAA focuses more on international markets, attention must be given to strengthen local and regional markets. Third, the role of women in agriculture needs to be better recognized to better link the ‘triple A’ initiative with other policies dealing with HIV/Aids and other killer disease.

On top of these, including rural stakeholders in debate, decision, and implementation of the different policies remains a key success factor. Thus, Mr. Schmalbruch advocated a more systematic and inclusive consultation process, where consultation must be also on the ‘content of the policy’, so that rural stakeholders can participate as the different programmes proceed.

Gerhard Schmalbruch elaborates on some of these elements and points to the need for coherence between agricultural and other, possibly conflicting, policies.

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