caadp: a model for development policy and partnership in africa_2009
Upload: african-regional-strategic-analysis-and-knowledge-support-system-resakss
Post on 21-Aug-2015
1.016 views
TRANSCRIPT
The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme:
A Model for Development Policy and Partnership Renewal in Africa
DRAFT
September 2009
Ousmane Badiane
Director for Africa
International Food Policy Research Institute
Washington, D.C.
Editorial assistance provided by Julia Ross. Please send comments to [email protected].
Acronyms
APF Africa Partnership Forum
APRM African Peer Review Mechanism
AU African Union
CAADP Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program
CGIAR Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research
COMESA Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa
DFID Department for International Development (UK)
EC European Commission
ECCAS Economic Community of Central African States
ECOWAS Economic Community of West African States
EU European Union
FAO Food and Agriculture Organization (U.N.)
FARA Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa
FIMA Framework for the Improvement of Rural Infrastructure and Trade-
Related Capacities for Market Access
G-8 Group of Eight
GDP gross domestic product
GTZ German Technical Cooperation
IDG International Development Goal
IFPRI International Food Policy Research Institute
IMF International Monetary Fund
MAP Millennium Partnership for the African Recovery Progamme
MDG Millennium Development Goal
NAI New African Initiative
NEPAD New Partnership for Africa’s Development
NERICA New Rice for Africa
OAU Organization for African Unity
OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
REC regional economic community
ReSAKSS Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System
RIP regional implementation planning
SADC Southern African Development Community
SIDA Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency
UMA Arab Maghreb Union
UN United Nations
US United States
USAID U.S. Agency for International Development
WHO World Health Organization
WTO World Trade Organization
Table of Contents
1. The NEPAD Initiative and the Origins of CAADP
2. The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP)
3. CAADP: From Strategy to Implementation
4. CAADP Coordination, Guidance and Dialogue
5. Challenges and Successes
6. Lessons Learned from the CAADP Process
1
THE NEPAD INITIATIVE AND THE ORIGINS OF CAADP
The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) is a comprehensive vision and strategic framework for development policy and partnership renewal in Africa. Conceived and established by African leaders in 2001, NEPAD aims to eradicate poverty in Africa, place African countries on a path of sustainable growth and development, halt the marginalization of Africa in the context of globalization, and accelerate the empowerment of women. It is a partnership based on common interests, obligations and commitments from leaders across the continent who wish to reverse decades of underdevelopment and forge a new model for how Africa interacts with the international community.
The NEPAD framework sets forth a long-term vision for African-owned and African-led development, guided by the following two overarching goals: a)achieve and sustain an average gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of over 7 percent per annum for the next 15 years; and b) ensure that the continent achieves all agreed International or Millennium Development Goals (IDGs).
NEPAD’s strategy is based on two overarching initiatives, cited as critical preconditions to sustainable development. The first is the Peace and Security Initiative, which promotes long-term conditions for development and security; and builds capacity within Africa for early warning of conflicts as well as capacity to prevent, manage and resolve conflicts. The second is the Democracy and Political Governance Initiative, which seeks commitments from NEPAD member countries to create or consolidate basic governance processes and practices, and encourages member countries to take the lead in supporting activities that foster good governance.
In addition, the NEPAD framework sets forth six sectoral priorities for investment in regional and country programs. These are: infrastructure, human resources, agriculture, environment, culture, and science and technology. In the area of agriculture, the framework notes that, while the majority of Africans live in rural areas, the continent’s agrarian systems are weak and unproductive. It calls for African leaders to strengthen these systems to achieve food security and spur economic development. Historically, international donors have paid little attention to agricultural sector and rural development in Africa-- a trend that NEPAD seeks to reverse.
AGRICULTURE IN THE BROADER NEPAD AGENDA
Linking Democracy and Governance to Agriculture
The NEPAD framework is based on the idea that its main priorities for action-- promoting peace and security; democracy and political governance; and economic growth--will create new mechanisms and expectations for accountability and governance at national, regional and continental levels. Such new standards, in turn, fuel progress in specific sectors, including health, agriculture, the environment, culture, science and technology, and market access. In practice, this process occurs through voluntary governance agreements whereby countries accede to the APRM.
2
Coming at the end of decade-long and courageous sectoral and economy-wide policy reforms to remove distortions and restore macroeconomic balance among African economies, NEPAD’s emphasis on capacity building for democracy, governance and economic growth has an especially positive influence in the agricultural sector. It calls for the strengthening of the regulatory framework for agriculture, creation of stronger links with agribusiness and farmers groups, and increased attention from international development partners to the sector, who now have renewed confidence in investing in African agricultural development. This new environment has enabled NEPAD as an initiative to achieve concrete success in the agricultural sector in just a few years, creating a viable new model for managing development in Africa.
NEPAD’s Vision for Agricultural Growth in Africa
The strong economic and agricultural sector performance of the last 10 years notwithstanding, African countries continue to face serious challenges in terms of agricultural and economic growth, poverty reduction, and food and nutrition security. Yet most African governments spend less than 3 percent of the national budget on agriculture, despite the fact that agriculture accounts for 70 percent of the African labor force and a large share of gross domestic product as well as country foreign exchange earnings, in addition to constituting a major contributor to growth in the remaining sectors of the economy.
The NEPAD framework seeks to tackle the above challenges by addressing the root causes behind Africa’s agricultural decline and stagnation during the 1970s and 1980s, in particular, which is still haunting many countries. It sets forth a vision of agriculture-led development in Africa that eliminates hunger and reduces food insecurity, enabling the expansion of exports and putting the continent on a more vigorous path for economic growth. Under the framework, specific goals for the agriculture sector include attaining food security, improving market access for agricultural products, creating dynamic regional and national agricultural markets, helping Africa become a net exporter of agricultural goods, and improving the productivity of agriculture. This vision and the actions to achieve it are articulated in details in the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program.
THECOMPREHENSIVE AFRICA AGRICULTURE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM (CAADP)
Acting on strong interest among AU countries to put agriculture at the forefront of the development agenda in Africa, the NEPAD secretariat in 2002 began consulting with the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to develop a continent-wide strategy for agricultural growth, titled the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP). After consultations with the African Ministers of Agriculture, Regional Economic Communities (RECs), African Development Bank and sub-regional banks, World Bank, and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, an initial strategy for CAADP was developed, based on four pillars for investment in agricultural development.
3
CAADP’s Four Pillars
The original objectives of CAADP’s four technical pillars are described below.
1. Extending the area under sustainable land management and reliable water control systems. Pillar 1 objectives are to: 1) revert fertility loss and resource degradation, and ensure broad-based and rapid adoption of sustainable land and forestry management practices in the small-holder as well as commercial sectors; and 2) improve management of water resources while expanding access to both small- and large-scale irrigation.
2. Improving rural infrastructure and trade-related capacities for market access. Pillar 2 objectives are to: 1) accelerate growth in the agricultural sector by raising the capacities of private entrepreneurs, including commercial and small-holder farmers, to meet the increasingly complex quality and logistical requirements of markets (domestic, regional and international) focusing on selected agricultural commodities that offer the potential to raise rural (on- and off-farm) incomes; and 2) create the required regulatory and policy framework that would facilitate the emergence of regional economic spaces that would spur the expansion of regional trade and cross-country investments.
3. Increasing food supply and reducing hunger. Pillar 3 objectives are to: 1) establish at the national level, well-managed and regionally coordinated food reserves and early warning systems that would allow African countries to respond in a timely and cost-effective manner to food emergency crises; 2) reduce malnutrition in school-going children, through diet supplementation with a complete meal that is adequate in carbohydrates, fat, protein, vitamins and minerals, and to expand local demand and stimulate production by smallholder farmers; 3) develop an African Nutrition Initiative to meet countries’ broader nutritional challenges in a way that takes account of the complex and multisectoral nature of the problem and possible solutions.
4. Expand agricultural research, and technology dissemination and adoption. Pillar 4 objectives are to: 1) achieve a sustained flow of technologies suitable to the African context and adequately meet the challenges of African agriculture through national agricultural technology systems that are responsive to constraints and opportunities facing farmers; 2) mobilize the large potential of cassava to contribute to food security and income generation among African countries; 3) contribute to food security and poverty reduction, and ensure sustainable resource management, in the rice sector of ten Eastern, Central and Southern African countries through broad-based access to high-yielding New Rice for Africa (NERICA) rice lines, other improved varieties, and accompanying technologies; and 4) safeguard the future contribution of Africa’s fish sector to poverty alleviation and regional economic development, in particular through a) improved management of natural fish stocks; b) development of aquaculture production; and c) expansion of fish marketing and trade.
More broadly, the main research themes under Pillar 4 include: integrated natural resources management; germplasm management, productivity and resistance; competitive markets and supply chains; and policies for sustainable agricultural growth.
4
Cross-cutting Areas: The CAADP framework also addresses three clusters of critical issues that cut across the four CAADP pillars. These are: academic and professional training to upgrade skills in the agricultural sector; information and knowledge systems to support sector strategy and policy formulation and implementation; and alignment of country Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers with CAADP priorities and objectives.
Companion Document: The original CAADP document deal not deal in details with livestock, forestry, and fisheries. This was corrected in a companion document which focuses primarily on these three sub-sectors.
Pillar Framework Documents: In the course of rolling out the CAADP agenda and the ensuing consultation, selected leading African institutions were mandated to further the technical preparation of the pillar agendas. This led to the elaboration of the pillar framework documents, discussed later in the report, including a refinement of the above original objectives.
CAADP and the Millennium Development Goals
In September 2000, world leaders came together at the United Nations headquarters in New York to sign the United Nations Millennium Declaration, a statement committing their nations to a new global partnership to reduce extreme poverty by reaching a set of time-bound targets by 2015. The resulting eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) address reduction of poverty and hunger; universal education; gender equality; child health; maternal health; HIV/AIDS; environmental sustainability; and global partnership.
The MDGs related to reducing poverty and hunger, and ensuring environmental sustainability, serve as critical guideposts for CAADP activities. RECs and NEPAD member countries are expected to design and implement CAADP plans with the MDGs in mind, and all CAADP investments should contribute to achievement of the MDGs.
5
CAADP: FROM STRATEGY TO IMPLEMENTATION
In June 2002, the African Ministers of Agriculture reviewed and endorsed NEPAD’s strategy for CAADP at a meeting in Rome. The strategy was launched formally by the AU Heads of State about a year later in Maputo. Subsequent consultation with RECs and NEPAD member countries on the implementation of the strategy brought some fundamental changes. The initial strategy offered an already-defined, detailed set of CAADP project activities which did not lend themselves easily to decentralized, bottom up implementation. REC and country leaders ended up deciding for a decentralized approach that would allow them to identify and tailor country CAADP activities to their own needs and circumstances, thus improving CAADP’s chances of success at the local level. Responding to this input, the NEPAD secretariat decided in 2004 to pursue a new, internally formulated “roadmap”1 for CAADP implementation. The roadmap empowered the RECs and countries to lead the CAADP process, but retained the four CAADP technical pillars and objectives defined in the earlier strategy.
A. Principles for CAADP Implementation
In developing a roadmap for CAADP implementation, the NEPAD secretariat and relevant stakeholders agreed to follow a key set of guiding principles.
Constituency building would be a priority, to engage civil society in setting objectives and priority programs, and obtain input and ensure partnership with the private sector, in addition to efforts to inform and involve other national government ministries early in the CAADP implementation process.
Open consultation would guide every level of the implementation process, including with the AU, RECs, national governments, and sector stakeholders including farming communities.
Investment priority setting would create an analytical base for informed choice of project investments, provide balance between systemic and project interventions, and integrate CAADP programs into developmental budgets.
Finally, a vigorous strategy for resource mobilization would help national governments reach the goal of a 10 percent national budget share for agriculture--agreed to under the 2003 AU Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security--and would build sufficient capacity within the NEPAD secretariat, RECs, member countries, and CAADP- affiliated technical institutions to roll out and scale up CAADP effectively.
1 Implementing the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme and Restoring Food Security in
Africa: “The Roadmap”, NEPAD Secretariat, July 2004.
6
B. The CAADP Roadmap
The introduction of the CAADP roadmap, adopted at the meeting of the African Partnership Forum (APF) in October 2004, proved to be a turning point in moving CAADP implementation forward2. It defined a new, framework-oriented approach-- as opposed to the initial, program-oriented approach --to empower RECs and country governments to define their own priorities in line with regional and national policy and strategy goals for the sector.
The CAADP roadmap laid out a specific plan for implementation, clearly defining roles for the NEPAD Secretariat, as a facilitator and mobilizer of resources and technical expertise; the RECs and member countries, as primary implementers; and the Africa Partnership Forum (APF) and later the CAADP Partnership Platform, as a mechanism through which implementing partners would meet every six months to consult on implementation progress and barriers.
The roadmap outlined a four-step process to help RECs and member countries prepare CAADP investment projects and allow development partners to plan for long-term financial support of
2 The APF was established in November 2003 to strengthen partnership efforts and monitor issues, strategies and priorities for Africa’s development, particularly between the G-8 nations and the AU/NEPAD. APF’s mechanism for twice-yearly CAADP meetings later evolved into the CAADP Partnership Platform.
What Makes CAADP Different?
CAADP represents an effort by African governments to fully reclaim the continent’s agricultural growth and development agenda, and to engage in open and frank dialogue as part of a broader effort to renew development partnerships in Africa. Since its inception, CAADP has evolved into a credible platform for collaboration, partnerships, and alliance building to create space for African countries to determine their own agricultural agenda, and for development agencies to align their assistance in support of this agenda.
CAADP is a systematic effort to implement a continent-wide, agricultural-led growth strategy and bring African national strategies for agriculture in line with a shared set of growth and budgetary targets. Unlike previous continental development strategies such as the Lagos Plan of the 1980s, CAADP is inward-looking, with strong focus on accountability, peer review, and dialogue, in line with the broader NEPAD principles. Internal mechanisms to ensure good governance, peer review and open dialogue represent a new way of conducting business for African national governments, civil society, development partners, and all stakeholders working to grow Africa’s agricultural sector.
CAADP improves agricultural policies and strategies at the country level by facilitating a transition to evidence-based planning and implementation. It has created a strong foundation for effective partnerships and alliances, and inclusive dialogue among all participating NEPAD member countries striving to build stronger agricultural sectors.
7
projects. The four steps included: 1) specification of actionable programs and initiatives based on the CAADP pillars; 2) definition of a strategy to mobilize a limited number of lead financial partners for each of the programs and initiatives; 3) identification of major centers of expertise, international as well as regional and national, as lead technical partners; and 4) organization of a series of regional implementation planning (RIP) meetings to agree on rules and procedures for country and regional-level project preparation, in-country resource mobilization, access to funding by development partners, coordination and governance, and project performance review.
Major steps in implementing the roadmap would include building credibility among the development community; instilling a sense of ownership over CAADP among the RECs; developing a mechanism for peer review, mutual learning and benchmarking; and identifying lead technical institutions to provide the necessary strategic guidance.
C. Establishing CAADP’s credibility within the development community
The launch of CAADP represented significant change from previous strategic initiatives for African development. CAADP did not have much in common with historical efforts such as the Lagos Plan of Action, which was conceived as a reaction to development strategies proposed by external partners and financial institutions aligned under and leading to the structural adjustment programs of the 1980s. Instead, CAADP, as an African-owned and -led initiative, demanded accountability and progress from Africans themselves.
At first, both NEPAD and CAADP were greeted with skepticism from the international development community. There was doubt that African stakeholders were really serious abou the bold commitments put forward by the NEPAD initiative. Furthermore, the initially heavy programmatic and operational approach to CAADP raised, in particular, a lot of questions. Moreover, the the process being proposed was new to many African stakeholders who were accustomed to reacting to strategies proposed by external partners, and taking an advisory and consultative role at best. CAADP offered a clear alternative and a reversal: for the first time, African stakeholders defined the agenda and strategy and international community was cast in the advisory and consultative role. Establishing buy-in from bilateral and multilateral partners was not only critical to secure financial and political support for implementation, but protected CAADP from the threat of externally driven agendas. It also facilitates country level coordination among local development agencies and lay the groundwork for focused interventions on the ground.
The process of securing support for CAADP from international development partners evolved over a several years, marked by a number of key milestones, described below.
i) NEPAD Missions to Partner Agencies: From mid-2004 to early 2005, the NEPAD Secretariat sent high-level delegations to meet with a number of prospective international partner agencies to explore a scope for collaboration to support CAADP implementation, based on the roadmap. The objective of these meetings was to brief partners on the CAADP roadmap and propose specific technical initiatives that each partner might lead. Several partners
8
agreed to provide technical assistance in preparing concept notes for a series of RIP meetings planned for January through April 2005, and in analyzing and evaluating ongoing CAADP activities.
ii) The APF Meeting of October 2004: Another important step forward for CAADP came in October 2004, when the APF endorsed the roadmap at a meeting held in Washington, D.C. The forum’s backing created critical momentum for the initiative and helped NEPAD “sell” its strategy of giving implementing authority to the RECs and countries as it made the rounds to meet with development partners.
iii) The Accra Summit: A May 2005 CAADP summit in Accra, Ghana, was also pivotal. The meeting brought together bilateral and multilateral agencies with representatives from the RECs and member countries, to identify priority investment programs, agree on basic coordination and governance principles for CAADP, and explore necessary partnerships to speed implementation. Signaling a strong interest in CAADP, development partners sent a number of high-level participants to the summit.
iv) Alignment of Development Partner Strategies: In follow up to the Accra Meeting, a growing number of development partners started embracing the CAADP framework and started aligning their programs and strategies with the CAADP agenda. Examples includes the US Presidential Initiative to Eliminate Hunger in Africa; the European Commission’s Advancing African Agriculture Paper; efforts by the World Bank to link its operations to the CAADP Pillars; the active engagement by UK’s Department for International Development at the sectoral level after years of focus on support at the overall economy level and on rural livelihoods in general; and re-engagement in agriculture by the Swedish International Development Agency after a near two decade long absence from the sector.
v) Donor Engagement: Building Momentum. In the first few years of CAADP implementation, NEPAD engaged intensely with donors to build support for the program. As a result of successful NEPAD and AU lobbying, the G-8 nations regularly issued statements endorsing CAADP at their meetings since Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada (2002); Sea Island, Georgia, United States (2004); Gleneagles, Scotland (2005); and St. Petersburg, Russia (2006), all the way to L’Acquila, Italy (2009). These statements lent legitimacy to CAADP’s approach by fully aligning CAADP with the G-8 development agenda for Africa.
With the G-8’s support secured, NEPAD was in a much stronger position to engage with individual bilateral and multilateral donors-- specifically, DFID, USAID, SIDA, the World Bank and the EU-- to seek support for CAADP. In 2004 and 2005, NEPAD held a series of meetings with prospective donors and drafted a number of aide-memoires to articulate roles and programs for which donor leadership was sought. These documents served as the basis for future donor agreements.
9
D. Establishing leadership and ownership of the RECs
After the APF endorsed the CAADP roadmap in October 2004, the NEPAD secretariat was ready to take CAADP to the implementation stage, beginning with the RECs. Among the four action steps outlined in the roadmap, holding a series of CAADP RIP meetings was of imminent concern. The meetings would ensure empowerment and establish ownership over CAADP at the regional and country levels. Bringing the RECs fully into the CAADP process would take more than two years. Key milestones in establishing REC capacity and ownership are described below.
1. Program Implementation Concept Notes: In preparation for the RIP meetings, the NEPAD Secretariat commissioned a series of program implementation concept notes to advise
CAADP Donor Coordination Mechanisms
CAADP’s development partners coordinate their support for CAADP through two primary mechanisms: the World Bank Multi-Donor Trust Fund, which coordinates global donor funding, and the Global Donor Platform for Rural Development, which coordinates program approaches. They are described below.
World Bank Multi-Donor Trust Fund
The World Bank established the Multi-Donor Trust Fund for CAADP in 2008, to provide up to $65 million in support to the program over 5 years. In the World Bank’s view, African institutions needed an easily accessible, flexible, long-term funding mechanism as a follow-on to the DFID, USAID, and SIDA agreements, which expire in 2009.
The Trust Fund was conceived as a transitional mechanism to strengthen the institutional capacities of the key actors in CAADP implementation, empowering them to become true facilitators of the process. It has three objectives: 1) to support implementation and development of CAADP processes (especially the CAADP Partnership Platform, and country and regional roundtables) and the institutions leading these processed (especially NEPAD and the RECs); 2) to support development, implementation and monitoring and evaluation of CAADP pillar programs and the institutions responsible for them; and 3) to support the management of the Trust Fund and harmonization of activities of development partners in support of CAADP.
As of May 2009, donors to the Trust Fund included USAID, the Netherlands and the EC.
Global Donor Platform for Rural Development
The Global Donor Platform for Rural Development, based in Bonn, Germany, is a forum of about 30 international donors and implementing agencies that increases effectiveness and facilitates harmonization of donor support for rural development. It also acts as a global donor focal point for CAADP. Through regular meetings of CAADP development partners--including DFID, USAID, SIDA, the EU and IFPRI--it coordinates donor activities and alignment to African countries’ strategies for CAADP, with the goal of improving foreign aid effectiveness related to African agriculture. The Platform works with the NEPAD secretariat to set the agenda and provide input for twice-yearly CAADP Partnership Platform meetings.
10
meeting participants on relevant challenges and success factors within specific technical areas. These areas included: land management; water management and irrigation; agribusiness, supply chain and quality control; nutrition; and academic and professional training in the agricultural sector. The notes highlighted for each pillar area, key challenges facing African countries, successful approaches to dealing with the them, and lessons for the CAADP agenda. The notes delineated the main development policy and strategic issues in the implementation of CAADP and recommended specific actions to be taken by NEPAD member countries.
2. Regional Implementation Planning (RIP) Meetings: The meetings were held from January through May 2005 and hosted by the 5 leading RECs: COMESA, SADC, ECOWAS, UMA and ECCAS. The main tasks of these meetings were to: 1) review issues, lessons and experiences presented in the program implementation concept notes; 2) agree on best practices in defining investment programs; 3) identify knowledge and operational gaps; 4) draft terms of reference and establish a work program to fill these gaps, and revise the concept notes to produce a final implementation document within three months to guide investment project preparation and financial assistance planning; and 5) define a governance structure for each region to ensure effective coordination of programs and tracking of progress.
More than 150 delegates attended each RIP meeting. They included permanent secretaries/directors general of the Ministries of Agriculture and Finance; representatives of farmer organizations and agribusiness organizations; representatives from major banks; REC representatives; representatives of bilateral and multilateral agencies, including the G-8 nations; and representatives of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and other technical partners. Several key principles for CAADP implementation emerged from the RIP meetings.
i) First, participants agreed that the RECs would be the drivers of program implementation, working in partnership with national and regional partners;
ii) Second, it was agreed that the NEPAD secretariat would play a facilitative role in policy dialogue, advocacy, and fundraising, in addition to monitoring the 10 percent budget commitments by NEPAD member countries;
iii) Thirdly, development partners agreed to identify lead technical partners for each of the four CAADP technical pillars, working through the APF. Lastly, meeting participants recognized that civil society and the private sector had valuable expertise to offer the CAADP process, and welcomed them to participate in an advisory role.
The RIP meetings were critical in creating a broad consensus on the strategic direction of the CAADP implementation process, and a sense of readiness among RECs and countries to move the process forward. Key outcomes included: 1) endorsement and commitment to agreed-on rules and procedures by RECs and countries to implement individual CAADP
11
programs; 2) commitment by development partners to provide long-term financial assistance required to implement CAADP; and 3) identification of an initial set of early action projects to be launched immediately in each region.
3. Pretoria and London Meetings: In October 2005 and February 2006, the NEPAD secretariat convened two meetings, in Pretoria, South Africa, and London, respectively, where African stakeholders met with international development partners to decide on next steps to empower the RECs to move implementation forward. In Pretoria, development partners agreed, in principle, to support the RECs as key facilitators for CAADP at the country level. In response, NEPAD developed a country-level implementation concept note to guide objectives and expected outcomes for the CAADP implementation process at the country level, including the organization of country roundtables, as described below. Reaching consensus on what shape the CAADP process would take at country level was a major step forward.
At the conclusion of the London meeting, DFID, USAID, SIDA, the World Bank and the EC decided to commit both technical and financial support to the RECs. To streamline the process, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), which was already advising the NEPAD Secretariat, was asked to manage the grant funds and provide technical assistance to the RECs and their member states in planning implementation. Participants also refined priority areas under CAADP’s four technical pillars and identified potential lead technical partners, the future leap pillar institutions, to provide strategic guidance for each pillar.
4. Technical Assistance by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI): In 2006, DFID, USAID, and SIDA each agreed to provide three-year funding for CAADP implementation by regional and country stakeholders through IFPRI. Under separate agreements with each donor, IFPRI provides technical assistance to the NEPAD Secretariat, capacity building assistance to the RECs, and assistance to establish and operate the Regional Strategy and Knowledge Support Systems (ReSAKSS).
5. IFPRI Agreements with Regional Economic Communities: In late 2006/early 2007, IFPRI signed agreements with ECOWAS and COMESA to inform and track the CAADP implementation process3. Under the agreements, the RECs accepted the following roles and responsibilities: 1) recruit experts to design a regional compact containing detailed and implementable investment frameworks for priority technical areas; and 2) initiate a demand-driven process through country roundtables leading to the adoption of country compacts, detailing commitments and agreements related to agricultural sector policy budgetary
3 No agreements were signed with other three RECs who had held RIP meetings, for the following reasons. Because
they shared many of the same countries, SADC and COMESA agreed that all SADC countries would fall under the COMESA umbrella for CAADP implementation. The engagement between the NEPAD Secretariat and ECCAS or UMA did not reached a level that would allow for the technical assistance to be delivered.
12
expenditures, technical and financial assistance, and peer review and dialogue to enable countries to achieve the key CAADP targets of a 6 percent annual agricultural growth rate and 10 percent national budget share for agriculture.
By early 2007, COMESA and ECOWAS had taken full ownership of the CAADP process at the highest level, signaled by participation of their Secretaries-General and/or Commissioners at key regional and country events related to CAADP. Active engagement of the first set of member countries identified by the RECs had raised CAADP’s profile considerably, and the CAADP country roundtable process was well under way.
Selected Key Milestones in CAADP Implementation
October 2001: NEPAD established.
May 2002: CAADP consultation commences with key stakeholders in Africa.
June 2002: African Ministers of Agriculture endorse initial CAADP strategy in Rome.
December 2002: African RECs review CAADP and early action plan.
July 2003: African Union summit endorses CAADP and adopts the Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security, which includes a goal of 10 percent budget share for agriculture among all AU countries.
October 2004: APF endorses the NEPAD-developed CAADP roadmap in Washington, DC.
January-May 2005: Five planning meetings held with RECs across Africa to establish ownership of CAADP at country and regional levels.
May 2005: Summit held in Accra, Ghana. African heads of state commit resources and leadership to support CAADP implementation.
October 2005: Retreat in Pretoria, South Africa, brings together RECs, bilateral and multilateral development partners to agree on next steps. Partners agree, in principle, to support RECs. First set of CAADP countries identified. Stakeholders agree to hold twice-yearly meetings to facilitate reporting, coordination and cross-learning-- a mechanism that later becomes the CAADP Partnership Platform.
February 2006: NEPAD reaches agreement with COMESA and ECOWAS to lead CAADP. At a retreat in London, development partners commit to financial and technical support to RECs, funneled through IFPRI.
September 2006: Organization of the first CAADP Partnership meeting in Pretoria
March 2007: Piloting of the CAADP roundtable process and signing of the first CAADP compact in Rwanda
March 2008: Launching of the ReSAKSS website to inform and track CAADP implementation and
facilitate peer review, benchmarking, and mutual learning.
13
E. Implementing CAADP at country-level
Figuring out how to translate a continent-wide framework to concrete activities at the country level, and add value to existing country efforts without creating a parallel process, was a major challenge for NEPAD and CAADP stakeholders. In soliciting country support for CAADP, NEPAD and the RECs emphasized that the initiative does not create a new process but strengthens national efforts where needed. The country-level process takes stock of whether a country is on track to meet its own goals, while also supporting the MDGs and CAADP growth, budgetary, food and nutrition security objectives.
Country-level implementation is based on the idea that countries can fill an “empty shell”--i.e., the CAADP framework-- with activities as they see fit, while adhering to CAADP’s overall principles and targets. Particular emphasis is placed on reaching a 6 percent annual growth rate in the agricultural sector and a 10 percent national budget share for agriculture.
Country Roundtable Process
The CAADP country process is initiated on a demand-driven basis, through open consultation between RECs and their member countries. It is led by national governments and other local stakeholders, with support from the RECs and the NEPAD. The process is made up of three components, described below (see figure, Country CAADP Cycle).
1. Stock-taking and growth options analysis to align national efforts: The centerpiece of this component is the organization of country CAADP roundtables to review ongoing and national efforts and elaborate, if necessary, policy, strategy and investment efforts to align these efforts with the MDGs and CAADP principles and targets. The analysis includes a series of simulation studies, facilitated by IFPRI or other regional technical experts, to look at alternative strategies to achieve the 6 percent agricultural sector growth rate and the poverty MDG by 2015. As an outcome of these discussions, countries produce technical papers that analyze different scenarios for meeting internal and external targets for economic growth, poverty reduction and food security.
2. Building partnerships and alliances to accelerate progress: The goal of this component is to develop partnerships at country level to accelerate delivery on principles and targets within national policy and investment processes and meet the necessary policy, budgetary, and development assistance needs of CAADP. These might include public-private partnerships, business-to-business alliances, coordinating bodies for development assistance, and institutional mechanisms for policy dialogue, program progress and performance review.
3. Tracking budgets and expenditures: Reaching a 6 percent annual sector growth rate and a 10 percent national budget share for agriculture requires adoption and use of public expenditure reporting systems that allow detailed allocation, reporting and tracking of expenditures in agriculture. The country-level process therefore includes measures to improve budget classification, execution, and reporting systems to ensure reliable tracking of the level and efficiency of public sector investments.
14
Country Roundtable Tasks and Outcomes
At the October 2005 retreat in Pretoria, South Africa, NEPAD, the RECs and development partners agreed on a set of main tasks for the country roundtables, including: 1) to take stock and review how national policy and investment processes are tackling key country-level constraints to achieving the 6 percent growth rate; 2) to identify policy and investment gaps for CAADP implementation; 3) to devise action plans to bridge these gaps; 4) to reach agreement on budget, external resource requirements and institutional arrangements to implement CAADP activities; 5) to adopt country-level mechanisms for effective coordination and review of implementation progress and performance.
The Pretoria meeting also agreed on three types of expected outcomes from the country roundtables:
1. Country Progress and Performance Assessment. The stock-taking process provides a picture of the extent to which a country’s policies, strategies and investments are aligned and conducive to meeting the 6 percent growth rate and 10 percent budget share targets. The assessment should also indicate gaps in terms of sector policy, strategy, budgetary allocation, assistance, and dialogue that need to be bridged to put the country on track to achieve these targets.
2. Country CAADP Compact. The compact consists of a set of defined actions, commitments, partnerships and alliances taken by national governments, the private sector, the farming community and development partners to bridge the gaps identified in the stock-taking process. The compact guides country policy and investment responses to meet the 6 percent and 10 percent goals; long-term planning of development assistance to support country efforts; and public-private partnerships and business-to-business alliances to raise and sustain necessary investments in agribusiness and farming. It is signed by the Ministers of Finance and Agriculture, the AU Commission, RECs, development partners, and representatives of farmer organizations and the private sector.
3. Dialogue and Mutual Review Mechanisms. Country dialogue and review mechanisms should encourage improved policy and strategy planning and implementation, leading to greater efficiency in provision of public goods and services; incorporate broad and inclusive representation of stakeholder groups; use effective monitoring and evaluation procedures to ensure high-quality reporting on performance and progress; and link to the regional level dialogue and review process to facilitate cooperation, benchmarking and mutual learning.
Roles of Key Actors
The CAADP country roundtable process requires vision and commitment on the part of several actors, who need to work complementarily.
National governments lead the country implementation process through a national committee or working group, or other mechanism set up to ensure effective leadership and coordination for CAADP. Although Ministries of Agriculture are expected to be heavily involved in the process,
15
involvement by other Ministries, including Finance, Trade and Industry, as well as the agribusiness and farming communities, is considered critical to successful roundtable planning and country compact implementation. A national committee or working group is charged with planning the roundtable and coordinating participation of the RECs, NEPAD and development partners. National committees also coordinate the dialogue and review process once a compact is signed.
RECs and the NEPAD Secretariat coordinate and facilitate the CAADP implementation process across countries. RECs set up regional coordination mechanisms and knowledge support systems to facilitate cross-country cooperation, peer review and mutual learning. The NEPAD Secretariat assists with policy dialogue, mutual review, and coordination of development assistance.
RECs differ in their approach to coordinating CAADP country activity. ECOWAS, for example, coordinates implementation in 15 countries through a director-general in the ministry in charge of NEPAD or regional integration, while the ministry of agriculture is in charge of the technical leadership. The region has assembled a comprehensive work plan, with clear division of labor among technical agencies, and is on track to complete country-level design work by late 2009. COMESA does not employ a similar comprehensive strategy. Instead, it coordinates its country CAADP process on a bilateral basis, through a dedicated CAADP roundtable coordinator, who works with country steering committees, which in turn appoint one person to liaise with COMESA.
Development partners participate in the country roundtables and integrate relevant aspects of the country compact into their in-country planning processes, and at headquarters level if appropriate. Donors are expected to align their strategies for African agricultural assistance with the CAADP framework and join partnerships and alliances established by the CAADP country compacts.
Technical partners inform and guide the roundtable process to help country stakeholders identify technical priorities. Such partners include universities, specialized agribusiness and farmer organizations, sub-regional research organizations, the FAO and CGIAR research centers.
Country Implementation Status
Rwanda was the first country to implement CAADP. A request from the country’s NEPAD Unit in the President’s office of Rwanda to NEPAD around April 2006 asking for assistance in developing the agricultural component of the country’s Poverty Reduction Strategy, officially known as the Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS), made Rwanda an appropriate first candidate. The request came when the capacity issues at NEPAD and the RECs were still being sorted out. The technical work was carried out between July and December 2006 and the Rwandan government successfully organized its roundtable and signed the first country CAADP compact in March 2007. With the conclusion of the process leading to the signing of the compact in Rwanda, a model was now available to guide other
16
countries. However, RECs were just getting ready to put their teams together to engage with member countries to methodically implement the roundtable process described above (see also the CAADP roundtable cycle in the box below.
NEPAD tested the country roundtable process in Rwanda and applied lessons learned there to other member countries currently working their way through the cycle. As of December 2008, about a dozen other countries were nearing completion of a compact (see figure, Country CAADP Status). Under COMESA, Zambia, Uganda, Malawi and Kenya had completed stocktaking reports and simulation studies on agricultural growth and poverty reduction options. Stocktaking studies were under way in Burundi, Djibouti, Swaziland and Madagascar. Under ECOWAS, Ghana, Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger, Senegal and Togo had completed the stocktaking, and growth and poverty simulation studies were under way in Ethiopia and Nigeria. Mali, Sierra Leone and Liberia had initiated the analytical work.
The CAADP Round Table Cycle
Page 2
GOV; DPs, PRIVATESECTOR, incl. FARMERSIMPLEMENT
ROUND TABLESIGNING OFCOMPACT
DRAFTINGOF COUNTRY
CAADP COMPACT
GOV APPOINTFOCAL POINTS
REC&GOVLAUNCHPROCESS
COUNTRY STEERING & TECHNICALCOMMITTEE
STOCK TAKEGROWTH
INVESTMENTANALYSIS
CABINET MEMO ANDENDORSMENT
START
REGULAR REFINEMENTAND ADJUSTMENT
REGULAR REFINEMENTAND ADJUSTMENT
17
As of September 2009, three more countries have signed their compacts (Burundi, Ethiopia, and Togo), the first batch among the above countries to do so. All other 14 member states of ECOWAS are scheduled to sign theirs by the end of October. Uganda has scheduled its roundtable meeting on October 29, 2009. If Kenya and Zambia sign their respective compacts by the end of the year, the goal of 20 compacts will have been reached by the end of 2009 as planned (See maps below).
CAADP COORDINATION, POLICY DIALOGUE AND STRATEGIC GUIDANCE
Because CAADP is a continent-wide program and includes partners at the international, regional and national levels, coordinating all actors and activities around a common program goal and vision is challenging. Several institutions have been built into CAADP to serve this coordinating function, while also encouraging dialogue for cross-learning and providing technical guidance for CAADP activities. Their roles are described below.
A. Role of the NEPAD Secretariat
Managed by a small staff based in South Africa, the NEPAD Secretariat constitutes one tier of NEPAD’s three-tiered management structure, working in tandem with the African Heads of State and Government Implementation Committee and the NEPAD Steering Committee. The secretariat, which has now been fully integrated into the AU Commission, serves as the lead coordinating body for all NEPAD technical programs, and thus is charged, in the agricultural sector, with overseeing CAADP implementation. The secretariat does not directly implement programs, but sets overall program strategy, promotes policy advocacy, mobilizes resources and supports implementation through the RECs and NEPAD member countries.
As a continent-wide facilitator, NEPAD is uniquely positioned to: 1) use its political capital to facilitate access by African countries to a substantially larger pool of development funding and technical expertise than they could mobilize individually and separately; and 2) facilitate benchmarking, mutual learning and exchange across countries to accelerate the spread and adoption of successful development models and best practices.
The NEPAD secretariat coordinates CAADP through five strategic functions: 1) promoting CAADP principles in implementation processes and investment programs, helping countries to adapt CAADP principles, operationalize the technical pillar frameworks, and use the CAADP roundtable processes; 2) managing communication and information to support CAADP implementation and partnerships, for example through establishing a knowledge database and executing public information campaigns; 3) facilitating and coordinating monitoring and evaluation, including assessing impact and facilitating the sharing of lessons and peer review; 4) building partnerships to link resources with agricultural investment programs; and 5) harnessing key thinking and experience on emerging national and international issues related to agriculture, to articulate African perspectives and contribute to the evolution of the CAADP agenda.
18
Sudan
AlgeriaLibya
MaliChad
Niger
Egypt
Angola
Congo (DRC)
EthiopiaNigeria
Namibia
Mauritania
Tanzania
Zambia
Kenya
South Africa
Somalia
Botswana
Mozambique
Morocco
Congo
Madagascar
CameroonC. Africa Rep.
Gabon
Zimbabwe
C. IvoireGhana
Guinea
Uganda
W. Sahara
Tunisia
Senegal
BeninBurkina Faso
Malawi
Eritrea
Liberia Togo
S. Leone
Lesotho
G. Bissau
Burundi
Djibouti
Eq. Guinea
Swaziland
Comoros
Cape Verde
S. Tome and Principe
Seychelles
SeychellesSeychelles
CAADP IMPLEMENTATION PROGRESS: JULY 2009
Implementation status
Not officially launched
Officially launched
Cabinet memo and endorsement
Stocktaking and growth options
Drafting of country CAADP compact
Preparing for RT and compact signing
Implementation Implementation status for:Cape Verde: Focal point appointedS. Tome and Principles: Not officially launchedComoros: Stocktaking in progressMauritius: Focal point appointedSeychelles: Stocktaking in progress
Not officially launchedOfficially launchedCabinet Memo
Technical Analysis
Compact DraftingRT Preparation
Implementation
IMPLEMENTATION STATUS
CAADP IMPLEMENTATION PROGRESS: SEPTEMBER 2009
Implementation status for:• Cape Verde: Preparing for RT
and compact signing• S. Tome and Principles: Not
officially launched• Comoros: Stocktaking in
progress• Mauritius: Focal point
appointed• Seychelles: Stocktaking in
progress
Sudan
AlgeriaLibya
MaliChad
Niger
Egypt
Angola
Congo (DRC)
EthiopiaNigeria
Namibia
Mauritania
Tanzania
Zambia
Kenya
South Africa
Somalia
Botswana
Mozambique
Morocco
Congo
Madagascar
CameroonC. Africa Rep.
Gabon
Zimbabwe
C. IvoireGhana
Guinea
Uganda
W. Sahara
Tunisia
Senegal
BeninBurkina Faso
Malawi
Eritrea
Liberia Togo
S. Leone
Lesotho
G. Bissau
Burundi
Djibouti
Eq. Guinea
Swaziland
Comoros
Cape Verde
S. Tome and Principe
Seychelles
SeychellesSeychelles
Implementation status
Not officially launched
Officially launched
Cabinet memo and endorsement
Stoctaking and growth options
Drafting country CAADP compact
Preparing for RT and compact signing
Implementation
Not officially launchedOfficially launchedCabinet Memo
Technical Analysis
Compact DraftingRT PreparationImplementation
IMPLEMENTATION STATUS
19
On the global level, the secretariat has been successful in garnering support from a number of development partners and in advocating for alignment of donor strategies with the CAADP framework. At the regional level, the secretariat provides technical assistance and capacity building support to the RECs as they implement CAADP, while coordinating their work continent-wide. At the country level, the secretariat provides support the RECs’ political leadership and coordination work to advance the country roundtable process, and review country efforts to ensure compliance with CAADP goals.
B. Role of the pillar institutions
CAADP’s selection of four technical pillar areas, and of lead technical partners to oversee pillar activities, reflects the program’s mission to improve policy planning and implementation, and move the agricultural sector toward adopting best practices as well as evidence- and outcome-based policies and processes.
The role of the pillar institutions, which have to be Africa-based, is two-fold: 1) to take leadership in mobilizing qualified expertise and organizing and managing a technical peer review process to develop a pillar framework document; and 2) to ensure that CAADP countries draw on the technical tools and guidance provided in the framework document as they progress through the country implementation process.
Pillar framework documents are developed through the work of Expert Reference Groups, who identify key strategic challenges in each pillar area, examine options to address these challenges, and identify best practices to help RECs and countries tackle challenges. Expert Reference Groups are composed of qualified technical experts and practitioners representing key CAADP stakeholder groups.
Once an Expert Reference Group completes its assessment, the resulting framework serves as guidance for all CAADP stakeholders working in each pillar area. The document streamlines the process for program design, ensuring that CAADP has a strong technical foundation on which to propose activities, and enables countries to easily access best practices and key lessons.
The framework document recommends investment programs that show potential for best use of funds; facilitates in-country alignment and harmonization of CAADP efforts; facilitates peer learning and review for better strategic thinking and analysis; and advises on building partnerships that promote transparency, accountability and shared commitment to an agricultural growth agenda.
Pillar institutions work with the RECs to ensure that the pillar framework responds appropriately to country needs and regional processes. This includes incorporating initial lessons learned from the country roundtable process. RECs play a critical role in bringing the pillar framework to the country level, ensuring, through the roundtable process, local internalization and buy-in. The RECs themselves provide a checks-and-balances function as the pillar framework is designed, ensuring that the document offers a clear value added for the regional and country stakeholders.
20
The above work under CAADP’s four pillars is led by the following lead institutions:
Pillar 1 (land and water management) is led by TerrAfrica4 for the land component, and the University of Zambia and the Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS) for the water component. The land component of the pillar framework document, developed by TerrAfrica is known as the Strategic Investment Program (SIP) for Sustainable Land Management.
Pillar 2 (market access) is led by the Conference of Ministers of Agriculture for West and Central Africa (CMAWCA). Its framework document is titled, Framework for the Improvement of Rural Infrastructure and Trade-Related Capacities for Market Access (FIMA).
Pillar 3 (food supply and hunger) is led by the African Center for Food Security (ACFS) of the University of KwaZulu Natal and CILSS. Its framework document is titled, Framework for African Food Security (FAFS).
Pillar 4 (agricultural research) is led by the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA). Its framework document is titled, Framework for African Agricultural Productivity (FAAP).
All the above framework documents have been completed, including detailed implementation guides. The pillar 2 framework document, FIMA, has a companion document detailing blue prints and a roadmap for the implementation of 9 early actions programs (see box below).
C. Role of the Regional Strategy Analysis and Knowledge Support System (ReSAKSS)
ReSAKSS provides policy-relevant analysis, data and tools to improve policymaking, fill knowledge gaps, promote dialogue, and facilitate the benchmarking and review processes associated with CAADP implementation. The system is organized into three regional nodes, in West Africa, East and Central Africa, and Southern Africa. The corresponding RECs (i.e., COMESA, ECOWAS and SADC) established these nodes in collaboration with the NEPAD secretariat and CGIAR. The nodes are located at three Africa-based CGIAR centers: the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Ibadan, Nigeria; the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi, Kenya; and the International Water Management Institute in Pretoria, South Africa. ReSAKSS-South Africa also receives technical support from the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.
IFPRI coordinates a common agenda across the three nodes, provides technical and analytical support, and maintains ReSAKSS links with a broad network of CAADP partners. The ReSAKSS nodes are governed by steering committees chaired by their respective RECs. These committees provide oversight and ensure that the ReSAKSS agenda remains relevant to development priorities, CAADP and regional strategies.
4 The TerrAfrica partnership is a US$4billion, 12-year campaign, supported by the African Union, World Bank, United Nations, European Commission, and sub-Saharan African governments, to combat desertification and other land degradation in Africa through sustainable land management. For more, visit www.terrafrica.org.
21
Setting Priorities within the CAADP Pillar Framework: The case of FIMA
The CAADP Pillar 2 framework document--Framework for the Improvement of Rural Infrastructure and Trade-
Related Capacities for Market Access (FIMA)--provides a good example of how pillar institutions set priorities for technical implementation. FIMA’s proposed early actions for Pillar 2, developed by the Conference of Ministers of Agriculture for West and Central Africa, include the following:
1. Agricultural trade: To create the required institutional, regulatory and policy frameworks to facilitate the emergence of regional economic spaces and boost the expansion of regional trade and cross-country investments.
2. International trade advocacy and negotiations: To better articulate African interests in bilateral and multilateral trade negotiations to remove foreign policy distortions that limit market access and affect the competitiveness of African exports.
3. Quality management and trade certification services systems: To facilitate compliance with international trade agreements and overcome non-technical barriers affecting the growth of African exports.
4. Infrastructure growth initiative: To develop and implement a master plan to link current regional transport infrastructure corridor projects to potential agricultural growth poles.
5. Agricultural investment and enterprise development platforms: To promote the adoption of effective and efficient tools for public-private partnerships and business-to-business alliances to boost agricultural value chain development.
6. Agribusiness joint venture fairs: To expand joint venture opportunities in the agribusiness sector by facilitating contacts between entrepreneurs and investors in the early stages of enterprise creation.
7. Fertilizer and seed systems: To a) speed up the emergence of broadly accessible, cost-effective and competitive seed and fertilizer supplies and financing systems; and b) significantly raise the use of both inputs by smallholder farms.
8. Value chain integration of smallholder farmers: To develop effective and scalable tools to support partnerships and alliances between governments, private sector operators and leading local farmers’ organizations that can broaden the access of smallholder farmers to commercial and technical services.
9. Vocational training and workforce development systems: To accelerate the modernization of farming systems and ensure the long-term technological competitiveness of Africa’s smallholder and agribusiness sectors in the global economy.
22
ReSAKSS Support to CAADP
Achieving CAADP’s goals requires efficient and consistent planning and execution of sector policies and programs; effective translation of government expenditures into public goods and services; and appropriate mechanisms to regularly and transparently measure performance and keep policies and programs on track. ReSAKSS plays a critical role in the CAADP process by improving access to high-quality information and analysis, thereby providing policymakers with credible evidence on which to base decisions.
In close collaboration with the RECs and member countries, ReSAKSS provides support for CAADP in three areas: strategic analysis, knowledge management and communications, and capacity strengthening (See box below).
Strategic analysis activities help RECs and countries assess their progress toward realizing the CAADP goals of 6 percent growth in the agricultural sector and a 10 percent national budget share for agriculture. ReSAKSS helps countries assess policy and investment options to accelerate growth and reduce poverty and hunger, in alignment with the MDGs. In addition, IFPRI leads ReSAKSS efforts to develop a monitoring and evaluation framework, indicators, and benchmarks to inform and track CAADP implementation.
Under the knowledge management and communications component, ReSAKSS and its partners collect data on key indicators such as public spending; integrate and build upon existing data, tools and knowledge; and facilitate timely access of that knowledge by African policymakers and development partners to allow for better decision making. To this end, ReSAKSS has developed an innovative, IT based platform, including a recently redesigned web site (see www.resakss.org), to house and disseminate the data and knowledge products, including two dozens of key indicators, to help inform the CAADP review, learning, and dialogue processes.
Finally, capacity building activities include promoting collaboration in generating and disseminating data and providing access to knowledge and information products among all CAADP partners. In particular, ReSAKSS helps formulate shared standards and protocols for the collection, storage and exchange of data, as well as cutting edge methodologies for data and policy analysis. Under this component, ReSAKSS provides technical support to the CAADP roundtable process and sets up country strategic analysis and knowledge support systems (SAKSS).
Country SAKSS Nodes
The ReSAKSS mechanism is an outgrowth of the country strategy analysis and knowledge support systems (SAKSS) originally conceived by IFPRI to support country strategies under USAID’s Initiative to End Hunger in Africa. In their initial form, the SAKSS were resource intensive and focused on a limited number of countries. Their cost and dependence on external expertise limited the scope of scaling them up over a broad range of countries. To adapt the
23
system to CAADP needs, it was therefore decided to lower the cost and technical barriers by: (i) setting up 3 nodes at the regional level to centralized some of the services and support functions and thereby create economies of scale; and (ii) work with countries to establish low-cost knowledge system entities, or SAKSS nodes, using primarily local expertise, and link them to the regional nodes. The new ReSAKSS model creates demand for knowledge and instills ownership of the system in CAADP’s country and regional stakeholders, ultimately yielding lower-cost country nodes and broadening access for end users, including private sector partners and farmers’ organizations.
At the country level, the regional ReSAKSS nodes and their local partners facilitate stocktaking exercises and provide support for the analytical work required as part of the CAADP country roundtable process. As countries complete their roundtable and sign their compacts, the ReSAKSS provides the necessary TA to individual countries to set their respective SAKSS nodes, drawing from local universities, research centers, and other think tanks. The country SAKSS node allows for proper follow-up to roundtable outcomes and subsequent policy debates. From the country’s perspective, the purpose of the SAKSS node is to maintain momentum generated by a roundtable and use knowledge and analysis to inform policy
The ReSAKSS as a Tool for Peer Review, Benchmarking, and Mutual Learning
24
choices. The country node is expected to address information and knowledge gaps that emerge during development of the CAADP country compact and help strengthen local capacities.
The availability of cutting edge analytical tools and high quality data bases, including broad indicator baselines, all by-products of the analysis leading to the CAADP roundtables, will enable the SAKSS nodes to effectively guide and track CAADP’s implementation progress and performance, and inform national review and dialogue processes. They will thereby play a critical role in the transition towards evidence- and outcome-based planning and implementation for better growth, poverty, and food security outcomes.
D. Role of the CAADP Partnership Platform
CAADP stakeholders first discussed instituting a regular forum for CAADP partner review, coordination and cross-learning at an October 2005 retreat in Pretoria, South Africa. Partners expressed a need for a senior-level mechanism with a continent-wide perspective to ensure effective monitoring and progress against CAADP goals. Such a forum would meet twice a year. The APF endorsed the forum concept--under the name, CAADP Partnership Platform-- in May 2006. NEPAD organized the Platform’s inaugural meeting in September 2006. Since that time, three subsequent Platform meetings have been held, and a 5th is scheduled for November 9 and 10, 2009 in Abuja, hosted by ECOWAS. Capacity constraints at the NEPAD Secretariat partly prevented a more regular organization of the meetings in the past.
The Platform is co-chaired by the NEPAD secretariat and the AU’s Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture. Its members include REC and country leaders, senior-level representatives of bilateral and multilateral agencies, representatives of CAADP’s pillar institutions, and representatives of regional private sector and farmer’s organizations. In addition, the Global Donor Platform for Rural Development (see box, page 13) assists in setting the agenda for Platform meetings, and provides donor data and material to Platform participants.
The purpose of the Platform is to ensure that CAADP activities benefit from the perspectives and experience of a range of partners to facilitate progress toward CAADP’s goals and vision. Its objectives are to: 1) review progress in support of CAADP implementation, including that of RECs and country roundtables; 2) promote a common understanding of the CAADP framework and implementation at the regional and country levels; 3) enhance coordination among CAADP partners in program implementation and to avoid duplication of effort; and 4) enhance commitment to resource mobilization for the African agricultural sector.
To effectively review progress of CAADP stakeholders, the Platform has developed a set of indicators allowing it to: 1) measure progress across countries and regions toward the CAADP national agricultural growth target of 6 percent; 2) track the level and efficiency of public sector expenditures in the agricultural sector; and 3) review the level and efficiency of development assistance to the agricultural sector.
25
Benefits of participation in the Platform include reduced transaction costs for CAADP policy and implementation agencies at all levels, and a more consistent understanding of CAADP objectives and implementation mechanisms, reducing duplication of effort and streamlining processes.
The Platform has also evolved into a robust “marketplace of ideas,” helping stakeholders develop regional and country CAADP activities that build on and take into account emerging lessons and successes across Africa. Platform discussions have contributed to consolidating and strengthening the country roundtable process, building CAADP’s communications and advocacy capacity, delineating roles and responsibilities among key actors, and providing clarity on decision points and next steps, particularly related to the post-country compact phase of CAADP and in donor mobilization.
Following each Partnership Platform meeting, NEPAD releases a communiqué as a way to keep major stakeholders informed of CAADP-wide issues, lessons and actions. The Platform also issues regular progress reports to the AU and APF.
The above institutions and organizations are providing critical leadership and support for the implementation of CAADP. They are not the alone, however, in moving the agenda along. There are a range of other key actors, including farmer organizations such the Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions (SACAU), the East African Federation of Farmers (EAFF), and the Reseau des Organisations Professionnelles de Producteurs Agricoles (ROPPA) in West Africa. The two boxes below present the key implementing parties across the different major regions in Africa and an overview of the CAADP implementation functions and processes.
5. CHALLENGES AND SUCCESSES
A. Challenges
Building support for CAADP and getting implementation off the ground has been a years-long process, requiring consistent commitment from stakeholders at the global, continental, regional and country levels. Since African Ministers of Agriculture first endorsed the CAADP strategy in Rome in 2002, a number of challenges have arisen that might have blocked CAADP’s path forward. A few of the larger challenges are described here as a means to inform other large-scale development initiatives that might face similar issues.
Managing coordination, outreach, advocacy and dialogue
Since its inception, NEPAD has envisioned itself as a global partnership. To be effective on the international stage, its secretariat needed to quickly build a reputation as a well-run organization, with international-caliber capacity in staffing, management, outreach and policy and technical leadership. When the secretariat opened its doors, NEPAD has struggled to hire and retain a critical mass of expert staff, implement appropriate management and review procedures, and strengthen the communications and advocacy function sufficiently enough to
26
speed up implementation of an agenda of unprecedented ambition and reach such as CAADP. This lag in capacity building resulted in impeded coordination and dialogue between NEPAD and its country, regional and international partners, and posed barriers to acceptance of NEPAD as a competent, global-level organization.
Securing buy-in and collaborating with multilateral/bilateral agencies
The NEPAD Secretariat has faced a number of challenges related to technical and political oversight that have affected its relations with international donor agencies.
First, NEPAD’s management structure inadvertently created a vacuum for technical leadership. NEPAD’s steering committee is composed of personal representatives of members of the Heads of State and Government Implementation Committee. Because these representatives hold political appointments and are often not technical experts, they have been unable to always provide appropriate technical guidance for NEPAD. Thus, NEPAD’s political oversight function
CAADP IMPLEMENTING PARTIES
27
CAADP: Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program; NEPAD: New Partnership for Africa’s Development; RECs:
CAADP: Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program; NEPAD: New Partnership for Africa’s Development; RECs:
Regional Economic Communities; RIF: Regional Implementation Framework; M&E: Monitoring and Evaluation; CMAWCA:
Conference of Ministers of Agriculture of West and Central Africa; CILSS: Permanent Inter‐State Committee for Drought Control
in the Sahel; ACFS/UKZN: African Center for Food Security at the University of KwaZulu Natal; UNZA: University of Zambia;
FARA: Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa; SLWM: Sustainable Land and Water Management; FIMA: Framework for the
Improvement of Rural Infrastructure and Trade‐Related Capacities for Market Access; FAFS: Framework for African Food
Security; FAAP: Framework for African Agricultural Productivity; ECOWAS: Economic Community of West African States;
COMESA: Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA); SADC: Southern African Development Community; ECCAS:
Economic Community of Central African States; and ReSAKSS: Regional Strategic and Knowledge Support Systems
Dialogue & Review
Government reps REC Reps Stakeholders CAADP Focal Points
Regional
Africa‐ wide
Round Table ‐Stocktaking and
Analytical studies ‐Develop and Implement Country Compact
Progress Review & Dialogue: Country Review Teams ‐Improved Implementation ‐Progress Performance and Tracking ‐Improved Governance
African Union
Commission
NEPAD
Secretariat
‐Facilitate overall
implementation ‐Mobilizes Resources & technical expertise
Mutual Review & Dialogue:
Africa Partnership Forum &. CAADP Partnership Platform ‐Improved Coordination ‐Improved Governance
RECs: COMESA
ECOWAS SADC ECCAS
CAADP Focal Points
RIF ‐Develop & implement
Regional Compact ‐Support & Coordinate National Implementation
Peer Review & Dialogue: CAADP Advisory Council and Support Group ‐Benchmarking and Leaning ‐Best Practices ‐Improved Governance
ReSAKSS ‐Strategic Analysis
‐Capacity Building ‐M &E ‐Knowledge, Tools
Pillar 1 SLWM
Pillar 2FIMA
Pillar 3FAFS
Pillar 4
FAAP
Strategic Guidance: Pillar Framework Documents
M&E
Actors Implementation
Country
Pillar 1: CILSS & UNZA Pillar 2: ACFS/UKZN & CILSS Pillar 3: CMAWCA Pillar 4: FARA
Africa‐
wide
Overview of CAADP Implementation Functions and Processes
28
has been overemphasized at the expense of technical oversight, which is equally, if not more, important to the program’s success.
Second, reporting relationships among the NEPAD Secretariat, the Heads of State and Government Implementation Committee and the AU Commission did not allow for close oversight of NEPAD activities. The NEPAD Secretariat is required to report to the Heads of State and Government Implementation Committee, which then reports to the AU General Assembly. The Committee which meets twice a year and covers the entire NEPAD agenda, does not have the opportunity to provide consistent guidance and feedback to the secretariat. The latter struggled hard to formulate and implement the program’s technical agenda, but it was not getting the proper political and technical oversight and support.
Weaknesses in technical oversight have affected the quality of dialogue and engagement between international partners and the NEPAD secretariat despite aggressive, early outreach to secure support for CAADP at the highest levels. Specifically, the lack of oversight and political leadership at the highest level on the African side prevented the alignment and buy-in by multilateral and bilateral agencies from taking place speedily during the early stages of the CAADP agenda.
The leadership of a core group of development partner agencies, in particular USAID and Dfid, whose governments held the presidency of the G8 during the first two years of the CAADP roll out process, the inception of the CAADP Partnership Platform, and the proactive role of the Global Donor Platform for Rural Development have made the difference in getting buy-in from international partners. The latter two mechanisms created an environment where the lack of technical and political oversight on NEPAD’s part could be overcome. The platforms provide regular forums for CAADP exchange and dialogue that aren’t available through either the APF or NEPAD.
Changing mindsets at the country-level
CAADP calls for significant change at the country level related to planning and implementation of agricultural programs; transitioning to evidence- and outcome-based policy planning; and instilling mechanisms for review, monitoring and evaluation, and benchmarking. CAADP also calls for a rethinking of partnerships and alliances at the country level, to include all stakeholders in dialogue and policy planning, as well as for renewed national government leadership in agricultural policy. Moreover, CAADP puts on its head the traditional, externally driven model of development partnership. It requires African countries to fully own and lead the development agenda, a step that few countries, if any, have ever taken in their post-independence history.
At CAADP’s inception, the African side and international development agencies agreed that change was needed in each of these areas. Change could only happen, however, with heavy involvement of other parts of country governments, in particular the Ministry of Finance, in addition to the Ministry of Agriculture, the private sector, farmer’s groups and other local stakeholders. Securing widespread country-level support for CAADP has been a continuing
29
challenge. Insufficient capacities for effective political and technical leadership from NEPAD and tensions between the latter and the AU Commission over several years around leadership and direction of the CAADP agenda prevented the two continental organizations from effectively leveraging their considerable political capital to raise CAADP’s political profile at the country level and boost the pace of its implementation by member countries.
Mobilizing funding for CAADP implementation
CAADP has faced early on significant challenges in getting in-country international partner agencies to follow-up on their respective governments’ commitments to the agenda, and, at the country level, to get governments to honor the 10 percent agricultural budget share commitment agreed to under the Maputo Declaration. Ministries of Agriculture have had to push Ministries of Finance and presidential offices to support the 10 percent pledge, often without sufficiently well coordinated political and technical leadership from the AU Commission and NEPAD. The fact that only 8 countries had met the 10 percent budget share target by 2007 is a good indication of how much more stronger the advocacy work at country level needs be.
Consistent, effective, and high quality dialogue is necessary to engage the highest levels of government and development agencies, particularly given the required high profile of CAADP and the significant level of resources that are needed for its successful implementation. Much of the advocacy work has been left to the RECs and Ministries of Agriculture, who have tried to make the case for CAADP government-wide. Fortunately, the recent management level changes at the AU Commission and NEPAD Secretariat have brought in strong leadership and created the conditions for effective political engagement to ensure proper dialogue on CAADP at the cabinet and development agencies’ leadership levels.
B. Successes
Creating a collective framework for planning and implementation partnership
The CAADP roadmap, adopted by the APF in late 2004, was a turning point in the implementation of CAADP. It defined a new, framework-oriented approach to empower RECs and country governments to choose their own priority areas for investment in agriculture; outlined an initial six-month action plan; and clearly defined roles for all partners. It effectively formulated and communicated CAADP as a simple and crisp agenda around 4 pillars and a handful of principles and targets, to add value to ongoing efforts by RECs and their member states to accelerate growth, reduce poverty, and improve food and nutrition security. This clarity gave CAADP the credibility it needed to achieve buy-in from key stakeholders and allowed development partners to plan for long-term financial support of the project.
Since 2004, CAADP has made major strides as a collective agenda and framework to accelerate economic growth and reduce poverty and food insecurity across Africa. For the first time in the history of agricultural strategy development and cooperation on the continent, there is broad consensus on objectives, targets, implementation processes and partnership principles for agricultural growth. While many countries are still working toward the CAADP goals of a 10
30
percent budget share for agriculture and 6 percent annual growth in the sector, CAADP has already succeeded in creating a new model for development --one that is led by Africans and insists on technical excellence and accountability--that should serve Africa for decades to come.
Maintaining African ownership and leadership
CAADP is led by the RECs, NEPAD member countries and Africa-based technical institutions, who are charged with overseeing content for the program’s four pillar areas. RECs have taken solid leadership of the CAADP agenda and work with countries to use the CAADP framework and support countries’ own efforts to achieve economic growth, poverty reduction and food security objectives. The RECs support countries to take stock of ongoing efforts and identify gaps with respect to meeting CAADP objectives and principles. Countries take ownership of the process by engaging with civil society and development partners to strengthen implementation at the country level, and in reviewing national commitments to make sure CAADP goals are met. With as many as 20 countries expected to complete the roundtable process by the end of 2009, national governments are well on their way to fully integrating CAADP into their development strategies.
In addition, the four pillar institutions have provided world-class expertise and facilitation to guide CAADP program planning and implementation. The pillar framework documents developed under their guidance serve as critical technical reference and guidance to the RECs and countries as they develop and implement investment programs under CAADP. They have effectively mobilized African experts to analyze key challenges and identify success factors, best practices and partnership models to accelerate CAADP’s progress and improve outcomes.
Promoting subsidiarity, participation and inclusiveness
Incorporating the principle of subsidiarity in the 2003 CAADP roadmap was key to ensuring African ownership over the program. Decentralizing decision-making authority to the lowest level stakeholder, through the RECs and country leaders, allowed countries to adapt CAADP activities to their own needs, making the program much stronger than it would have been if administered out of the NEPAD secretariat as an Africa-wide operational program.
Participation in CAADP has been facilitated primarily through the CAADP Partnership Platform, which brings stakeholder voices to bear on the implementation process. The Platform’s twice-yearly meetings encourage policy dialogue and review among the AU, NEPAD secretariat, RECs, member countries, development partners, the private sector and farmers’ groups. The meetings ensure that major strategy and policy issues are identified and handled at the highest level and in a timely fashion to facilitate steady implementation progress.
Moving toward evidence- and outcome-based planning and implementation
Under the leadership of the RECs and CGIAR, the ReSAKSS was created to facilitate peer review, benchmarking, adoption of best practices, and mutual learning among member countries in order to improve policy and program planning and outcomes. ReSAKSS’ regional nodes have strengthened CAADP’s impact by linking regional research organizations and
31
networks and country level experts to generate salient technical information to inform CAADP implementation and track progress.
Information generated as part of the preparation of country roundtables is having great impact on policy formulation at the country level, enabling national leaders to better identify gaps and appropriate strategies to meet CAADP goals. By accessing data on the ReSAKSS web site, countries can easily measure their progress against other countries in their region and across the continent. As implementation proceeds, they will be able to learn from each other and share experiences regarding which practices and strategies work best and in what settings.
Repositioning agriculture in national and development assistance strategies
The NEPAD secretariat, the RECs and national governments have made significant strides in raising the profile of CAADP in the international development community. NEPAD’s advocacy push for CAADP garnered early success with regular endorsements by the G-8 nations at summits from Kananaskis, in 2002 to l’Acquila, in 2009. These statements lent legitimacy to CAADP’s approach by fully aligning CAADP with the G-8 development agenda for Africa.
The CAADP Partnership Platform provides another important forum to ensure alignment of the CAADP agenda across all partners and stakeholders and the Germany-based Global Donor Platform for Rural Development is active in coordinating global donor efforts for CAADP. Form initially a core group around Germany, Sweden, UK, and the United States in 2006, the rank of donor countries and organizations supporting CAADP actively and aligning their assistance strategies with its agenda is growing steadily. Recently, a multi-donor trust fund has been established at the World Bank to provide a mechanism for continued funding for CAADP.
Repositioning agriculture in national strategies has come through the work of the CAADP country roundtables, which result in national agreements to reach the 10 percent budget share and 6 percent annual growth rate goals. As mentioned above, 20 countries are expected to completed country compacts by the end of this year.
6. LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE CAADP PROCESS
A. Instilling country ownership and leadership of Africa’s development agenda
Agricultural development is an economy-wide phenomenon, requiring stakeholder participation and steady economic performance. The agricultural sector needs consistent leadership and coordination to reach sustainability and scalability. Such leadership has to come from within; externally driven agendas encompass many interests, lack the stability needed for long-term growth, and pull national governments in different directions. Local ownership redirects centers of interest from the global to the national level.
Diversity at the national level leads to defined objectives and targets, and allows a consensus to develop over time. Despite the high profile of international aid, it is critical to remember that
32
most resources come from national governments. If these resources are not aligned with a national agenda, that agenda is unlikely to succeed.
African ownership of CAADP grew out of an Africa-wide initiative--NEPAD--which centered on making African governments responsible for stepping forward and taking change of their development agenda. Implementation of CAADP enabled this vision to be fulfilled, particularly through outreach to RECs and county governments. The same level of local leadership and ownership was critical to the success of the often cited Asian green revolution, particularly in India. The same outcome can be expected under CAADP, should African countries and institutions continue to own and lead its agenda and implementation.
While NEPAD created a supportive environment, CAADP implementation has restored and strengthened the elements of credibility, participation and inclusiveness in agricultural development agenda. This has been an entirely new and unprecedented approach to strategy development and implementation in the continent: African institutions at continental level work together to establish the required credibility, political support, and advocacy to reach out to the global development community; and CAADP, as a collective framework, creates space for dialogue at the regional and country levels so that development agencies could consider and accede to local stakeholder priorities.
Furthermore, NEPAD’s decision to “franchise” CAADP, as outlined in the implementation roadmap, allowed RECs and local stakeholders to take full ownership of the program. In the original vision of the CAADP strategy, there was not enough room for local ownership and leadership. NEPAD’s decision to adopt a framework approach as opposed to a programmatic approach to the implementation of CAADP, shape the agenda as ”a shell, allowing individual countries and regions to fill the “shell” with their own strategic policy and investment priorities. This approach, which may have slowed down the implementation in the eyes of some, has created a solid foundation for long term progress and successful outcomes of CAADP5.
CAADP has strengthened country processes and nurtured a new mindset at the country level not by creating a parallel process for agricultural development, but by working within and adding value to ongoing national development efforts. Ministers and national policymakers have thus been more receptive to the CAADP process because it has not been perceived as an outside threat. Moreover, many African countries made agricultural policy behind closed doors prior to CAADP, allowing little to no input by stakeholders outside of government. CAADP has altered this traditional process by introducing the concepts of inclusiveness and participation -- an emphasis that holds great appeal for international development partners as well as professional
5 The time from concept to start of execution of projects by bilateral and multilateral development agencies
focusing on single agricultural sub‐sectors, such as irrigation or export promotion, and in one country can take up
to 24 months, despite their large pool of expertise and significant experience. By that yardstick, the
implementation of CAADP, which is dealing with the entire agricultural sector and a large number of countries at
once has made good progress.
33
associations and civil society organizations who were initially skeptical that African governments would step up and lead CAADP or do so on a truly participatory basis.
B. Building partnerships and alliances for development at the continental level
Development Partners
Getting CAADP off the ground was not simply a challenge for African institutions and actors, it was a challenge for international development partners as well. The process required a change in mindset and an education in how a new African paradigm might work. Introducing an African-led program like CAADP had never been attempted before, and both bilateral and multilateral partners had to adjust to playing a secondary role in engaging with the program; CAADP’s mandate tipped the balance toward African governments and stakeholders.
Both African governments and local partner agencies faced hurdles in achieving internal buy-in for CAADP but were able to overcome them. Governments needed to reach out to a number of domestic constituencies to allow CAADP to move forward, while partner agencies needed to reconcile concerns about CAADP between headquarters and field staff. Because of the initial concentration of dialogue and advocacy at the continental and regional levels, agencies’ headquarters staff were often more aware and thus open to supporting CAADP; field staff sometimes viewed the model as an external threat. Local development partners, in particular, had never before been required to align their programs with major initiatives that grew out of a continental consensus. Initially, many of these partner agencies were slow to recognize that CAADP was not an external agenda but one that grew out of priorities chosen by African governments.
The key to cementing new partnerships between African governments and outside donors lay in CAADP’s message, framework and vision, which ultimately offered a more workable model than isolated and parallel agendas and programs put forth by institutions. CAADP captured the attention of development partners once those partners realized the framework would be based on open consultation and technical rigor.
However, in cases where governments took bold and decisive action to lead and implement CAADP, development partners responded positively. One example occurred in Rwanda, where the Ministry of Finance’s public commitment to achieving a the 10 percent national budget share for agriculture persuaded development partners--at the last minute-- to sign the CAADP country compact. Going into the roundtable meeting, there was no consensus as to the principle of signing the CAADP compact. Rwanda’s experience has also clearly demonstrated the value of strong government leadership. As illustrated in the graph below, both funding for and growth of the agricultural sector have picked up rather strongly in the aftermath of the roundtable meeting and the signing of the CAADP compact.
Partnerships with Civil Society/Private Sector
Creating partnerships for CAADP between African governments and civil society and the private sector has been a slower process because governments are accustomed to policymaking
34
behind closed doors; open consultation is not something that has been practiced with frequency. Where African governments have reached out, however, they have found civil society to be eager to form partnerships. Farmer’s organizations in particular have demonstrated great enthusiasm for CAADP more so at the continental and regional levels, where they have greater dialogue and advocacy capacities, but also increasingly at the country level.
Engaging the private sector has proven more difficult. Private sector entities operate at the country level and are primarily concerned with CAADP’s Pillar 2 activities related to agribusiness. Because they have a narrow focus, getting private sector groups involved in the planning stages of CAADP’s country compacts--where the agenda is broad-- has been a hard sell. Their engagement should grow with the post roundtable investment activities.
Overall, CAADP partnerships have succeeded based on mutual agreement to a collective framework -- one that is solid in its conception, principles, rigor and clarity. Critically, the CAADP framework also allows for a collective discovery process and open dialogue, so that all parties can engage in joint inquiry and find solutions. The development community, national
IFPRI, June 2009
Rwanda’s Agriculture Post Compact
Source: Diao 2009.
35
governments, civil society, academic organizations and other partners have each benefited from this openness.
C. Raising and maintaining the profile of agriculture
CAADP has been able to raise the profile of agriculture in Africa in part due to fortuitous timing. Just as NEPAD began to advocate for CAADP on the international stage, the G-8 nations signaled an interest in expanding their commitments in Africa. The NEPAD secretariat saw an opening, engaged in structured and consistent advocacy at the highest levels of the G-8, and eventually succeeded in placing agriculture (and support for CAADP) on the agenda of several G-8 summits, as indicated earlier in this report.
The fact that Britain and the United States--two early and vocal supporters of CAADP-- each held the presidency of the G-8 during the years CAADP was rolled out helped the cause enormously. And within DFID and USAID, individual staff members’ commitment and effectiveness also proved to be instrumental in selling CAADP on the international stage. But CAADP would not have been able to garner growing support had the program’s vision, framework and implementation plan not been soundly designed and ready to present to outside partners.
Though NEPAD staff, early on, had to confront a number of internal management challenges and reconcile competing interest groups around CAADP, they remained committed to CAADP’s fundamental goals and vision, and did not allow such external challenges and pressures to distract them reshaping the agricultural development agenda around the broader NEPAD principles of accountability, leadership, and ownership.
Within Africa itself, the CAADP process has raised the profile of agriculture through engaging the RECs and through the country roundtable process, which has reached out to a broad array of actors and policymakers in a range of sectors and Ministries. Open consultation and discovery has allowed buy-in from partners who previously may not have felt engaged in, or motivated by, the policy process.
D. Developing better sector policies and investments for better growth and poverty outcomes
The adoption of better agricultural policies in Africa requires deeper understanding of the issues and an acceptance that policy planning be based on evidence rather than broad notions and concepts. Through introduction of the CAADP country roundtable process, many African policymakers and other stakeholders now debate policy choices and outcomes in a more rigorous way, drawing from locally generated data and research findings.
The process has led Agricultural Ministries to better appreciate the added value of better informed planning processes; they are put in a better position to put together stronger policy and program packages and are able to make stronger arguments for their strategic priorities. Agricultural Ministries in particular have found a new voice through CAADP and can better articulate their visions and programs. CAADP has simplified business for Agriculture Ministers,
36
who often have to reconcile a number of different constituencies with competing priorities. The roundtable process addresses these many concerns and motivates constituencies to work toward a common goal.
In sum, the transition to evidence- and outcome-based planning has strengthened partnerships for agriculture in Africa-- among international donors as well as within national governments -- and has reversed a longstanding bias against agricultural policy, often perceived as weak.