Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – November 8 2024: Leaders of Sierra Leone and Guinea have vowed to replicate Ethiopia’s success story of agricultural transformation in their endeavors to ensure food security.
Following the conclusion of a three-day World Without Hunger Conference, the leaders visited the successful achievements gained in household farms in the East Showa zone of Oromia region.
Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio and Prime Minister Mamadou Oury Bah of the Republic of Guinea said that they have been desirous to emulate the achievements of Ethiopia, where it has tremendously embarked on activities of agricultural transformation.
The commitment of Sierra Leone and Guinea aligns closely with the CAAPs agenda, which aims to transform Africa’s agricultural sector through regional agro-industrial hubs. The CAAPs initiative, like Ethiopia’s agricultural reform, focuses on leveraging Africa’s natural resources, modernizing agriculture, and increasing food production to achieve food security, economic growth, ecological preservation and job creation.
ABOUT The CAAPs
The Common African Agro-Parks Programme (CAAPs) was initiated in 2019 as one of the concrete initiatives of the Comprehensive African Agricultural Programme (CAADP) to be implemented within the framework of the African Union (AU) Agenda 2063 in order to achieve the CAADP Malabo commitments, particularly the commitment to “triple intra-African trade in agricultural commodities and services.”
Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire – November 7, 2024: The fisheries and aquaculture sector in Côte d’Ivoire is set to benefit from substantial financial backing from the African Development Bank over the period 2025-2029.
The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group approved a loan of €24.63 million to Côte d’Ivoire to boost the development of fisheries and aquaculture value chains. This funding will enable the country, which has been undergoing rapid growth, to increase the sector’s contribution to the blue economy, both nationally and locally.
Courtesy of this new project, fishing activities in coastal towns such as Sassandra will be able to expand significantly. In addition, the project plans to improve fishing methods by supporting public and private fish farms in the west and south of the country.
This initiative aligns strongly with the CAAPs agenda, as it prioritizes sustainable economic growth, infrastructure development, job creation, and enhanced local and national value chains within Africa’s natural resource sectors.
Through these shared goals, the projects support Africa’s ambition to harness its natural resources for sustainable growth, laying the groundwork for a more resilient and prosperous continent.
ABOUT The CAAPs
The Common African Agro-Parks Programme (CAAPs) was initiated in 2019 as one of the concrete initiatives of the Comprehensive African Agricultural Programme (CAADP) to be implemented within the framework of the African Union (AU) Agenda 2063 in order to achieve the CAADP Malabo commitments, particularly the commitment to “triple intra-African trade in agricultural commodities and services.”
In a move to strengthen Africa’s agricultural sector, Afreximbank, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, and the World Food Programme (WFP) have signed a three-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to support African farmers, agro-processors, and commodity traders with a minimum of $2 billion in financing by 2025.
Benedict Oramah, president/chairman of the Afreximbank board, announced this during the Farm, Food and Allied Technologies (FARMATECH) Expo 2024 in Abuja. According to him, the initiative aligns with AfCFTA’s objectives to bolster intra-regional trade and enhance food security across the continent.
This partnership, aligns with the CAAPs’ goals to promote agricultural productivity, enhance intra-regional trade, and support sustainable economic growth across Africa.
These initiatives aim to strengthen agricultural productivity and value addition, reducing Africa’s dependence on unprocessed commodity exports and enhancing its global competitiveness.
Afreximbank’s commitment to aligning with AfCFTA’s goals for intra-regional trade parallels CAAPs’ goal of creating efficient, interconnected agro-industrial zones that facilitate trade within Africa.
CAAPs prioritize capacity-building within agro-industrial parks, offering farmers and local entrepreneurs the tools, knowledge, and financial support needed to scale up their businesses and generate economic value. This is adequately addressed in the MoU.
ABOUT The CAAPs
The Common African Agro-Parks Programme (CAAPs) was initiated in 2019 as one of the concrete initiatives of the Comprehensive African Agricultural Programme (CAADP) to be implemented within the framework of the African Union (AU) Agenda 2063 in order to achieve the CAADP Malabo commitments, particularly the commitment to “triple intra-African trade in agricultural commodities and services.”
The president of the African Development Bank Group Dr. Akinwumi Adesina and his counterpart at The World Bank Bank Ajay Banga, stressed the need for more global action against hunger, a goal slipping further away due to the combined effects of conflict, economic challenges and climate change.
“There is nothing more important than feeding the world. Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) play an important role in that,” Adesina declared. He stressed the crucial role of international financial institutions in helping achieve this task.
Addressing the topic of climate change and farmers’ livelihoods Banga noted that in Africa, only 4% of global climate financing goes to agriculture.
He stressed the need for scalable solutions to support Africa’s small farmers. “The focus must be on scale and ecosystems,” he said, pointing to the World Bank’s efforts to enhance farmers’ access to energy, internet, and credit guarantees, creating a comprehensive support network.
Both leaders highlighted the urgency of engaging Africa’s youth in agriculture. The African Development Bank’s “Enable Youth” program and the World Bank’s focus on youth employment initiatives, reflect a shared commitment to harnessing Africa’s demographic dividend for agricultural transformation and economic prosperity.
“If we don’t put finance behind young people’s ideas, that’s the biggest risk,” Adesina warned.
ABOUT The CAAPs
The Common African Agro-Parks Programme (CAAPs) was initiated in 2019 as one of the concrete initiatives of the Comprehensive African Agricultural Programme (CAADP) to be implemented within the framework of the African Union (AU) Agenda 2063 in order to achieve the CAADP Malabo commitments, particularly the commitment to “triple intra-African trade in agricultural commodities and services.”
Abuja, Nigeria, October 22, 2024, | by Abbas Jimoh
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Alliance for Agroecology in West Africa (3AO), West Africa Organic Network (WAfrONet) and ActionAid Nigeria (AAN) have reached an agreement to develop a sustainable security system for food sovereignty in West Africa.
The organisations at a Stakeholders ‘Forum on Agroecology and Organic Agriculture in West Africa’, on Monday in Abuja said the collaboration is through the implementation of public policies and interventions that value the structural solutions provided by resilient practices derived from agroecology, organic farming and climate-smart agriculture.
President of the ECOWAS Commission, Dr Omar Alieu Touray, said the collaboration became necessary because food systems in West Africa are currently facing several and severe crises, including the effects of climate change.
He lamented that the conventional models of agricultural production adopted to date have shown little resilience to the effects of climate change and sometimes contribute to soil impoverishment, thereby exacerbating food insecurity, income depletion and the vulnerability of populations.
He said despite contributing very little to global warming, with just
1.8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, ECOWAS countries are at the heart of the climate change challenges facing the first half of the 21st century.
He also said the most pessimistic scenarios, between now and 2060, West Africa will experience a temperature rise of +2.3°C, i.e., a warming of +0.6°C per decade.
“The number of days of potentially lethal heat could reach 50 to 150 per year for a global warming of 1.6°C and 100 to 250 per year for a global warming of 2.5°C, with the greatest increases in coastal areas.
The risk of heat-related mortality is now 6 to 9 times higher than the 1950-2005 average at 2°C global warming,” Touray said.
The Country Director of ActionAid Nigeria, Mr Andrew Mamedu, said the forum was of strategic importance, especially as it provided an opportunity to share and analyse, with all the agricultural and political players in the region.
“The Strategic Partnerships for Agroecology and Climate Justice in West Africa (SPAC-West Africa) project, which spans three countries-Liberia, Nigeria, and Senegal- is currently demonstrating the power of agroecology in transforming the lives of women and young people across the region.
“This three-year project, funded by ActionAid International’s Transformative Impact Fund (TIF), seeks to improve the lives of 250,800 smallholder women farmers and young people, reaching over 1.5m household members. Its ultimate objective is to deliver food and nutrition security, climate-resilient livelihoods, and a transformed agricultural landscape across West African communities,” Mamedu said.
He noted the importance of the mechanisms and opportunities for increasing funding for the three approaches to sustainable agriculture, instruments that can be mobilised, their effectiveness and efficiency; and pragmatic support policies in the region.
ABOUT The CAAPs
The Common African Agro-Parks Programme (CAAPs) was initiated in 2019 as one of the concrete initiatives of the Comprehensive African Agricultural Programme (CAADP) to be implemented within the framework of the African Union (AU) Agenda 2063 in order to achieve the CAADP Malabo commitments, particularly the commitment to “triple intra-African trade in agricultural commodities and services.”
