Support for NEPAD’s Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) was endorsed by donors at the African Green Revolution Conference in Oslo, Norway on 30 August 2007.

Now in its second year, the conference has become the venue for public-private partnership (PPP) aimed at increasing agricultural productivity in Africa.

Opened by Norwegian Minister of International Development Erik Solheim, the conference brought together policy-makers, farmers, entrepreneurs and business leaders under the theme “Partnership for Productivity”.

The Minister emphasised the need for government, business and civil society to work together to form partnerships that would bring about the attainment of a green revolution in Africa.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the UK Department for International Development (DFID) reiterated their support for CAADP and highlighted the importance of planning by stakeholders to achieve development goals.

The overall coordinator of CAADP in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), Dr. Cris Muyunda, gave a report on CAADP in the region and assured the conference that progress was being made in the implementation of the programme. He stressed the need for governments to identify areas of potential growth in their agricultural sectors through the CAADP roundtable process.

“We should focus on good planning. We need to move from wish lists to effective evidence-based planning,” he said.

NEPAD’s Deputy Chief Executive, Ambassador Olukorede Willoughby, said the conference was “a great way to move CAADP forward”.

He noted that African leaders at the African Union Summit in 2003 endorsed CAADP as a framework for agriculture growth, food security and rural development, acknowledging that agriculture would be the engine for economic growth in Africa.

“There is need to reflect more practically on how to deepen the participation of the private sector in the agriculture and rural development agenda,” Ambassador Willoughby said. “Also, the AU-NEPAD and Regional Economic Communities should begin to take regionalism as an entry point in fast-tracking greater market access for African farmers.”

He appealed to development partners to increase their support to implement agreed actions and investments.

NEPAD agriculture advisor Prof. Richard Mkandawire also addressed the conference. Source : NEPAD, 14 septembre 2007