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ReSAKSS Annual Conference / Blog

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September 13, 2024

The continent is not achieving the goals set ten years ago in Malabo. Nevertheless, there has been growth, albeit on a lower level. New guidelines for public investment in agriculture are required. Harvest in Senegal. Mechanisation in African agriculture stands at about ten percent. 65 percent of labour is performed by humans, about 25 percent by draught animals. © AfDB via Flickr   Most African countries have not reached the Malabo target of investing 10 percent of their national budgets in agriculture. But focusing only on the Malabo target disguises the fact that public investment in agriculture has nevertheless risen significantly. To make African agriculture more resilient to shocks and improve food security and agri-food systems, more public and private investment is urgently...

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September 13, 2024

The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme Biennial Review: An innovative accountability and reporting tool The Biennial Review (BR) process of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) has underscored the need to strengthen data systems and capacities and to promote evidence-based policymaking and decision-making. As part of the mutual accountability process, every two years, African Union (AU) member states compile and report data on over 300 data parameters to assess their progress toward achieving the Malabo Declaration’s agrifood system transformation goals by 2025. The country assessments are consolidated into a continental CAADP BR report that is presented during an AU Heads of State and Government Summit at the end of each BR cycle. After four cycles, the CAADP BR has generated...

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September 9, 2024

After four cycles, the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Biennial Review (BR) process has generated not only four continental BR reports, but also a large cross-country time series dataset (2014-2022). Yet, despite the growing knowledge products, uptake of the BR data and results by CAADP stakeholders for evidence-based policy and decision-making remains rather low. Why the low uptake of BR data? The challenges The low uptake of CAADP BR data can be attributed to a host of challenges ranging from limited data availability, access, awareness and capacities to low data quality and, thus, reduced reliability of the data. For example, a recent independent assessment of the CAADP BR process noted inadequate dissemination of BR results following the release of the continental report,...

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August 24, 2022

Through the 2014 Malabo Declaration, African leaders committed to conduct a biennial review (BR) to track country progress toward achieving commitments aimed at steering agricultural transformation by 2025. With Africa now having successfully conducted three cycles of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) BR, have the results, good or bad, helped to trigger any policy adjustments to ensure that countries stay or get on track to achieve the commitments by 2025? Anecdotal evidence gathered from key CAADP stakeholders by researchers from the Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System (ReSAKSS) points to policy and programmatic changes in several countries following the first and second BRs in 2017 and 2019, respectively. These include the governments of Lesotho and Mozambique recommitting to...

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August 24, 2022

Since March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused major disruptions to life as we know it, with wide-ranging spill-over effects permeating various sectors. While Africa fared better than predicted in terms of health impacts, COVID-19 has severely affected the continent’s agri-food systems and jeopardized 20 years of economic recovery, reversing years of progress in improving the livelihoods of millions of people. Amid the triple threat of COVID-19, climate change, and fragile food systems, the Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System (ReSAKSS) at AKADEMIYA2063, in partnership with the African Union Commission (AUC), convened the 2021 ReSAKSS Annual Conference from November 15-17, 2021. The discussions focused on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on African food systems and policy options to...

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November 25, 2020

By Tsitsi Makombe Last in a series of blog posts on the release of the 2020 Annual Trends and Outlook Report (ATOR) during the virtual 2020 ReSAKSS Annual Conference Nov. 3–5. The theme of the 2020 ATOR is "Sustaining Africa’s Agrifood System Transformation: The Role of Public Policies." Read the other posts here, here, here, and here. Transforming agrifood systems provides the best opportunity for achieving the Malabo Declaration goals of ending hunger and malnutrition, reducing poverty, and enhancing the resilience of agricultural production systems and livelihoods. This kind of transformation is a complex undertaking in which policy choices play a critical role, as they have to constantly adapt to a changing global landscape, the complexity of local economies, and the challenges and opportunities posed by economic and climate shocks as...

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November 5, 2020

The rapid proliferation of information and communication technologies (ICTs) offers great promise for transforming smallholder agriculture in Africa. Going beyond the narrow view of “technologies” as a tool, the broader concept of “digitalization” is a potential game changer. Building climate resilience for smallholder farmers to boost productivity; improving access to financing for all stakeholder groups to increase profitability along the value chain; and addressing social inclusion gaps for youth, women, and other marginalized groups are some of the areas that digitalization can be effectively deployed in building more efficient food systems....

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November 5, 2020

Food safety has never featured prominently on Africa’s development agenda. When it is an issue, typically the focus has been on high-value food items produced for export, while food safety in domestic markets has been largely neglected, both by governments and development partners. This must change. Recent research has shown that the health and economic consequences of foodborne diseases in Africa are significant and growing, as urbanization and income growth prompt dietary changes that increasingly expose consumers to food safety hazards....

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November 3, 2020

Africa’s rural transformation is hampered by the difficulties and missed opportunities farmers face in accessing markets. Many of these problems can be traced to farmers’ individual struggles—i.e., a lack of economies of scale—in consistently procuring inputs and marketing their outputs. Collective action mechanisms such as producer organizations could facilitate smallholders' access to input and output markets....

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October 31, 2020

Africans have always recognized the importance of farm mechanization. Many who have grown up in rural areas have, at some point, worked on a farm or watched others do so, and know firsthand the back-breaking labor involved. Mechanical power that can provide relief from such drudgery has always been desired and appreciated....

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