AU/NEPAD on Food Prices

Communiqué—In recognition of the crisis caused by high food prices, particularly taking note of the demonstrations and riots in some African countries, the AU/NEPAD convened a four day workshop for 18 African countries to identify food price induced needs and propose practical solutions to the crisis.

In addition, the participants included representatives of over 30 development partners, NGOs, farmer associations and research institutions and Regional Economic Communities (RECs). A total of 160 persons attended the workshop. The workshop represents an important milestone in building a coordinated African agriculture and food and nutrition security response to high food prices within the framework and principles of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP).

2. The CAADP is a framework and mechanism through which coordination is enhanced, resources mobilised for effective implementation of priority actions in harmony with national development plans. The CAADP is poised to enable countries contribute to the 6% target agricultural growth and overall national economic development. Accordingly, the participants called for the accelerated implementation of the CAADP country round-table process.

3. The major causes of the high food prices include: rising demand for cereals particularly in rapidly growing economies; supply shocks due to weather-related anomalies and low productivity growth in Africa; higher energy prices leading to higher input and processing costs, particularly increased prices of fertilizers and transport.

4. The impacts of the high food prices are far reaching in Africa. In countries which are net food importers, rising food prices will divert the meagre national resources from development activities to meet the urgent food import needs. More immediately, it presents a challenge to the stability and security of countries, the nutritional security of the citizens, threatens development gains made thus far, and makes the fight against hunger an uphill struggle.

5. The workshop recognises that the crisis has provided the opportunity to build a coalition of responses across the African continent, offering a vehicle for an African agricultural renaissance that raises small scale farmers’ incomes, enhance livelihoods, nutrition and ultimately food security for Africa.

6. The workshop recognises that the high food price exposes the underlying long-term under-investment in agriculture and risks to erode the development gains that have been made as well as political stability of the countries.

7. AU/NEPAD encourages member countries to honour their commitment to the Maputo Declaration of allocating 10% of their national budgets to agricultural and rural development and also invite development partners to honour their pledges and commitments to support the agriculture sector development.

8. Participating countries at the workshop stated that they have already begun addressing the crisis using their national resources. The countries acknowledge the assistance provided by the development partners and calls on them to increase and sustain the urgent financial and technical assistance to address the current crisis and the long-term development agenda within the CAADP framework.

9. The participants call upon the private sector (traders, transporters, input dealers, financing institutions, etc.), farmers organisations’, NGOs, development partners, national and regional research organizations and Regional Economic Communities to play prominent roles in growth and development of the African agricultural sector.

10. The workshop participants acknowledge the need to increase the AU/NEPAD human and financial resource capacities to follow up outcomes of the workshop, facilitate the implementation of CAADP and to support member countries in their pursuit to respond to the highly significant shock brought about by the high food prices.

11. The participating countries recommended that the recommendations of this workshop be tabled at major upcoming fora and events such as TICAD IV, the FAO High Level Summit on Food Security, the 25th FAO Africa Regional Conference, the AU Summit and the G8.

12. The participants call for immediate action by member countries to implement the following priorities while seeking additional financial and technical assistance from development partners.

(a) The immediate/ short terms responses include:

o Immediate assistance to the vulnerable groups through targeted food assistance and safety net measures including cash and/or food transfers and nutrition support;
o Intensify agricultural production through the use of targeted input subsidies, particularly fertilizer and improved seed, and enhance access to water & small scale irrigation for agricultural production;
o Strengthen market infrastructure;
o Improve post harvest management and minimize crop storage losses.

(b) The medium / long term responses include:

o Develop regional infrastructure;
o Adhere to regional trade policy agreements;
o Develop irrigation schemes;
o Enhance sustainable land management practices including soil and water management and conservation;
o Develop micro-finance capacity and access;
o Improve agricultural & related risk management;
o Enhance productive safety net measures for small scale and vulnerable farmers;
o Enhance agricultural extension and research development;
o Improve post harvest management and minimize crop storage losses;
o Enhance institutional and human capacities of countries for agricultural development.

13. The participants call on all stakeholders to support thematic priority-options for the African agricultural renaissance:

I. Improved Risk management and Vulnerability Analysis

o Improve understanding of the magnitude and geographic distribution of vulnerable population due to high food price and as a result of underlying conditions;
o Strengthen food security and agricultural information system that are sustainable with key stakeholder participation;
o Strengthen market information system
o Support national and regional food reserve systems to stabilise prices, and serve as emergency stock
o Introduce warehouse receipt system
o Introduce and support agricultural insurance systems and micro credit;

II. Increased supply of affordable commodities through increased production and improved market linkages

o Increase food production and productivity for key commodities by improving access to agricultural inputs for diversified cropping and livestock production systems including targeted SMART subsidies (fertiliser, improved seeds, better access to technologies and innovations);
o Improve production of fertilizers from existing plants and explore the possibility of establishing new ones based on the availability of raw materials in the region;
o Increase production by improved sustainable soil fertility management including conservation agriculture technologies;
o Enhance access to market by eliminating barriers to trade, improving infrastructure at national and regional levels and strengthening market information system;
o Improve access to appropriate technologies & innovations, and introduce technologies that minimize labour intensity, especially for women farmers, so as to improve agricultural production;
o Enhance food processing, credit systems, and use of improved storage, and minimize post harvest losses;
o Promote indigenous crops and technologies for production and processing of nutrient-rich crops;
o Develop the livestock, fisheries and forestry sectors;
o Improve logistics capacity to move emergency supplies and agricultural inputs.

III. Food access and increased economic opportunities for the vulnerable

o Respond adequately to the immediate food needs of the most vulnerable while supporting investments in medium and long term sustainable solutions to the problem;
o Targeted food assistance using --- coupons, vouchers, public works (cash and/or food); food subsidies and targeted to the vulnerable groups, e.g. children, mothers, people living with HIV/AIDS, and other chronically ill;
o Provide assistance through school feeding; and
o Productive safety net for small-scale farmers and the vulnerable.

IV. Increased quality of diets through diversification of food among the target groups (food utilisation).

o Micronutrient supplementation: Vitamin A and Iron to the identified vulnerable women (pregnant and lactating) and children;
o Investment in improved access to potable water and sanitation
o Packaging and dissemination of nutritional information to the public
o Investment in women’s education, behaviour change and social marketing;
o Up-scaling fortification of commonly consumed foods;

14. Follow-up Actions by African countries

Countries will immediately convene an initial meeting of stakeholders to establish a timeline for stakeholder consultations and finalization of the short term response plan:
o Prepare a work plan with a short term horizon for addressing the short term response;
o Draft a long term schedule for the broader CAADP process as the country roadmap; and
o Establish an accelerated process of stakeholder consultation and fund raising.

15. Follow-up Actions by Regional Economic Communities (RECs)

The RECs will take proactive measures on their assistance to countries on the short term response and longer term CAADP processes:

o Updated list of joint missions to cover workshop participating countries
o Plan for accelerating CAADP roundtable implementation, identification of technical assistance required; and
o Prepare a work plan with a short term horizon for addressing the short term response.

16. Follow-up Actions by AU/NEPAD

A taskforce led by AU/NEPAD Secretariat supported by FAO, WFP, World Bank, Pillar Institutions and RECs will coordinate active and timely follow-up to decisions made at the workshop. The taskforce’s actions would include:

o Facilitate the coordination of development partners support for country level programming activities in connection with both immediate and longer term responses to the food price crisis;
o Manage the compilation and dissemination of information flows, monitoring progress with implementing decisions taken at the workshop in order to be able to report to major regional and global events in the coming few months;
o Support the dialogue with development partners at national level on responses to the crisis, and ensuring that local representatives of development partners are adequately briefed on the decisions of the workshop and the commitment of governments and development partners;
o Assist in the formulation of requests for the reprogramming of resources from on-going operations or, where there are no current operations, preparing proposals for new resources;
o Take concrete steps with key national stakeholders and development on the key steps required to formulate specific programmes for short, medium and longer term responses to the food price crisis consistent with Pillar 3 objectives and the wider CAADP round table process, including setting up a local team, arranging for technical support, and agreeing a timetable for completion of planning and organization of a round table;
o Facilitate the engagement of RECs to provide political support to the process, and of Pillar lead institutions to provide advisory technical inputs for the design of interventions’;
o Review tentative schedules of joint programming missions in response to the food price crisis; and
o Assist countries in linking short, medium and long-term programmes.

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