Regional Approaches to Food Security in Africa: The CAADP and other Relevant Policies and Programmes in SADC
Authors
In 2003 the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) was established by the assembly of the African Union (AU) aiming to raise agricultural productivity by at least 6% per year and increasing public investment in agriculture to 10% of national budgets per year.
After an initial phase focused primarily on interventions at the national level, there is growing awareness on the need to work more on the regional dimensions of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP).
Key Purpose of ECDPM Study
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) never formally launched a regional CAADP compact preparatory process as it is currently developing a Regional Agricultural Policy (RAP).
For a long time the RAP and CAADP seem to have been perceived as two competing frameworks, within and outside the region. Now this tension seems to be clearing, with most involved actors recognizing that the RAP, under the overall Regional Indicative Strategic Plan (RISDP), will indeed be the SADC regional CAADP compact.
This paper outlines the results of such ‘mapping exercise’ for SADC, and is meant to stimulate further discussions among stakeholders and to contribute to the consultative processes around the implementation of a regional CAADP compact in SADC.
Key Findings of ECDPM
To some stakeholders, the exact relationship between the CAADP and the RAP not being fully clear yet, the initial ambiguity on possible competition between these two frameworks is clearing up.
The formulation of the RAP and the regional CAADP compact preparation are now the same process
RAP consultations are now broader and more aligned to the CAADP methodology.
SADC Development partners' contribution to the regional food security plans has been lukewarm, with weak donor coordination and not-functioning (though existing) donors-SADC engagement structures
Another emerging message from the SADC stakeholders is that the regional agricultural plans, which have the overall RI framework (RISDP) explicitly at its core, should take into account the cross-cutting general bottlenecks to RI experienced so far by SADC.
Read Discussion Paper 128b
