Nearly 300 agricultural experts and policymakers, stakeholders from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), development partners, representatives of international organisations, the African Union and NEPAD met in Kigali from March 29-31 for a roundtable on CAADP.

The COMPACT was signed by Rwanda’s Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, James Musoni, and the Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Anastase Murekezi on behalf of the Government of Rwanda.

The World Bank Country Manager who is also co-chair of the Rwanda donor platform, Ms Victoria Kwakwa, signed on behalf of donors, Sindiso Ngwenya, COMESA Assistant Secretary General, on behalf of COMESA, and AU Commissioner of Rural Economy and Agriculture, Ms Rosebud Kurwijila, on behalf of AU and NEPAD.

“We expect the Rwanda CAADP COMPACT to be a tool for aligning and harmonising our interventions and efforts in the development of our country, especially in the field of agriculture”, said Minister Musoni.

“It is our hope that the Rwanda CAADP roundtable and others that will follow will be an opportunity for the establishment of a forum for experience sharing, dialogue and peer reviewing to achieve CAADP targets set in all COMESA countries.

“Let us strengthen our partnership and dialogue so that we can accelerate this development agenda”.

Ms Victoria Kwakwa of the World Bank applauded Rwanda’s leadership for spearheading the initiative, and expressed the hope that this would be emulated through out the continent.

She said that the Rwanda COMPACT is a reflection of strong Government leadership in Rwanda, and a lot of ground work to harmonise different programs to alleviate poverty. This should be a lesson to other COMESA countries.

The COMPACT stipulates a shared framework for strategic planning and implementation, and for partnership and development assistance in the agriculture sector, as reflected in the 2003 Maputo pledge of African Heads of State to work towards achieving a collective target of an annual growth rate of 6 % in agriculture and to allocate 10% of national budgets to the sector.

Rwanda is the first to organise a CAADP roundtable among the six phase one COMESA countries — Rwanda, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Uganda, and Zambia, — which were selected by COMESA to speed up implementation of CAADP in the region through roundtables.

The ultimate goal of the CAADP process in Rwanda is to help define a coherent long-term framework to guide the planning and implementation of current and future Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy and the Strategic Plan for Agricultural Transformation towards achieving Rwanda’s vision 2020. Source : NEPAD News, april 5, 2007