Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP)

Posted in Agriculture & Food Security

The Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP), under the African Union is Africa’s policy framework for agricultural transformation, wealth creation, food security and nutrition security and economic growth.

EAC has embraced and domesticated the CAADP agenda and is committed to the June 2014, African Heads of State Malabo Declaration on Agriculture Growth and Transformation in Africa.

The goals of Malabo include reducing levels of poverty, ending hunger on the continent and tripling intra-African trade in agricultural goods, among others by 2025. EAC engagement in the CAADP process has been supported by USAID Kenya and East Africa and the Alliance for a Green Revolution (AGRA).

Key achievements under the CAADP programme include the following;

1. adoption and signing of the EAC CAADP Compact by the Sectoral Council on Agriculture and Food Security in 2017. The EAC CAADP Compact has been developed with the objective of catalyzing and facilitating the coordination of regional and crosscutting programmes of regional nature. It is a high-level commitment and agreement that defines EAC agricultural transformation priorities and focuses on facilitating coordination of regional programs that complement agricultural programs at the national level contained in the national CAADP compacts and national agriculture investment plans (NAIPs).

2. In an effort to operationalize the CAADP Compact, the EAC Regional Agriculture Investment Plan (RAIP) has been adopted as a regional coordination and harmonization framework whose purpose is to complement and  accelerate achievement of CAADP goals at the national levels. It will also serve as a central instrument to rally financial, institutional and technical support required to drive agricultural transformation.

3. EAC Partner States have developed Malabo compliant National Agriculture Investment Plans (NAIPs) that are aligned to the EAC RAIP. NAIPs are the main vehicles for implementation and actualization of Malabo Declaration commitments.

In 2017 and 2018, the EAC Secretariat worked closely with the African Union Commission, the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency, the Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System (ReSAKSS) and other RECs in supporting and coordinating the process of preparing the 1^st and 2^nd Biennial Reports which were submitted to the AU General Assembly. Biennial Agricultural Review process involves tracking, monitoring and reporting on implementation progress in achieving commitments under Malabo Declaration.

EAC is among the RECs with outstanding performance and the Republic of Rwanda was ranked as the top performing country in Africa in implementing Malabo commitments in the 1^st and 2^nd Biennial Review reports (in 2017 and 2019 consecutively).

In 2017, EAC was on track in meeting targets on:

1. Re-commitment to CAADP process;
2. Boosting intra-African trade in agriculture commodities;
3. Halving poverty through agriculture by 2025; and
4. Mutual accountability for actions and results.

In 2019 Biennial Review report, the region was on track in meeting commitments on boosting intra-African trade in agricultural commodities and enhancing resilience to climate variability. However, none of the EAC Partner States achieved the commitment on increasing agriculture spending to 10% of the national budget. This commitment is paramount in catalyzing agricultural transformation.