As part of the seventh commitment of the Malabo Declaration, African Union (AU) Member States agreed to report progress in achieving the Malabo goals and targets biennially. Thus, in recent months ReSAKSS has supported the African Union Commission (AUC) and the African Union Development Agency–New Partnership for Africa's Development (AUDA-NEPAD) in training  hundreds of country experts and analysts who are currently hard at work preparing for the second Biennial Review (BR) report, to be published in January 2020.

The main objective of this BR brief is to summarize the performance, key issues, and recommendations for improving progress toward agricultural transformation in Zimbabwe. This brief provides recommendations and action items based on Zimbabwe’s performance in the inaugural BR mechanism to help the country improve its domestication and implementation of the Malabo Declaration commitments.

In January 2018, 47 AU member countries, including Nigeria, presented the inaugural biennial review at the AU Summit. The 47 countries reported on 40 indicators covering the period 2015–2016. The report indicated that of the 47 countries reporting countries, 20 were on track overall to achieve the Malabo commitments by 2025. Only 5 countries in West Africa were on track. Nigeria was among the countries not on track, although it was on track to meet two commitments (recommitting to CAADP process and boosting intra-Africa Trade in agricultural commodities).

In 2018, the African Union Commission (AUC) and the New Partnership for Africa's Development Planning and Coordinating Agency (NPCA)—together with the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and member states, and in collaboration with technical and development partners—released the inaugural continental BR report. In total, 22 performance categories and 43 indicators were defined across seven thematic areas of performance that are aligned with the seven Malabo commitments. The inaugural BR results were presented at the 30th AU Summit in Addis Ababa in January 2018.

In line with the continental commitment on mutual accountability, Malawi implemented the BR process to track progress in the implementation of the CAADP agenda, particularly the 2014 Malabo commitments. The process provided a platform for stakeholders in the agriculture sector (the public sector, private sector, development partners, civil society organizations, academia, and research institutions) to hold each other mutually accountable on both the financial and nonfinancial commitments they made on common development goals for the agriculture sector.

This BR brief shows that Lesotho was not on track to meet the Malabo Declaration targets for 2025. Three commitments were on track: recommitment to CAADP, boosting intra-Africa trade in agriculture, and mutual accountability for action and results, while the others were not on track. Lesotho was on track on 6 of the 43 indicators, highlighting the substantial efforts required to implement the commitments of the Malabo Declaration and national priorities in the agriculture sector.

In the 2017 BR Report, 22 performance categories and 43 indicators were defined for the seven thematic areas of performance to evaluate country performance in achieving agricultural growth and transformation goals in Africa. Of the 55-member states, 47 submitted their validated national reports to their respective Regional Economic Communities (RECs), including five EAC partner states: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. The final scorecard was prepared by the AUC and NPCA, with support from the RECs and technical partners.

The objective of this brief is to analyze Eswatini’s performance and discuss lessons from the implementation of the inaugural CAADP BR mechanism. Based on the results, recommendations are proposed for strengthening mutual accountability and performance of the agriculture sector in Eswatini. The analysis is based on results of the Africa Agriculture Transformation Scorecard (AATS) that was presented to African Heads of State and Government in January 2018. Additional information for the analysis came from technical notes in Eswatini’s BR report.

En mars 2017, s’est tenue à Abidjan une rencontre de présentation du processus et de validation de la feuille de route continentale pour l’élaboration du rapport biennal. À la suite de sa participation, le Burkina Faso a engagé ce processus à son niveau à travers la définition d’une feuille de route nationale conformément aux recommandations de celle continentale. Le processus a été conduit par une équipe nationale regroupant les différentes parties prenantes.