By Andrew Kanyegirire
The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) is now perceived by African leaders, civil society and key development partners, as a historic step in Africa’s development, according to Prof. Richard Mkandawire, Head of the CAADP/NEPAD Agriculture Unit, in a recent note on the CAADP road map. “As a component of the broader NEPAD agenda, CAADP is an Africa-led and Africa-owned initiative and framework to rationalise and revitalise African agriculture for economic growth and lasting poverty reduction results,” he said.
Ending poverty and hunger would require bold decisions from African governments, he added.
African governments have agreed to increase public investment in agriculture by a minimum of 10 per cent of their national budgets and to raise agricultural productivity by at least 6 per cent as is set-out in the CAADP agenda.
This is to be done through the four CAADP pillars:
- Extending the area under sustainable land management;
- Improving rural infrastructure and trade-related capacities for market access;
- Increasing food supply and reducing hunger;
- Agricultural research, technology dissemination and adoption.
Although CAADP is continental in scope, particularly at the level of the Regional Economic Communities (REC’s), focus is on implementing CAADP at the national level particularly through the country roundtable process.
The country roundtables are where key players come together to assess the realities of their own particular situation and develop a road map for going forward.
The roundtable process starts by getting national governments to buy into CAADP and to take leadership. This is then followed by engagements with key players, through coalitions, around a common commitment to move forward with CAADP.
A formal launch of CAADP is then carried out before going on to identify priority areas for investment through a compact agreement that is signed by all key partners.
The following map highlights some of the key CAADP implementation stages and processes leading to the country roundtable and the signing of the compact. The map also attempts to provide a snap-shot of country-level CAADP progress.
As at July 2008 more than a dozen countries are working at various levels towards the CAADP roundtable processes.
Rwanda was the first country to sign the first Country CAADP Compact with five other countries Ghana, Malawi, Uganda, Nigeria and Zambia en-route to adopting their compacts this year.
According to Prof. Mkandawire, 2008 has now been designated as the year of CAADP with a major event being held in October 2008 to take stock of CAADP progress and the roles played by the RECs, African governments, development partners, civil society, farmers and business in supporting African agriculture.//Nepad Dialogue
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