CAADP: The African Union’s Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (completed)
Project description
Title: Support to the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (NEPAD/CAADP II)
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Lead executing agency: Member states of the African Union; headquarters: South Africa
Overall term: 2017 to 2019
Context
Around two thirds of the African population are employed in the agricultural sector, including many small-scale farmers and women. However, its potential to enhance food security, reduce poverty, create jobs and empower women is not yet fully realised. Many farmers, particularly women, lack the appropriate skills to improve productivity, processing and trade. Climate change is also adversely affecting agricultural productivity. If the continent is to feed a predicted nine billion people by 2050, its agricultural sector must be modernised, strategies for adaptation to climate change developed and additional efforts made to utilise women’s untapped potential.
The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) has served as the framework for action for agricultural transformation across Africa since 2003. As an African Union initiative, CAADP supports member states in increasing investment and productivity in the agricultural sector. The aim is to achieve agricultural growth rates of more than 6 per cent as a means of promoting food security and economic development.
Objective
CAADP is implemented successfully in the member states, with support from the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency and the African Union Commission Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture (AUC DREA). Priorities include aspects such as agricultural training and climate change adaptation.
Approach
The technical body of the African Union Commission (AUC), the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency (NPCA), coordinates the implementation of CAADP in AU member countries. On behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), GIZ supports AUC and NPCA in fulfilling their mandate.
The project has four modules:
- Building advisory capacity and resources at the AUC and NPCA to support CAADP implementation at country level
Among other things, the project enables pan-African partners to develop country strategies to boost agricultural productivity and investment. - Pan-African support to secure a climate-resilient agricultural sector
The project builds the AUC’s and NPCA’s technical capacities to advise the African Union member states on applying climate-smart agricultural methods. - Promoting labour market-oriented, income-boosting agricultural training at vocational colleges for selected value chains
- Improving women’s access to formal and informal education in the agri-food sector.
Results
By June 2017, the project had successfully provided technical expertise to AUC DREA/NCPA country missions in Malawi, Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Tanzania.
Various strategies and studies on the involvement of the private sector have been developed in conjunction with the AU partner organisations.
More than 15 African countries have integrated climate change into their national investment plans and are taking climate action in sectors such as land and water resources management, agroforestry, and improved pasture management.
To date, more than 6,200 trainees have undergone agricultural training in six partner countries. Around one third of them are women, who previously accounted for less than 15 per cent of all agricultural trainees. The aim is to double the number of trained persons, including teachers, tutors, farmers and young students, by the end of 2019.