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(click to englarge photos)

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission and the NEPAD Secretariat brought together representatives of the public and private sectors, including famer organizations, the development partner community, and civil society from June 17 to 18, 2009 in Dakar Senegal, to propose a framework for integrating the private sector into the CAADP agenda.

The workshop aims to create specific public-private alliances in the areas of:

Since 2006, numerous countries in African have been implementing the CAADP framework. As of March, 2009, 35 countries have launched CAADP and one, Rwanda, has signed a country compact. The map below provides a current snapshot of countries’ progress in the implementation process.

Can Rwanda achieve the 6 percent agricultural growth rate targeted by CAADP? If it does, will it reduce poverty enough to achieve the first Millennium Development Goal (MDG1)?

ReSAKSS will host a discussion group on “Informing African Agricultural Development, Planning and Policy” focusing on the requirements for a well-coordinated comprehensive effort to support the revitalization of national agricultural policy systems to transform African agriculture.

Can countries in West Africa achieve 6 percent target growth rates as part of their commitment to CAADP? Just as importantly, are they on target to meet their other commitment: the first millennium development goal (MDG1) of halving poverty by 2015? If not, what needs to be done in terms of resource allocation, investments and policy reform?

The new ReSAKSS Working Paper No. 25, “Investing in African Agriculture to Halve Poverty by 2015,” estimates the level of agricultural spending that will be required to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty by 2015 (MDG1) in 30 Sub-Saharan African countries. The results show that without additional growth in the agriculture sector of at least 7.5 percent annually, Africa –as a continent-will not be able to meet MDG1.

On February 26, 2009, the ECOWAS Commission held a working meeting in Abuja, Nigeria to discuss West African countries’ progress towards the implementation of CAADP. ReSAKSS representatives attended the meeting and provided guidance to ECOWAS and countries in West Africa on the agricultural investment and growth options available for them in order to successfully achieve the CAADP targets of at least 10 percent budgetary allocation to agriculture and 6 percent agricultural growth rate, and how they can successfully organize their CAADP roundtables.