by Chengetai Madziwa – SANF 05 no 48
Two years after African leaders agreed to commit 10 percent of national budgets to agriculture, they are being urged to speed up implementation.
This commitment was made by African heads of state and government at the African Union summit in Mozambique in 2003, in the context of a continental framework on agriculture.
It was reinforced by southern African leaders at the their summit on agriculture and food security held in Tanzania last year.
As another summit of African leaders approaches in July, they have been reminded of their commitment under the African Union’s development framework, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD)
The executive head of the NEPAD secretariat, Wiseman Nkuhlu, called for speedy implementation of the Maputo commitment in the context of NEPAD’s continental framework on agriculture, by the end of this year
“We urge the regional economic communities, their member states, the African Union and NEPAD Secretariat to build on these commitments and utilise the readiness of farmer organisations and the agribusiness community to forge the required partnerships to speed up the implementation of the early actions before the end of 2005,” Nkuhlu said.
He was speaking at a high level meeting on the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) rollout plan, held in Ghana in early May.
A total of 46 priority areas for early action were identified under the plan at a meeting in Tanzania in January. These actions all fall under four main priority areas which include:
- sustainable land and water management;
- market access and infrastructure;
- food supplies and emergency response; and
- agricultural research and technology dissemination and adoption.
Officials attending the rollout plan meeting in Ghana stressed that the challenge ahead is to efficiently use domestic and international resources to provide stimuli in fast-tracking the implementation of early actions.
They reiterated the fact that both the African governments and the development partners need to specify what resources they are bringing to the table in order to encourage African countries to implement the 10 percent allocation of their national budgets.
At the meeting in Tanzania earlier this year, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Pius Mbawala, proposed that cooperating partners should “pledge to match every dollar spent on agriculture with three dollars in additional support.”
This condition should only be effective if a country consistently disburses 10 percent of its national budget to agriculture, he said.
Some international cooperating partners have already expressed their readiness to support the CAADP on the condition that African countries fulfil the commitment made in 2003 to ensure national budgets set aside additional funds for agriculture.
African ministers of agriculture and finance have also been urged to engage in consultation in order to identify mechanisms to channel more resources to the agricultural sector.
The identification of such mechanisms together with a fulfilment of the commitment made by heads of state and government is required to ensure the implementation of the CAADP.
“There is an increasing willingness among African leaders to revive agriculture on the continent. By focusing on an action-orientated process for the implementation of CAADP, NEPAD hopes to accelerate an agriculture-led development that could lead to self-reliant, productive economies capable of reducing hunger and poverty,” says NEPAD’s agricultural advisor, Richard Mkandawire.
Various stakeholders have already begun to show their commitment to the programme. African civil society organisations, particularly farmer organisations, non-governmental organisations and agribusiness companies have all expressed their zeal in participating in the programme.
The African union, the NEPAD Secretariat and regional economic communities have agreed to immediately start establishing the required mechanisms for effective coordination and monitoring of the implementation of early actions and future programmes.
By adopting the NEAPD initiative, the African heads of state and government have recognised the critical role of agriculture in promoting broad-based development and speeding up the process of integrating African economies, said Nkuhlu.
“They have also committed to mobilising national resources and to developing new models of partnership with other countries and organisations to advance the development agenda in Africa,” he said. (SARDC)
