May 10th 2019
Arusha, Tanzania
Small Scale Farmers (SSFs) and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in the East African region are organizing the 4th EAC Agriculture Budget Summit on Friday, 10 May 2019 in Arusha, Tanzania with the support of Trust Africa, Oxfam Novib, ActionAid and other development partners.
The purpose of the Agriculture Budget Summit is to catalyse participation and inclusion in public financing and policy making for agriculture at the East African Community (EAC) level and enhance mutual accountability to benefit smallholder farmers, including women in the East African region. Prior to the Summit, a one-day pre-summit consultation meeting is scheduled on Thursday, 9 May 2019 and will bring together all invited delegates from the six EAC Partner States.
After a series of policy engagement and advocacy dialogues by SSFs and CSOs with support from TrustAfrica and other development actors, the EAC agriculture budget summit was institutionalised as an annual dialogue framework between farmers, non-state actors, Governments, Agriculture Parliamentary Committee and the EALA’s ATNR during EALA seating in Tanzania Zanzibar on 20th October 2016.
In June 2014, the African Union Heads of State and Government adopted the Africa 2025 Vision for Agriculture, implemented within the Framework of Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) as a vehicle to implement and achieve the first ten-year implementation plan of Africa’s Agenda 2063. The Commitments in this agenda are translated into seven thematic areas of performance including; enhancing investment finance in agriculture; ending hunger in Africa by 2025; reducing poverty by half, by 2025, through inclusive agricultural growth and transformation; boosting intra-African trade in agricultural commodities and services; enhancing resilience of livelihoods and production systems to climate variability and other related risks, and; strengthening mutual accountability to actions and results.
It was during the 20th October 2016 EALA seating in Tanzania Zanzibar that EALA took the strongest resolution on the Malabo Declaration calling for the EAC Partner States to speedily implementation of Malabo Declaration and put in place the Regional Agriculture Advisory Council to advise on the harmonization of regional agriculture policy frameworks and programs; and for national governments to put in place platforms for mutual accountability for increased government responsiveness; and take actions aimed at enforcement of the resolutions adopted by EALA on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change.
As a precursor, the 3rd EAC Agriculture Budget Summit was held in Nairobi, Kenya in May 2018 under the theme “Promoting an Inclusive, People Centered EAC Budget Process: Incentives for Prudent Public and Private Investment in Agriculture”. The Summit reaffirmed commitment by the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) to work with national parliaments to push for the realization of the Malabo Declaration in EAC countries, look into ways to fund the EAC Agriculture budget summit and seek to establish the EAC Food, Agriculture and Environment Commission to deal with agriculture and environment related issues.