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...

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...

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...

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....

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....

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....

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....