This document discusses the importance of alignment for the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) to sustain its momentum. It notes some successes of CAADP including aligning technical and political processes, but also failures like overfocus on financing and supply issues. Stakeholders want stronger coordination, a coherent African vision, and less talk with more action. The document argues CAADP must help countries respond to challenges like youth unemployment and urbanization. It stresses the need to align science agendas and CGIAR with CAADP to drive an agriculture-led transformation in Africa centered around strengthening institutions, policies, and people.

1. Why Alignment is critical for
CAADP in Sustaining the
Momentum
Mandi Rukuni
Presented at the Inoformation Sharing Workshop on the development of a
Science Agenda for Agriculture in Africa with inputs for CAADP-CGIAR
alignment
Ballsbridge Hotel, Mezzanine Suite, Upper Level Dublin, Irelan April 13,
2013

2. Continuity and change…
• Building on success of the first decade
• Alignment on failures of the first decade
• The most significant success of CAADP has been the alignment
of the technical process with the political process

3. The African Context
• African economies on a sustained growth path
• Yet Africa still: food insecure; low agric
productivity; low rural incomes
• Urbanization: 50% urban by 2035
• Youthful population: (40% under age 23)
• Is CAADP providing the instrument to respond
to these challenges and opportunities?

4. Challenges/Opportunities facing
CAADP
What stakeholders have told us in the
“Sustaining CAADP Momentum” consultative
process:
•too much focus on the issue of public financing
•too much focus on the supply side and not on making
markets work
•weak inter-ministerial and inter-sectoral coordination

5. Challenges/Opportunities facing
CAADP
What stakeholders have told us in the
“Sustaining CAADP Momentum” consultative
process:
•consistent and coherent African vision, agenda and
positions
•risk of bureaucratization = talks no action on concrete
concerns of agriculture
•multiplicity of initiatives

6. CAADP implementation &
achievements
• Agriculture is back to the political and policy agenda
• Political commitment to increased budgets
• Mobilised stakeholders around a common agenda
• Promoted regional integration and coordination
• MDTF support to capacities of AU institutions

7. CAADP implementation &
achievements
• Evidence-based & peer-reviewed agricultural plans
• Point of departure for governments in their engagement
with domestic international private investors
• CAADP now firmly branded as African idea and has
massive political currency

8. * 30 Country
Compacts
Over 40
Countries
actively
engaging
* 24 country Business
meetings
* 27 National
Investment Plans
1 regional compact &
Investment Plan (ECOWAS)
CAADP implementation &
achievements

9. CAADP failures in 1st Decade
• CAADP raised high expectations of mobilization new resources
• Confined itself to investment plans and created a financial
dependency to which only donors could respond
• African financial institutions (AfDB, regional development
banks, and private investors) hardly involved
• Not much focus on Institutional capacity; policy reform

10. Alignment implications of 1st
decade failures
• African countries need to regain leadership of the process by:
• Promoting economic policy instruments at relatively modest cost
• Mobilise domestic resources and reduce dependence on donors
• Policy instrument implementation and institutional changes
• New thrust for CAADP should not lead countries to repeat
planning processes:
• focus on programme implementation, institutional arrangement,
and policy tools designing and negotiations; including some PEA

11. So what does this mean for the Science
Agenda and CGIAR Alignment?
• Renewing commitment to research and technology
services through inclusive and consultative processes
• Delivery of RESULTS and IMPACT through
IMPLEMENTATION and EXECUTION
• Opportunity for bold action in face of changing
global/local factors
• Aligning Science Agenda and CAADP/CGIAR Agendas to
the African political process

12. Sustaining the CAADP Momentum
Wealth
Creation
Job Opportunities
and Food Security
Economic
Growth
Resilience
Impact
Outcomes
Strategic
Thrust
Strengthening &
aligning Institutions,
Policies &
Leadership
Knowledge &
Knowledge
Support
Financing &
Investments in
Agriculture
Land and
Water
Research&
Knowledge
Food &
Nutrition
Security
Markets,
Private
Sector
CAADP
Pillars

13. Sustaining the CAADP Momentum
Wealth
Creation
Job Opportunities
and Food Security
Economic
Growth
Resilience
Impact
Outcomes
Strategic
Thrust
Strengthening &
aligning Institutions,
Policies &
Leadership
Knowledge
&
Knowledge
Support
Financing &
Investments in
Agriculture
Land and
Water
Research&
Knowledge
Food &
Nutrition
Security
Markets,
Private
Sector
CAADP
Pillars

14. CAADP’s Strategic Thrust on Knowledge & Knowledge
Support
Knowledge and knowledge support
for public and business stakeholders, including farmer and
commodity associations
Knowledge,
Information
and Skills (KIS)
Agriculture
Science Agenda
Agriculture
Education and
Training
ICT in
Agricultural
Transformation

15. Bold Actions Needed
• Africa and CAADP should develop a master-plan for:
• Reducing dependence on food aid
• Advancing into new breadbasket for the world
• The plan should lay out the transition from a “resource”
to an “efficiency/innovation” driven economy
• Africans better utilise natural resources to leverage
know-how, technology, markets, jobs and capital to
develop and modernise agriculture and economy.

16. CAADP is a transformation
Agenda:
• Agriculture-led social and economic transformation
• Change and transformation in agriculture must start from
within the continent and its people
• It has to start with smallholder farmers, households and
communities
• Enhancing opportunities for women

17. CAADP is a transformation
Agenda:
• Youth (60% of population) and workforce development
• Africa needs to develop enforceable policies and guidelines
that promote responsible and inclusive development
• Adoption of climate-smart and sustainable agriculture both in
terms of addressing the impact of climate and demographic
change today and also into the future.

18. CAADP is a transformation
Agenda:
• Africa has now to strengthen its institutions to deliver results by
re-building the culture of getting things done
• And the culture of solving problems as they arise in trying to
achieve major gaols.
• Institutional and policy effectiveness are a result of learning by
doing-- commitment to action and implementation
• Accompanied by commitment to learning from experiences,
and investing lessons into upgrading systems and procedures.

19. CAADP is a transformation
Agenda: A Change Theory
• Transformation is about PEOPLE
• Transformation is about LEADERSHIP
• Transformation is a KNOWLEDGE agenda
• KNOWLEDGE is about LEARNING (not information transfer)
• LEARNING happens only at the point of ACTION
• Science is therefore a LEARNING agenda for all
• SCIENCE therefore should contribute to how PEOPLE LEARN
for themselves to help themselves

20. CONCLUSIONS
• Alignment is about continuity and change
• The Science Agenda for Agriculture in Africa is now firmly on
the AU/NEPAD strategic path
• But the demands are all the way across the value-chain and
across the diversity of stakeholders
• Science should place more emphasis on sustainable
intensification

21. CONCLUSIONS
• Institutional strengthening and policy alignment major
priorities
• Aligning technical and political energy will offer greater
prospects for investment and action in research and
technology
• The Science Agenda, CGIAR, and other efforts need alignment
with a transformation process that is people centered
• At the end of it all Development is about People

22. Thank you