By Murimi Gitari
Kampala Declaration brings new hope to Africa’s food systems
Q&A: Panagrimedia spoke to Boaz Blackie Keizire, AGRA’s Director for Policy and State Capability, on the latest commitments by the African Union (AU) member states to transform food systems on the continent and the upcoming Financing Agri-food Systems (FINAS) 2025 Dialogue. The African Union in January adopted a new agricultural development strategy, dubbed the Kampala Declaration, aimed at making the continent food-secure by 2035.
What is your assessment of the Malabo Declaration which preceded this new strategy?
The Malabo Declaration was a very critical decision because it built on the lessons from the previous 10 years since 2003 in Maputo Declaration, which focused initially on mobilising public resources around the 10 percent public expenditure on agriculture. But the game changer in Malabo was a commitment that instituted a mutual accountability and a peer review mechanism in which countries report on the progress they are making and they able to really see how others are performing against the commitments they made. These made countries to compete in designing very strong agriculture and investment plans.
But the commitments weren’t met, why?
Key challenges that the Malabo Declaration faced were mostly beyond the control of countries. But there has been a lot of progress. The first big challenge were the climate shocks. We saw southern Africa being hit by El Nino and the Horn of Africa was being hit by drought. Climate change shocks really compromised the delivery of the goals and targets of Malabo Declaration. COVID-19 also disrupted the supply chains of inputs like fertiliser and food items.
What was AGRA’s role in the Malabo Declaration?
AGRA was instrumental in supporting the delivery of Malabo Declaration. We supported the African Union in shaping the biennial review processes, strengthened countries’ seed systems, supported policy reforms that liberalised seed and fertiliser industries, strengthened markets across borders by looking at nontariff barriers, reducing roadblocks and eliminating export bans. We worked with governments to reduce unpredictable policies and incentivise farmers. In a country like Tanzania, we supported the streamlining of farmer registration to make fertiliser distribution more efficient.
Women and youth still face an uphill task accessing finance and markets, why is this?
Due to our historical and cultural behaviour, women and youth don’t have access to financial resources simply because they are unable to find collateral, don’t have access to land and face lots of other bottlenecks and hinderances in engaging in agriculture. So they require special interventions at the continental level. As AGRA, we have been able to develop what we call the youth agrobusiness strategy, a continental policy framework. We have also been supporting AU member states to mobilise resources and design policies and strategies that create incentives for access to land and productive assets like finance for women and youth. This is to intentionally incentivise youth and excite them to use the digital tools to be part of the agricultural value chains.
How different is the Kampala Declaration from Malabo and Maputo?
Our experience with COVID-19 shaped the design of the Kampala Declaration for the next 10 years. In the Kampala Declaration, the 10 percent public expenditure on agriculture was upheld but also made sure that we look at new financing models like blended finance, pension funds and other kinds of resources that are required to drive agri-food systems. A new tool has been developed which we call Financing Flows for Food Systems (3FS). Financing flows will be able to tell us how much resources are going to different parts of the food systems elements. This will enable governments to make decisions on where we need to increase allocations and so on.
How do you see AGRA’s role in the implementation of the Kampala Declaration?
We commit, based on our experience and comparative advantage, to strengthen seed systems, sustainable farming, regenerative agriculture models, last-mile delivery, extension as well as fertiliser application. AGRA will also be supporting countries to design bankable investment plans for mobilisation of resources and new money that would not have come because of lack of clear investable programmes and business cases that could attract private sector and public sector investment. We have also enhanced our programme on youth and gender to respond to the inclusivity commitment of the AU. We are very intentional in terms of designing projects and programmes that are specifically targeting youth. We are looking at end-to-end value chains so that they are really incentivised to be part of those particular investments. AGRA has helped with the design of the new policy agenda for the continent. We are also investing in domesticating those policies, so that we can see results change at the farm level so that farmers can increase their incomes, young people are able to get jobs and women are integrated in the value chains.
Will Kampala Declaration succeed where Malabo and Maputo floundered?
I’m very optimistic that the Kampala Declaration will learn from the lessons or failures to fare better. We are also in an era of digitisation, especially with young people being the biggest segment of the population on the continent. Harnessing the potential of the youth and the women to be part of the transformation and the digital solutions and technology, we are going to see more progress in terms of how you make farmers access their input through digital means.
Through market intelligence information and satellite imaging, we will gain understanding what’s happening on the farm and be able to have precision in terms of where the inputs are. On mobilising resources, we see a lot of commitments. So we want to work with all the different models, pension funds, investments, innovative financing tools and models that exist within commercial banks. Those resources can actually be harnessed across the continent to increase investment and create policy incentives. All this needs thought leadership.
How important is Financing Agri-food Systems (FINAS) 2025 Dialogue in May?
The FINAS conference is designed to bring in data and evidence-based solutions towards sustainably financing agri-food systems in Africa. It will address key questions such as: How do we bring in additional new money?
How do we make sure that we harness some of the innovations that we never had before? Today we are talking about green or climate-related jobs that can be harnessed.
The existing financing instruments, how have they worked? What are the new models?
So, the FINAS conference has a huge opportunity for countries and all stakeholders to learn about sustainably investing and financing agri-food systems and I would urge everyone to plan to attend.
Do you see African governments this time around meeting their 10 percent public expenditure commitment?
Yes. I am very optimistic. First of all, if you redefine what food systems contain and they are able to see where resources are going they’re able to increase. If you show ministries of finance the biggest returns on investment are, where you are going to get jobs, where you are going to get the growth of the economy, they are likely to give more because they have not been refusing. The challenge is that they have been overwhelmed by a multitude of different needs of the governments. But if you demonstrate that agri-food systems are going to be central to driving the economy and other sectors and services in digital space, I am optimistic that the governments will even give additional resources. But we also need innovative financing tools instead of relying and depending on borrowing. We need to design specific policies for smallholder farmers and young people to access money that are within central banks and commercial banks, reduce the collateral or security requirements and allow for a longer repayment period for agriculture-related businesseses and so on.