ReSAKSS Working Paper No. 28, “Public Spending for Agriculture in Africa,” finds that African countries are not sufficiently investing in agriculture.

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)?

The 2009 joint African Union and UN Economic Commission for Africa Economic Report on Africa focuses on the contribution of agriculture to development in African countries. The report states that while agriculture is a mainstay of development in Africa, it is also often neglected, isolated from other sectors, and poorly linked to regional and global markets.

IFPRI Policy Brief No. 12, 2009

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.

Working paper number 12

The ReSAKSS network had a prolific year in 2008, with the production and dissemination of 15 new working papers, 3 issue briefs, 1 annual trends report, and 4 other documents to policymakers, researchers, and development leaders. The documents cover a wide variety of relevant and useful topics, including agricultural growth and poverty options for several African countries, an analysis of rising food prices in South Africa, and an analysis of agricultural expenditures in Africa.