As part of our Agricultural Development program, TrustAfrica, in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, will be holding a two-day convening at the Laico Regency Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya on November 12-13, 2013. The convening, “A Decade of CAADP: Reflections on Key Outcomes of Agricultural Policy Reforms in Africa,” aims to raise awareness about the role of agriculture in development and to give voice to those most affected by agricultural development policies, particularly smallholder farmers. The convening will include civil society stakeholders from the Agricultural Development project, as well as others engaged around agricultural policymaking.
TrustAfrica’s Agricultural Development project, which targets six countries — Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Malawi—works to build an effective advocacy movement for sustainable and equitable agricultural development in Africa. In the last ten years, the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) has worked to “help African countries reach a higher path of economic growth through agriculturally-led development, which eliminates hunger, reduces poverty and food insecurity, and enables expansion of exports.” However, upon closer examination, while there has been progress in terms of policy reforms, notably in Malawi, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Ghana, in other African countries, challenges remain.
The conference seeks to reflect on the achievements, impacts, challenges and improvements that need to be made concerning the existing agricultural policies in the targeted countries. It hopes to set an agenda for priorities in the next ten years and to strengthen the networks and collaborations that already exist within countries and sub-regions.