African Union Hosts African Green Revolution Forum
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – September 3, 2014 –AU Chairperson H.E Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma welcomed public and private sector participants to the African Union Commission Headquarters for the fourth African Green Revolution Forum. This year’s forum is organized around the AU designated ‘Year of Agriculture and Food Security’ and a new political will to achieve sustainable food and nutritional security across the continent.
“At the recent African Union summit in Malabo, African leaders pledged to put agriculture at the top of national development agendas through the commitment to specific and ambitious targets,” said Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma. “The challenge now is to lay out the roadmap so collectively we work to meet these targets. This forum is timely and critical as public and private sector leaders gather to discuss how we work together to accelerate agricultural transformation in Africa.”With the Malabo Declaration, African leaders have strengthened their commitment to actively support agriculture as a means to achieve food and nutrition security and bring shared prosperity to all Africans. They have now agreed to very specific targets which identify the priorities for investment. The new targets will push governments to move faster in creating a policy and infrastructure environment in which agriculture can thrive and generate income opportunities at all levels.
“We must be accountable for commitments we make. We must all believe and embrace the fact now it’s in our hands,” said Dr. Dlamini Zuma.
The Malabo Declaration commits African Union member states to:
• Recommit to the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) process
• Increase both public and private investment finance in agriculture
• End hunger in Africa by 2025
• Halve poverty by 2025 through inclusive agricultural growth and transformation
• Boost intra-Africa trade in agricultural commodities and services
• Enhance resilience of livelihoods and production systems to climate change variability and other related risks
• Commit to mutual accountability to actions and results
Through CAADP, the African Union will drive and measure progress so that countries, and their leaders, are held accountable for results. The declaration committed African leaders to a systematic regular review process, using the CAADP Results Framework. The leaders further called for an immediate design of a strategy and roadmap for implementation of these comments.
CAADP has been instrumental in galvanizing African countries to reform, modernize and achieve economic growth through agriculture-led development. Ten years after its introduction, 50 out of 54 countries are using the CAADP framework in their agricultural transformation planning. Over the next ten years, CAADP will be critical to measure and report on progress to hold governments accountable for their commitments.