Mobilizing Aid for Trade to Enhance CAADP Regional Trade and Private Sector Initiatives

Background

The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) is playing a crucial role in improving coordination among various players for the development of agriculture strategies, and mobilizing expertise and resources to support them.

While initially focused on increasing public investment in agriculture and donor support to public expenditure, CAADP has also led to the realization that a real transformation of Africa’s agriculture will depend on its capacity to develop more efficient agriculture markets and boost intra-African trade, and to use public resources to leverage private investment, both foreign and domestic.

Key Purpose of ECDPM Study

Two of the main challenges in building the enabling conditions to boost intra-African trade and in capitalising on private investments are: 

• weak coordination between agriculture and trade institutions in planning and developing coherent national and regional strategies in support of efficient agriculture markets;
• limited scale and coordination of the number of initiatives established to catalyse private sector engagement and investment in agriculture.

Key Findings of ECDPM

The approach presented in this note aimed at strengthening the capacity of African countries and RECs to leverage synergies and pool public and private resources across Aid for Trade (AfT), CAADP and related private sector initiatives should lead to a number of significant results.

To strengthen coordination and planning capacity across sectors and private sector initiatives, the African Union Commission (AUC) and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) Planning and Coordination Agency (NPCA), in collaboration with the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and CAADP Development Partners, have established two complementary platforms:

• The Joint Action Group on Regional Trade and Infrastructure (JAG-RTI) aims to mobilize coordinated support for the development and implementation of regional CAADP Compacts and Investment Plans (IPs)
• Joint Action Group on Private Sector Initiatives (JAG-PSI) aims to facilitate coordination, complementarities and synergies of CAADP-related private sector initiatives.

Policy dialogue should be led by AUC in collaboration with NPCA and the RECs, while the other activities would also be supported by CAADP partners involved in the JAG-RTI and JAG-PSI.