Feature written by Dr. Babatunde Omilola, ReSAKSS-Africa Wide Coordinator
In order to help design, implement, and monitor rural development strategies that align with the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) agenda, ReSAKSS has intensified its analytical support at the country level, especially for countries scheduled to hold their CAADP Roundtables by the end of 2009. In the past one month, three more African countries—Burundi, Ethiopia, and Sierra Leone—have signed their CAADP country compacts, with an additional 21 countries scheduled to sign by the end of the year.
As African governments and development partners align their investment strategies through the CAADP process, a key question that needs to be addressed is resource efficiency and the quality of agricultural investments. The ReSAKSS presentation prepared for the CAADP Donors and Partners meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from September 6 - 9, 2009 addresses this issue. Although many Africa’s governments and donors are increasing the quantity of investment in agriculture in response to the 2003 Maputo Declaration, it is now important to also focus on the quality of agricultural investment during the implementation of CAADP country compacts. And, more importantly, many countries need to avoid inefficient budget execution, which may negatively impact policy planning, design and implementation and make it difficult to attain the goals and expected outcomes enshrined in the CAADP compacts. More information on this presentation is available in this issue of the ReSAKSS e-Newsletter.
-Babatunde Omilola