Getting Ready for Take Off: Lessons for Regional CAADP
Authors
Background
Almost a decade has gone by since the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) was launched in 2003. The endorsement of CAADP by African heads of states presented a timely approach to renew interest in and prioritize the continent’s agriculture agenda, as well as put food security objectives at the fore of national, regional, continental and even global processes.
With CAADP, governments and regional economic communities (RECs) are more inclined to initiate, take ownership and commit to being responsible for their own national and regional agricultural development actions.
Key Purpose of ECDPM Study
The process of introducing, developing, launching, implementing and eventually monitoring CAADP, holds great potential to serve as a rallying point for a wide range of stakeholders- from development partners to non-state actors to private sector investors.
As traction around the CAADP framework has gradually increased, a lot of emphasis has been placed on driving the CAADP agenda at the country level. While 29 countries across Africa have launched CAADP compacts, only one regional compact has been developed.
In order to identify concrete actions for faster progress on regional CAADP, it was important to take a step back to get an overview of where each REC stands. On this basis, ECDPM was given the mandate by the CAADP Development Partners Task Team (DPTT) to conduct a series of mapping exercises of the CAADP regional process in COMESA, SADC, EAC and ECOWAS.
Key Findings of ECDPM
Despite the fact that some of the challenges are common across regions, the status of regional CAADP implementation and likely pace of progress are very different across RECs.
Region-specific approaches are required - each REC will need to stimulate regular and targeted dialogue among stakeholders on how and what they can contribute to the development and effective implementation of regional CAADP.
RECs could follow a ‘roadmap’ detailing what the region intends to do in the next years to make a regional CAADP compact effective. A publicly announced ‘workplan’ to which each interested stakeholder could then respond and associate through enhanced support, alignment and coordination.
An “area of improvement” to be covered in the roadmaps would be the relation between implementation of CAADP at regional level and the overall regional cooperation efforts in the specific RECs.
