FINAL REPORT

Towards a COMESA Regional CAADP Compact

Framework for the Development of a COMESA Regional CAADP Compact

Submitted to

Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa

By

Food Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN)

13 August 2010

REGIONAL SECRETARIAT

141 Cresswell Road, Weavind Park 0184 Private Bag X2087, Silverton 0127 Pretoria, South Africa

Tel: +27 12 804 2966 Fax: +27 12 804 0600 Email: policy@fanrpan.org www.fanrpan.org

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List of Acronyms AAMP Africa Agricultural Market Programme

ACTESA Alliance for Common Trade in Eastern and Southern Africa

ADCP African Development Corridor Platform

AfDB African Development Bank

AGRA Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa

AMPRIP Agricultural Markets Programme and Regional Integration Project

ASARECA Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa

AU African Union

AUC African Union Commission

BMGF Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

CA Conservation Agriculture

CAADP Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme

CATISA Cassava Transformation in Southern Africa

CBC COMESA Business Council

CBT Cross Border Trade Initiative

CET Common External Tariff

COMESA Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa

COMPETE Competitiveness and Trade Expansion Programme

COMRAP COMESA Regional Agro-Input Programme

COPACI Competitive African Cotton Initiative

CP Challenge Programme

CSOs Civil Society Organisations

DFID Department for International Development (UK)

DRC Democratic Republic of Congo

DTA Double Tax Avoidance

EAC East African Community

EAGC Eastern Africa Grains Council

EAFF Eastern Africa Farmers Federation

EC European Community

ECDPM European Centre for Development Policy Management

ECOWAS Economic Community of West African States

ECOWAP ECOWAS Agricultural Policy

EU European Union

FAAP Framework for African Agricultural Productivity

FANRPAN Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network

FAMIS Food and Agriculture Market Information System

FAO Food Agriculture Organisation

FEWSNET Famine Early Warning System Network

FTA Free Trade Area

GAFSP Global Agriculture Food Security Programme

GDP Gross Domestic Product

GISAMA Guiding Investments in Sustainable Agricultural Markets in Africa

GMO Genetically Modified Organism

GTZ German Organisation for Technical Co-operation

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HGSF Home-Grown School Feeding

HIV/AIDS Human Immuno-Deficiency Virus/ Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome IGAD Intergovernmental Authority on Development

IFDC International Fertilizer Development Centre

IPPSD Investment Promotion and Private Sector Division (COMESA)

JICA Japan International Co-operation Agency

KIDDP Karamoja Integrated Disarmament and Development Programme

M&E Monitoring and Evaluation

MDG Millennium Development Goal

MHTF Millennium Hunger Task Force

NAFSIP National Agriculture and Food Security Investment Plans

NAIP National Agricultural Investment Programmes

NEPAD New Partnership for Africa’s Development

NGOs Non-Governmental Organisations

NORAD Norwegian Agency for Development Co-operation

NPPs Networks, Programmes and Projects

NTBs Non-Tariff Barriers

PIF/P Policy and Investment Framework /Plans

PPP Public Private Partnership

PRSAP Poverty Reduction Strategy and Action Programme

RABESA Regional Approach to Biotechnology & Bio-safety for Eastern & Southern Africa

RATIN Regional Agricultural Trade Intelligence Network

REC Regional Economic Community

REFORM Risk Management Programme for Eastern and Southern Africa

RELPA Regional Enhanced Livelihoods for Pastoral Areas

ReSAKSS Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System

RIPA Regional Investment Programme for Agriculture

RTFS Regional Trade in Food Staples

RUFORUM Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture

SACAU Southern African Confederation of Agriculture Unions

SADC Southern African Development Countries

SAFEX South African Futures Exchange

SARRN Southern Africa Rootcrops Research Network

SG Secretary General

SIDA Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency

SLWM Sustainable Land and Water Management

SPS Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary

STAR Strengthening Trade in Agriculture Inputs

STI Science, Technology and Innovation

TAC Technical Advisory Committee

UNCCD United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification

USAID United Stated Agency for International Development

USD United Stated Dollar

UN United Nations

WB World Bank

WFP World Food Programme

WTO World Trade Organisation

WWF-EARPO World Wide Fund - Eastern Africa Regional Programme Office

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PREAMBLE

The value of the COMESA Regional CAADP Compact lies in the delineation of strategic

regional investments that individual countries, acting alone, cannot achieve. The Compact

serves to accelerate individual country agricultural growth by enabling them to benefit from

regional spillovers and economies of scale in technology, human and policy development,

as well as in trade and investment.

A two-pronged approach was adopted in the development of the COMESA Regional CAADP

Compact (the Compact) which was composed of a desk review and stakeholder

consultations. The desk review involved: 1) reviewing the mandate of COMESA in terms of

its responsibilities towards the agriculture sector and its existing institutional

arrangements; 2) taking an inventory of regional implementing institutions; and 3)

conducting a stock-take of ongoing regional programmes related to CAADP. Stakeholder

consultations were done electronically and face-to-face. Stakeholders consulted included

policymakers, farmers’ groups, civil society, the private sector, research organisations,

regional networks, agriculture agencies, and development and technical partners. The

consultations focused on: 1) gaining consensus on the priority areas of focus for the

Compact; 2) identifying gaps in the ongoing regional programmes; and 3) identifying

potential investment programmes (see Annex 1 & 2).

In the process of designing the Compact the following outputs have been generated: 1) a

database of regional institutions with relevance to programme implementation; 2) a

framework document providing the context within which the Compact was developed and

highlighting the existing and recommended programmes and institutional arrangements

that will need to be developed to achieve food security, end hunger, and achieve economic

growth in the region; and 3) the draft COMESA Regional CAADP Compact.

The next step in completing this process involves the singing of the Compact and the

designing of investment programmes. The Compact will serve as a commitment by the

stakeholders to develop and implement the investment programmes within the priority

focus areas, according to agreed upon roles and functions. After the signing of the

Compact, investment programmes will be developed and funding mechanisms will be

agreed upon. The Regional Investment Programmes for Agriculture or RIPA will be a

compendium to the Compact.

The three priority areas identified under the Compact are: (i) Food Systems Productivity; (ii)

Trade, Infrastructure and Agricultural Development Corridors; and (iii) Human and

Institutional Capacity Strengthening. For each one of these priority areas, the framework

document provides justification, an inventory of existing programmes, gaps identified by

the COMESA stakeholders, and suggestions on a holistic approach to maximising the

potential of each of these priority areas to achieve CAADP goals.

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A Compact Programme is proposed under each of the priority areas. The Priority Compact

Programme takes into account the existing COMESA programmes, the gaps identified, and

the elements required for a holistic approach. Given the focus and progress made by both

ACTESA and by the North-South Corridor Model Aid for Trade Programme, it is

recommended that the programmes for Compact Priorities 1 and 2 be anchored on these.

It is also recommended that the programme for Priority 3 - Human and Institutional

Capacity Development should be consolidated on gains made by ongoing initiatives being

implemented by sub-regional organisations (EAFF, SACAU, FANRPAN, ASARECA, and

RUFORUM) and ReSAKSS.

All three priority areas identified by COMESA will have spill over benefits beyond the

COMESA region. This opens an opportunity for the scaling up of the COMESA Regional

CAADP Compact within the tripartite framework. The tripartite refers to the collaboration

between the COMESA, East African Community (EAC) and the Southern Africa Development

Community (SADC) to accelerate integration between the three RECs. Indeed, the Priority

Compact Programmes identified in the COMESA Regional CAADP Compact would have

maximum impact if implemented across all three RECs.

At the COMESA third joint meeting of the Ministers of Agriculture, Environment and Natural

Resources held in Lusaka, Zambia on the 15th of July 2010, the Ministers decided that:

Given the progress made on the Tripartite Agreement between COMESA, EAC and

SADC, Member States should take this development into consideration and approve

further development of the COMESA Regional Compact within the tripartite

framework. The Tripartite CAADP Regional Compact will have to be approved and

adopted by the three RECs.

Member States which have not signed their compacts accelerate the process to complete

their CAADP stock taking exercise and signing of the compact by December 2010 in line

with the Ministers decision at their second meeting in Victoria Falls in 2009;

Member States establish multi-sector, multi-stakeholder CAADP Country Teams and

provide them with adequate technical and financial capacities and to work closely with the

continental Resource Group, in both Pre- and Post-Compact phases;

The next steps that are envisaged on the development of the Compact include:

• Discussion of proposed areas of regional investments and agreements between the

three Regional Economic Communities: COMESA, EAC and SADC;

• Approval and adoption of the Tripartite CAADP Regional Compact by the three RECs;

• Signing and launching of the Tripartite Regional CAADP Compact;

• Development of Regional Investment Programmes for Agriculture (RIPAs);

• Establishment of recommended institutions;

• Implementation of investment programmes; and

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• Annual reviews of RIPAs.

A list of proposed signatories to the Compact is provided.

As the process of developing the Compact comes to its conclusion, it is important for all

stakeholders, including COMESA, to realize that the signing of the Compact is not an end in

itself. Instead it is the beginning of a set of activities and programme work aimed at

operationalising the Compact. The Secretariat should take the process forward by ensuring

the finalisation of long-term institutional arrangements/structures that can co-ordinate

CAADP investment programmes.

This framework document is presented in six sections highlighting the: 1) Introduction to

COMESA; 2) Agriculture in COMESA: Importance, Challenges and Opportunities; 3) The

Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP); 4) Development of

Regional CAADP Compacts (the rationale for a regional approach); 5) Proposed Priorities for

the COMESA Regional CAADP Compact; and 6) Implementation framework for the COMESA

Regional CAADP Compact.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF ACRONYMS ............................................................................................................ I

PREAMBLE ....................................................................................................................... III

TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................................ VI

SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION TO COMESA ........................................................................... 1

1.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 1

1.2 COMESA Policy and Membership ............................................................................................. 1

1.3 COMESA Structure ................................................................................................................... 2

1.4 COMESA Aims, Vision, Mission and Strategic Objectives ........................................................... 2

1.4.1 Aims and Objectives ....................................................................................................................... 2

1.4.2 Vision .............................................................................................................................................. 3

1.4.3 COMESA Mission ............................................................................................................................ 3

1.4.4 COMESA Strategic Priorities ........................................................................................................... 3

SECTION 2: AGRICULTURE IN COMESA: IMPORTANCE, CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES 5

2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 5

2.2 Contribution of Agriculture to the Economies of the COMESA Region ....................................... 6

2.3 Challenges Facing the Agriculture Sector .................................................................................. 7

2.4 Opportunities for Agricultural Development in the COMESA Region ....................................... 11

2.5 Agriculture Vision and Strategy .............................................................................................. 13

SECTION 3: THE COMPREHENSIVE AFRICA AGRICULTURE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME

(CAADP) FRAMEWORK ..................................................................................................... 14

3.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 14

3.2 CAADP: A Shared Framework for Agriculture Development in Africa ....................................... 15

3.3 The Need for a Regional Approach to Agricultural Development ............................................. 16

3.4 The Role of Regional Economic Communities in supporting Agriculture Development ............. 17

3.5 The Role of Sub-Regional Organisations in supporting agricultural development ..................... 19

3.6 Linking National and Regional CAADP Compacts in COMESA ................................................... 20

3.7 National Level CAADP Frameworks of COMESA Member States .............................................. 22

SECTION 4: DEVELOPMENT OF REGIONAL CAADP COMPACTS ........................................... 25

4.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 25

4.2 Towards an Africa- wide Compact .......................................................................................... 25

4.3 ECOWAS Process and Outputs ............................................................................................... 27

4.4 COMESA Process and Outputs ............................................................................................... 28

SECTION 5: PROPOSED PRIORITIES FOR THE COMESA REGIONAL CAADP COMPACT .......... 30

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5.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 30

5.2 Proposed priority areas of focus for the COMESA Regional CAADP Compact ........................... 31

5.3 Priority 1: Food Systems Productivity ..................................................................................... 33

5.3.1 Ongoing and Proposed Projects for Food Systems Productivity .................................................. 35

5.3.2 Gaps in Food System Productivity ................................................................................................ 37

5.3.3 Adopting a Holistic Approach for enhanced Food System Productivity ...................................... 39

5.3.4 Priority 1 Compact Programme for Food System Productivity .................................................... 41

5.4 Priority 2: Trade, Infrastructure and Agricultural Development Corridors ............................... 41

5.4.1 Ongoing and Proposed Regional Projects Co-ordinated by the COMESA Secretariat ................. 44

5.4.2 Gaps in Trade, Infrastructure and Agricultural Development Corridors ...................................... 45

5.4.3 Adopting a Holistic Approach: From Trade, Infrastructure and Agriculture Development

Corridors ................................................................................................................................................ 46

5.4.4 Priority 2 Compact Programme for Trade, Infrastructure and Agriculture Development

Corridors ................................................................................................................................................ 49

5.5 Priority 3: Human and Institutional Capacity Strengthening .................................................... 49

5.5.1 Ongoing and Proposed Projects for Human and Institutional Capacity Development ................ 52

5.5.2 Gaps in Human and Institutional Capacity Strengthening ........................................................... 52

5.5.3 A Holistic Approach for Strengthening Human and Institutional Capacity .................................. 54

5.5.4 Priority 3 Compact Programme for Human and Institutional Capacity Development................. 56

SECTION 6: IMPLEMENTATION FRAMEWORK FOR THE COMESA REGIONAL CAADP

COMPACT ........................................................................................................................ 57

6.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 57

6.2 Developing the Regional Investment Programme for Agriculture (RIPA) .................................. 57

6.2.1 From a Project to a Programme Approach .................................................................................. 57

6.3 Institutional Arrangements .................................................................................................... 59

6.3.1 Co-ordination Mechanisms .......................................................................................................... 59

6.4 Financial Arrangements ......................................................................................................... 61

6.4.1 Review of Current Mechanisms ................................................................................................... 61

6.4.2 New Opportunities ....................................................................................................................... 63

6.5 Monitoring and Evaluation .................................................................................................... 64

6.5.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 64

6.6 COMESA Compact Signatories ................................................................................................ 66

6.7 Next Steps to Completing the Regional COMESA CAADP Compact .......................................... 67

ANNEXES ......................................................................................................................... 68

Annex 1: Terms of Reference COMESA-FANRPAN service contract No. CS/P/10/08JK ........................ 68

Annex 2: Methodology for Compact Development .............................................................................. 69

Annex 3: CAADP Principles .................................................................................................................... 71

Annex 4: Existing Regional Programmes ............................................................................................... 72

Annex 5: Early Action Summary from COMESA Draft Regional Pillar Documents ................................ 74

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Annex 6: Potential Future Regional Programmes Identified during the Stakeholder Consultations .... 80

Annex 7: Proposal Guidelines for Regional Investment Programme for Agriculture (RIPA) ................. 82

Annex 8: Proposed Signatories for the COMESA CAADP compact........................................................ 83

Annex 9: Priorities in National CAADP Compacts in COMESA countries............................................... 87

Annex 10: ECOWAS/ECOWAP CAADP Priorities .................................................................................... 89

Annex 11: Listing Consultation for COMESA Regional CAADP Compact ............................................... 90

Annex 12 Summary List of Stakeholders that can assist COMESA with CAADP Implementation ......... 94

Annex 13: Listing of Organisations that have Agriculture and Agriculture-related MOUs with

COMESA ................................................................................................................................................. 95

Annex 14: Summary profile of the COMESA organs ............................................................................. 98

Annex 15: Profile of Proposed Implementation Institution ................................................................ 106

Annex 16: Summary Profile of Sub-Regional Organisations ............................................................... 110

REFERENCES .................................................................................................................. 111

LIST OF TABLES TABLE 2.1: THE COMPOSITION OF INTRA COMESA EXPORTS BY SECTOR IN 2005 ................................. 7

TABLE 2.2 COMESA: 2003 CROP YIELDS (MT/HA) COMESA VS. GLOBAL ................................................ 8

TABLE 3.1: IDENTIFIED AND AGREED PRIORITIES IN NATIONAL CAADP COMPACTS ............................ 23

TABLE 5.1 COMESA POLICY FRAMEWORK AND REGIONAL CAADP PRIORITIES .................................... 31

TABLE 5.2 PRIORITY 1: ORGANISATIONS CURRENTLY IMPLEMENTING PROGRAMMES IN THE

COMESA REGION ................................................................................................................................... 35

TABLE 5.3 ONGOING AND PROPOSED REGIONAL PROJECTS CO-ORDINATED BY THE COMESA

SECRETARIAT ......................................................................................................................................... 36

TABLE 5.4 COST OF TRANSPORTATION IN AFRICA AND OTHER REGIONS ............................................ 41

TABLE 5.5 TRADE, INFRASTRUCTURE AND AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT CORRIDORS IN COMESA,

SADC AND EAC REGION ......................................................................................................................... 43

TABLE 5.6 ONGOING AND PROPOSED REGIONAL PROJECTS IN AGRICULTURE GROWTH CORRIDORS 44

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Section 1: Introduction to COMESA

This section provides an overview of the policies, membership and structures of the

Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). It also outlines the Aims,

Mission and Strategic Objectives of COMESA.

1.1 Introduction

COMESA has 19 Member States. It is the largest Regional Economic Community (REC) in

Africa by both population (410 million people) and geographical size (12 million square km).

Agriculture is the main economic activity in COMESA and 80 % of the population derives

their livelihoods from agriculture.

COMESA’s 2025 vision is to create a fully integrated internationally competitive regional

economic community. Its target is to double per capita income and halve the number of

poor people through an expansion of its regional economy at an average growth rate of 6-8

% per year. COMESA has identified four strategic priority areas, namely the Removal of

Barriers to Facilitate Mobility; Building Competitive Productive Capacity; Addressing Supply-

Side Constraints Related to Infrastructure; and Cross-Cutting Issues.

1.2 COMESA Policy and Membership

The Treaty establishing COMESA was signed on 5th November 1993 and ratified on 8th

December 1994. COMESA has 19 Member States of which three are in North Africa, four

are Island States in the Indian Ocean and the remainder are in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Fifteen COMESA Member States are currently members of the World Trade Organisation

(WTO). COMESA established a Free Trade Area in 2000, requiring all Member States to

eliminate all duties on imports originating from other Member States. Eleven states signed

up including Djibouti, Egypt, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Sudan, Zambia and

Zimbabwe. In June 2009, COMESA established a Customs Union which provides a

framework to co-ordinate and harmonise policies and strengthen COMESA’s engagement

with the rest of the world. The COMESA customs territory includes land, water and air

space of 19 Member States. The COMESA customs union will be harmonized with that of

the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC)

under the tripartite arrangement.

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1.3 COMESA Structure

The main organs of COMESA are the Authority of the Heads of State and Government, the

Council of Ministers, intergovernmental committees, technical committees, and the

COMESA Secretariat. The Legislative (Council of Ministers) takes policy decisions and

undertakes activities on the COMESA programme. The Executive (Authority of Heads of

State and Government) is responsible for general policy. (See Annex 14).

COMESA has nine specialized institutes that support the Secretariat in implementing its

mandate. They include The Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank

(The PTA Bank), The Clearing House, The COMESA Re-insurance Company (ZEP-Re), The

Africa Trade Insurance Agency (ATIA), The COMESA Regional Investment Agency (RIA), The

Leather and Leather Products Institute (LLPI), The COMESA Competition Commission, The

COMESA Court of Justice, and The Alliance for Common Trade in Eastern and Southern

Africa (ACTESA). Another important component of COMESA’s institutional structure is the

Consultative Committee of the Business Community and other interest groups. This

committee helps to facilitate the dialogue between enterprises and organs of the Common

Market.

The COMESA Region is co-ordinated by a Secretariat, based in Lusaka, Zambia, which

facilitates development and implementation of policies and programmes by Member

States. The Secretariat is headed by the Secretary-General (SG) assisted by two Assistant

SGs and Directors heading its eight Divisions: Investment Promotion for Private Sector

Development (IPPSD); Infrastructure Development; Trade, Customs and Monetary Affairs;

Legal and Institutional Affairs; Gender Women in Business and Social Affairs; Information

and Technology; Administration; and, Budget and Finance.

COMESA has an Agriculture Unit falling under the IPPSD Division. The Unit is currently

charged with CAADP related issues. In addition, COMESA has a number of regional

networks, affiliated associations and research bodies that play assorted roles relating to

agriculture and rural development (see Annex 13).

1.4 COMESA Aims, Vision, Mission and Strategic Objectives

1.4.1 Aims and Objectives

Article 3 of the Treaty specifies COMESA’s aims and objectives as:

a) Attaining sustainable growth and development of the Member States by promoting

a more balanced and harmonious development of its production and marketing

structures;

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b) Promoting joint development in all fields of economic activity and the joint adoption

of macro-economic policies and programmes, to raise the standard of living of its

peoples and to foster closer relations among its Member States;

c) Cooperating in the creation of an enabling environment for foreign, cross-border

and domestic investment including the joint promotion of research and adaptation

of science and technology for development;

d) Cooperating in the promotion of peace, security and stability among Member States

in order to enhance economic development in the region;

e) Co-operating in strengthening the relations between the Common Market and the

rest of the world and the adoption of common positions in international fora; and

f) Contributing towards the establishment, progress and the realization of the

objectives of the African Economic Community.

1.4.2 Vision

COMESA’s 2025 vision is to create a fully integrated internationally competitive regional

economic community. A community within which there is economic prosperity

demonstrated by high living standards of its people with political and social stability. A

community within which goods, services, capital and labour move freely across the

geographical borders. Having established the COMESA Customs Union in 2009, the next

steps to achieve this vision are to establish a common market, and an economic

community. COMESA’s target is to double per capita income and halve the number of poor

people through a steady expansion of its regional economy at an average growth rate of 6-8

percent per year.

1.4.3 COMESA Mission

The ultimate mission of COMESA is to achieve sustainable economic and social progress in

Member States through increased co-operation and integration in all fields of development,

particularly in trade, customs and monetary affairs, transport, communication and

information, technology, industry and energy, gender, agriculture, environment and natural

resources.

1.4.4 COMESA Strategic Priorities

COMESA’s operations are guided by a five-year Medium Term Strategy. The current

strategy is expiring in 2010 and its review is already ongoing. The primary objective of the

new strategy will be to consolidate the achievements so far attained in economic

integration especially in terms of the FTA and Customs Union and to accelerate attainment

of greater regional integration, including tripartite integration with SADC and EAC.

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The strategic priority areas have been identified as follows:

1. Removal of Barriers to Facilitate Mobility;

2. Building Competitive Productive Capacity;

3. Addressing Supply-Side Constraints Related to Infrastructure;

4. Cross-Cutting Issues (gender, youth, socio-environmental health, climate, peace &

security, knowledge society, statistics & co-operation).

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Section 2: Agriculture in COMESA: Importance, Challenges and

Opportunities

This section outlines the contribution of agriculture to the economies of the region, as well

as the challenges and opportunities for agricultural development. It further outlines the

Agricultural Vision and Strategy for COMESA.

2.1 Introduction

Agriculture is an important engine for economic growth and development in the region. It

could contribute towards creating employment, increasing incomes, improving standards of

living, and reducing poverty and hunger. Agriculture is a high priority on the integration

agenda and the achievement of other regional aspirations.

The agricultural sector is under-developed and several challenges to agricultural

development remain. Government and private sector investments in agriculture are low

with most Member States devoting less than 5 percent of their budget to agriculture.

Agricultural output and productivity remain low. The contribution of agriculture to the GDP

is declining. Agricultural and food imports are increasing at about 13 percent per annum.

The heavy and chronic dependence on food imports is unsustainable and poses a serious

food security challenge to COMESA. High population growth rates exacerbate food

insecurity. Agricultural development is also constrained by an over-reliance on rain-fed

production systems; inadequate institutional capacity; declining soil fertility; poor

infrastructure; ineffective policy, legal and regulatory framework; poor agricultural

extension support services; and low investment and an update of research and innovation.

Without a deliberate effort to stabilise agricultural earnings, improve agricultural

productivity and increase output, it will be difficult for COMESA to use agriculture in its

efforts to attain the first United Nations Millennium Development Goal on reducing poverty

and hunger by 2015.

There is enormous potential for agricultural development in COMESA. Less than 9 percent

of its total arable land is under cultivation and there is a huge potential for agricultural

extension, commercialisation, and development. COMESA is the largest REC in Africa with a

population of 410 million people. The size of the population provides a potential workforce

for agriculture and a potential market for agricultural products. Increased inter-

connectivity with other RECs and the rest of the world could lead to technology transfers,

trade development, market penetration, and improved mobility of goods and services.

Potential growth in non-traditional export commodities could spur Africa’s Green

Revolution due to its comparative advantages, including its climate and proximity to

markets for these products in Western Europe. A renewed global and national interest in

agriculture and commitments to increase financing for agriculture and market led growth

6

will provide opportunities for agricultural development. The restoration of peace and

security in the region could facilitate intra-regional trade.

2.2 Contribution of Agriculture to the Economies of the COMESA Region

Compared to other regions on the continent where oil, minerals and other resources are

abundant, the COMESA Region relies heavily on agriculture as the engine for economic

development. Agriculture is also of high priority in the integration agenda and achievement

of other regional aspirations. It is a critical pathway in attaining economic growth in the

region, creating employment, and reducing poverty and hunger. The sector accounts for

more than 32% of COMESA's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), provides a livelihood to about

80% of the region's population, accounts for approximately 65% of foreign exchange

earnings and contributes more than 50% of raw materials to the industrial sector.

Contribution to GDP – overall, the agriculture sector accounts for more than 32% of GDP

for COMESA1. The sector’s contribution to GDP ranges from 6% in Mauritius to 49% in

Burundi. Even for those countries which have managed to reduce the contribution of

agriculture in their total GDP, it still contributes significantly to the industry and service

sectors. Agriculture provides the bulk of raw materials for agro-based industries and food

stuffs to salaried urban workers. The importance of increasing government spending for

agriculture has been recognized by African leaders as a fundamental pre-requisite for

achieving a 6% annual growth rate in agricultural GDP and in the COMESA Region.

Increased government spending is expected to turn around agriculture’s contribution to

GDP in the region.

Employment – on average, agriculture employs 70% of the region’s labour force and

provides a livelihood to over 80% of the region’s population. It, therefore, plays a pivotal

role in the attainment of increased incomes and improved standards of living for the

majority of the people in the region.

Trade - Agricultural commodities are major drivers for growth in intra-COMESA trade.

COMESA trade statistics indicate that total intra-COMESA trade during 2008 amounted to

some US$6.3 billion. Of this, food and agricultural raw materials constituted US$2.1 billion

(or 30 %). While this figure reflects a reduction in the share of agriculture in intra-regional

trade from 43% recorded in 2005, agriculture remains the biggest export commodity after

manufacturing (Table 2.2 below).

1 GDP for COMESA is estimated to be over USD472 billion in 2009.

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Table 2.1: The composition of intra COMESA exports by sector in 2005

Sector % Share

Manufacturing 50%

Food 40%

Agriculture Raw Materials 4%

Fuels 3%

Ores and Metals 3%

Total 100%

Source: COMESA

Linkage with Other Sectors – the agricultural sector offers a number of forward and

backward linkages with other sectors of the economy. Within the COMESA Region, these

linkages are most witnessed between agriculture and industry where the former supplies

65 % of raw materials for industry. Considering the importance of this sector, which the

urban population relies on for its food supplies, it is surprising that few services have been

developed specifically to support the development of agriculture.

2.3 Challenges Facing the Agriculture Sector

Chronic poverty and hunger are widespread and pervasive in the COMESA Region. The

share of undernourished in total populations ranges from 19 percent in Swaziland and

Uganda to a high of 73 percent in Eritrea. Natural shocks and human conflict further expose

the chronically poor to dangers of asset depletion that triggers humanitarian crises in the

region. In 2006, for example, over ten million people were at risk in Ethiopia, and 3.6 million

in Kenya depended on Food Aid. In Southern Sudan, nearly three million people are

dependent on food aid and 1.2 million internally displaced people (IDP) in Uganda rely on

food aid. Overall, over half of the COMESA Member States are chronically food insecure.

Eleven out of the nineteen Member States receive regular food aid inflows.

While the majority of the citizens of the COMESA Region derive their livelihood from

agriculture, the sector is still under-developed. It is characterised by low investment; low

output and productivity; food insecurity; a skewed distribution of food deficit and food

surplus zones; and persistent poverty. Below is a discussion of the key challenges and

binding constraints to agricultural development in the COMESA Region.

Low levels of investments in the agriculture sector - Even though agriculture forms the

backbone of COMESA economies, it ranks among the least funded sectors. By 2009, only a

few countries in Africa had managed to meet the requirement of the 2003 Maputo

Declaration. In Maputo in 2003, African heads of state set targets of allocating 10% of

national budgets to agriculture by 2008 and of reaching national agricultural growth rates

8

of 6%. As well as allocating more of their budgets to agriculture, most countries will have to

boost agricultural sector growth rates in order to achieve MDG1

In 2008, only two countries in the COMESA Region, Malawi and Ethiopia, increased their

national budget allocation to a minimum of 10%, albeit with varying results (CAADP Annual

Report, 2009). However, it is still to be ascertained whether the increased budgetary

allocation translates into effective increased agricultural productivity and production,

rather than into increased food imports. The majority of COMESA Member States are still

devoting less than 5% of their budgets to agriculture. Private sector investment in

agriculture is also low due to a number of risks in the sector and relatively low levels of

profitability.

Low production and productivity – overall, growth of agricultural output has been a

sluggish 2% per year over the last three decades. With the exception of Malawi, Rwanda,

Sudan, and recently Ethiopia (which grew at 8.5 % in 2008), COMESA countries have posted

very low average annual growth in agricultural output. In some countries output has even

shrunk. In terms of productivity, crop yields in the COMESA Region, especially food staples,

remain well below the levels achieved in the rest of the developing world. For example,

maize and rice yields in the region are less than 35% of average yields elsewhere (see Table

2.2). The low productivity in agriculture is also partly reflected in low labour productivity.

The low labour productivity is due to a number of factors including low ratio of inputs to

labour and ill-health resulting from Malaria and HIV/AIDS. According to aid agency Oxfam,

when a family member becomes infected by HIV/AIDS, food production can fall by up to

60%. This state of affairs has led to increasing food imports, declining contribution to GDP

and consequently worsening poverty levels. Thus the ability of the region to rely on

agriculture to raise incomes and reduce poverty is being eroded.

Table 2.2 COMESA: 2003 Crop Yields (MT/ha) COMESA vs. Global

CROP COMESA GLOBAL

Maize 1.39 4.47

Rice 1.12 3.84

Wheat 1.38 2.66

Sorghum 0.67 1.30

Cassava 8.18 10.76

Beans 0.60 0.70

Bananas 5.69 15.25

Food and nutrition insecurity – Whilst there has been an upward trend in per capita food

production in the rest of the world, Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), in general, and the COMESA

Region, in particular, are experiencing downward trends. In less than 40 years the sub-

continent went from being a net exporter of basic food staples to relying on imports and

food aid. In 1966-1970, net exports averaged 1.3 million tons of food a year (The African

Food Crisis). It is estimated that by the late 1970s Africa imported 4.4 million tones of staple

foods a year, a figure that rose to 10 million tonnes by the mid 1980s. For COMESA,

9

agriculture and food imports are increasing at about 13% per annum. The import level

almost tripled from US$6.3 billion in 2000 to US$17.2 billion in 2008. This increasingly heavy

and chronic dependence on food imports is particularly unsustainable and poses a serious

food security challenge for COMESA. The problem is exacerbated by high population

growth rate in the region of 2-3% per annum.

The problem of hunger in Africa is not only widespread but also getting worse. It is

estimated that one in three people in Africa are currently undernourished and that a third

of the entire world’s undernourished people reside in SSA. By 2010 Africa may account for

nearly two-thirds of the undernourished people in the world (USAID, Sub-Saharan Africa).

Poverty - More than half the African population lives on less than one dollar a day. Of

these, over 60% are engaged in agriculture. This is attributed to fluctuations in agricultural

prices (deteriorating terms of trade) and dominance of subsistence farming. Unless there is

a deliberate effort to stabilise agricultural earnings, improve agricultural productivity and

increase output, it will be nearly impossible for the COMESA Region to use agriculture in its

efforts to reduce hunger and poverty by 50 % by the year 2015.

Climate Change – The region is faced with declining agricultural yields, drought, ecosystem

degradation (including deforestation) and conflicts associated with the use of natural

resources. These drivers of poverty undermine local communities’ ability to adapt to

climate change. This is exacerbated by the fact that over 95% of agriculture in the region is

rain-fed. Climate change and climate variability is a challenge that threatens the

development and livelihoods of the people in the COMESA Region. The region has to adapt

to inevitable climate change while working to prevent the yet to be experienced worse

changes and effects from happening. The effects of climate change, such as rising

temperatures and changes in precipitation, are undeniably clear with impacts already

affecting ecosystems, biodiversity and people.

Over reliance on rain-fed systems - the region continues to depend on rainfall with

irrigation coverage at only 9% on average. This has, however, been very unreliable due to

effects of climate changes in particular increasing temperatures and shifting rain patterns.

Inadequate institutional capacity – some critical institutions are non-existent and others

are inefficient. They include markets, credit institutions, farmer organisations, and research

and extension services. A number of institutions lack adequate facilitations in terms of

equipment and human resources. The human resources challenge is also manifested in lack

of adequate skills, failure to attract and retain relevant skills in some areas (hard to reach

and hard to stay areas), and general low morale of agriculture workers compared to labour

forces in other sectors (this is mainly related to low remuneration).

Declining soil fertility –this is largely due to overuse of land due in part to high population

pressure, poor soil and water conservation practices, and low application of fertilisers. High

population density in SSA has forced farming communities to subdivide their land, time and

10

again, leading to tiny and fragmented plots. The average acreage in the region is about 2

hectares per farming household. For the past 30 years, SSA’s population has grown faster

than any region despite the millions of deaths from the HIV/Aids pandemic. Between 1975

and 2005, the population more than doubled, rising from 335 to 751 million, and is

currently growing at a rate of 2.2% a year (the UN Population Fund). The COMESA

population stood at 410 million people in 2009 in an area of approximately 12million

square kilometers translating in a population density of 34 people per square kilometer.

Poor infrastructure - key requisite infrastructure that is deficient or in a poor state include:

(i) transport and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) infrastructure making

it difficult to access production areas and markets; (ii) energy infrastructure, which is

inadequate to facilitate value-addition; and (iii) storage infrastructure, which is critical for

minimising post-harvest losses.

Ineffective policy, legal and regulatory framework - agricultural trade and marketing

policies are inconsistent and unpredictable. There are also some inconsistencies in

agricultural policies that limit private sector investment and commercial activities. Despite

the signing of the Free Trade Area (FTA) agreement by eleven of the nineteen Members

States of COMESA, countries have continued to impose barriers to regional trade in staple

and other foods, including periodic import and export bans, superfluous sanitary and

phytosanitary (SPS) requirements, excise duties and other charges on cross border trade. In

addition, there is lack of clarity on public engagement with private sector, resulting in poor

delineation of public and private roles and functions.

Poor agricultural extension support services – COMESA countries apply both supply-led

and demand driven- agricultural advisory services with mixed success. In general, extension

services are inadequate or unreliable.

Low investment and uptake of research and innovation - On average research and

development (R&D) as a share of GDP is below 1% compared to 1.93% for the European

Union (EU). Of the total budgets allocated to the agricultural sector in developed countries,

close to 8% is devoted to agricultural research with less than half of the same expenditure

made in most African countries. This has slowed down the rate of scientific technological

innovations and adoption. Even for promoting uptake of available technologies, SSA, in

general, and the COMESA Region, in particular, experience low uptake of modern

production technologies such as the adoption of improved seed varieties in COMESA which

is only at 30 % and fertilizer applications averaging only 10 kg/ha compared to a global

average of 50 kg/ha.

Women in Agriculture – Gender inequalities limit agricultural productivity and efficiency

and, in so doing, undermine development agendas. Failure to recognize the different roles

of men and women is costly because it results in misguided projects and programmes,

forgone agricultural output and incomes, and food and nutrition insecurity. Agriculture

policies and development efforts should take into account the role of women in agricultural

11

production and concerted efforts should be increased to enable women to move beyond

production for subsistence and into higher-value, market-oriented production.

According to FAO, women in Sub-Sahara African countries constitute 70% of the agricultural

workers and provide 60-80% of the labour to produce food for household consumption and

sale. They are also responsible for 100% of the processing of basic foodstuffs; 80% of food

storage and transport from field to village; 90% of the hoeing and weeding work; and 60%

of the harvesting and marketing activities (FAO Women and Population Division, 2007). This

data indicates that women farmers bear more than half of the responsibility for agricultural

labour.

Women, despite being the majority of the producers, continue to bear the labor burden for

food production and processing, women do not have access to markets or the

accompanying services necessary to influence improvements in productivity and income.

According to a NEPAD-CAADP study, women own only 1% of land and receive only 1% of

credit and 7% of extension services. The result is that women have little control over their

ability to generate income from the food they produce. Consequently, women-headed rural

households tend to be poorer and more food insecure than those headed by men (FAO,

2009).

Human and Institutional Capacity Building for Modernised Agriculture in the COMESA

Region - Given the various capacity needs in Sub-Sahara Africa’s (SSA) agricultural

landscape, efforts to develop the sector should address the following challenges: i) “brain

drain” of Africa’s best agricultural scientists; ii) the inadequate human resource base lacking

appropriate training and well-developed indigenous capacities for agricultural policy design,

analysis and management; iii) absence of relevant national and cross-border sub-regional

institutions with adequate trained manpower that oversee a conscious implementation and

rationalization of harmonized food and agricultural development policies, projects and

programs; iv) the continued lack of a critical mass of skilled Sub-Sahara Africans who can

effectively conduct multidisciplinary and policy-relevant socio-economic as well as

biological/agronomic research, and manage the various components of SSA’s agricultural

transformation program; v) and the non-availability of adequate absorptive capacities in

SSA countries to not only enhance the rapid development of domestic resources but also

withstand the shocks that are created by emerging interdependent global issues in other

parts of the world. There is need for manpower to serve the entire agricultural value chain

from inputs, production, processing to distribution and consumption.

2.4 Opportunities for Agricultural Development in the COMESA Region

SSA and the COMESA Region in particular, exhibit enormous potential for agricultural

development. This potential lies in the following: unexploited natural resources, social

capital, basic but growing institutional arrangements, regional economic communities

(RECs) and the positive impact of globalisation.

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Natural resources – the COMESA Region has a total arable land area of over 73.2 million

hectares (FAO, 2007) of which less than 9% is currently under cultivation. The region has a

huge potential for agricultural extension, commercialisation and development.

Social capital – the COMESA Region has a population of 410 million people, making it the

largest REC in Africa. Whilst the rising prevalence of HIV constitutes a substantial threat in

terms of its impact on productivity, the size of the population provides a potential

workforce for agriculture as well as a potential market for agricultural produce

Globalisation – the impact of globalisation will enhance inter-connectivity of COMESA with

other RECs and the rest of the world. This offers a lot of potential for the agricultural sector

especially in terms of technological transfer, trade development and market penetration.

Other effects will include improved mobility of goods and services, as well as humans. The

major beneficiaries of global trade will be non-traditional exports commodities such as

horticulture crops including flowers. These commodities have potential to spur Africa’s

Green Revolution because of Africa’s comparative advantages, such as its tropical and semi-

tropical climate and proximity to Western Europe, which is the major market segment for

floriculture, horticulture and apiculture products.

Renewed global interest in agriculture – agriculture is back on the development agenda.

This renewed interest in agriculture by the international community is partly reflected by

devotion of the theme of the World Development Report, 2008 to agriculture. There are

also new agricultural initiatives and programmes supported by a substantial amount of

development partners. There is a renewed global and national commitment to increase

financing for agriculture and market-led growth specifically. The Group of Twenty (G20)

Summit held in September 2009 called on the World Bank to “work with interested donors

and organisations to develop a multilateral trust fund to scale up agricultural assistance to

low income countries.” As a result, the Global Agriculture Food Security Program (GAFSP)

was established with an aim to reduce global hunger and poverty by focusing on food

security and agriculture. There is renewed interest at global, continental level (AU/NEPAD),

Regional (COMESA), sub-regional and national levels. The growing interest in agriculture

has led to establishment of programmes such as the AGRA and ACTESA. There are other

organized farmer groupings such as the Southern African Confederation of Agriculture

Unions (SACAU), the Eastern African Farmers Federation (EAFF); regional research

institutions including the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and

Central Africa (ASARECA); and multi-stakeholder policy platforms such as the Food

Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN), who continue to

seek and promote agriculture development.

Resurgent Security – the restoration of peace and security in formerly conflict prone

regions and countries, such as Burundi, DRC Congo and Sudan, will further facilitate intra-

regional trade, especially in agricultural products where Member States have varying

comparative advantages.

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2.5 Agriculture Vision and Strategy

The COMESA Treaty (Article 129) stipulates that the overall objectives of co-operation in

the agricultural sector are the achievement of regional food security and rational

agricultural production within the Common Market. To this end, Member States have

undertaken to:

a) harmonize agricultural policies;

b) work towards regional food sufficiency

c) increase agricultural productivity to meet domestic and export markets, and

d) replacement of imports on a regional basis

Further to the above and in order to achieve the overall goal of improved regional food

security and the specific targets, the COMESA Agricultural Strategy (2010-2014) identifies

three strategic areas of intervention:

a) Facilitation of efficient agricultural markets - COMESA has placed strong emphasis

on facilitating enhanced trade of agricultural products, specifically food staples,

including livestock and fisheries, at local, regional and international levels to contribute

to the overall goal of improved food security. Of high priority are improving market

infrastructure, market information systems and the institutional capacity and structure

of market institutions. Commercialization of smallholder farmers and improved market

services within staple crops and livestock are also high priorities.

b). Accelerating adoption of productivity-enhancing technologies - COMESA Member

States have placed a high priority on accelerating food production and food system

productivity through adoption of existing and newly generated technologies in order to

reverse the declining trends in food production and productivity in the region.

Important underlying factors which will need to be addressed as part of this focus,

include limited access to inputs (mainly seed and fertilizer), drought/floods (climate

change), poor extension systems, low irrigation development, poor crop and livestock

diversification, poor infrastructure and market access, unsustainable farming systems

and poor land tenure systems, if in place. There is also a close linkage to the first

strategic area and its focus on improving markets, which will help catalyze food and

agricultural production, and productivity.

c). Promoting an enabling agricultural policy environment - COMESA Member States

will facilitate the establishment of a harmonized set of enabling policies and regulatory

systems for increased agricultural production and productivity and marketing of

agricultural products. The region is characterized by haphazard policies that do not

stimulate production and marketing of food staples resulting in food insecurity. Of high

priority for Member States are policies that respond to rising food prices, removing

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tariff and non-tariff barriers, such as SPS measures, and food trade bans imposed

arbitrarily in the region.

Section 3: The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development

Programme (CAADP) Framework

This section outlines the objectives and pillars of the CAADP at continental level. It will

illustrate the link between action at national and regional levels in support of the

continental framework. It will also make an argument for and highlight the benefits of

adopting regional approaches to agricultural development.

3.1 Introduction

The CAADP provides a strategic framework, agreed upon by African Heads of State, aimed

at increasing agriculture growth to at least six percent per year, thereby enabling income

growth and wealth creation sufficient to cut poverty in half by 2015. African Governments

have identified four entry-points or pillars for investment and action under the CAADP

agenda, namely: sustainable land and water management; rural infrastructure and trade-

related capacities for market access; food and nutrition security; and agricultural research,

extension and training for technology dissemination and adoption. The CAADP framework

has been designed in a manner that requires institutional actors at lower levels to report

back to the higher level actors, a hierarchy which eventually leads to the African Union

Commission (AUC).

The national CAADP Compacts are high-level agreements between governments, regional

representatives and development partners for a focused implementation of CAADP within

the respective countries. They are meant to detail programmes and projects that the

various stakeholders can buy into and that address national priorities. They are also meant

to define actions, commitments, partnerships and alliances and guide: (i) country policy and

investment responses; (ii) planning of development assistance; and (iii) public-private

partnerships and business to business alliances to raise and sustain the necessary

investments. National CAADP Compacts have to be aligned with agricultural policies of

regional and sub-regional groupings. RECs play important roles in harmonising and

facilitating implementation of the CAADP at national and regional levels.

Regional approaches to agricultural development are needed in order to address

agricultural challenges that transcend national boundaries. Individual countries may not be

able to resolve artificial barriers inherited from the colonial era. Countries often share

agro-ecological zones and could benefit from regional research collaboration and efficiency

gains from economies of scale. The regional CAADP Compacts are not a synthesis of the

various national CAADP Compacts. They will also not replace the national CAADP

Compacts. They will constitute an agreement among Member States around investments

15

that are needed to enable individual countries to better deal with transboundary issues

that impact on agricultural development in their respective countries. The investments will

accelerate individual country agricultural growth by enabling them to benefit from regional

spillovers and economies of scale in technology development, trade and investment.

3.2 CAADP: A Shared Framework for Agriculture Development in Africa

Since 2000, there has been renewed recognition of agriculture as the mainstay and key

driver of economic growth, food and nutrition security and poverty alleviation in Africa. In

July 2003, the African Union (AU)/New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD)

established the Comprehensive Africa’s Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) as

the highest policy level framework for the co-ordinated development of agriculture in

Africa. The main objective of the CAADP is to assist African countries to achieve a higher

economic growth rate through agriculture-led development and the attainment of at least

6% annual sectoral growth (Annex 3). The CAADP is a common framework reflected in a set

of key principles and targets collectively defined and set by African Heads of State and/or

Government in order to:

(i) Guide country strategies and investment programmes,

(ii) Facilitate regional peer learning and review, and

(iii) Facilitate greater alignment and harmonization of development efforts.

The CAADP is about increased investments in agriculture to address food security and to

encourage economic growth. It is about networking, setting priorities, and harmonizing

goals, spending, and activities between the various stakeholders committed to raising living

standards in Africa. These range from organisations representing large and small-scale

farmers, government ministry officials, donors, researchers, agribusiness and NGOs.

Under CAADP, Africa’s governments have further identified four continent-wide entry

points, or pillars, for investment and action in addressing increased and sustainable

productivity in agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and livestock management. The four pillars of

the CAADP agenda are:

(i) Sustainable land and water management,

(ii) Rural infrastructure and trade-related capacities for market access,

(iii) Food and nutrition security, and

(iv) Agricultural research, extension and training for technology dissemination

and adoption.

The CAADP framework has been designed in a manner that requires institutional actors at

lower levels to report back to the higher level actors, a hierarchy which eventually leads to

the African Union Commission. The Africa Union Commission/ NEPAD Planning and

Coordinating Agency (AUC/NPCA) is responsible for raising the profile of the CAADP agenda

at the political level and providing a common framework and international legitimacy for

CAADP. With the four continent-wide pillars as its foundation, in 2004-05, CAADP began to

focus its efforts at the level of the regional economic communities (RECs). With Economic

16

Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Common Market of Eastern and

Southern Africa (COMESA) being the two lead RECs that have now come to 'own' CAADP.

The CAADP process has largely been built on the national level. However, it is necessary to

clarify the roles of the different key players from the AU, regional, sub-regional and national

levels. In line with the African ownership of the agenda, the AU/NEPAD Secretariat has

taken leadership in clarifying the agenda; defining the challenges facing its implementation,

and developing a clear process to move the implementation forward at the regional and

country levels. It did so by leading the preparation of key CAADP implementation

documents, including: (i) the CAADP implementation Roadmap document which provides

overall guidance for the implementation process; and (ii) the Country Level Implementation

Concept Note, which guides the elaboration of national level implementation activities. The

AU/NEPAD Secretariat has also directly and through the Regional Economic Communities

provided backstopping support to countries on adaptation and development of the CAADP

agenda through the CAADP roundtable processes.

At continental level, leading African institutions such as the Forum for Agricultural Research

in Africa (FARA), University of Zambia (UNZA), the African Center for Food Security (ACFS) of

KwaZulu Natal University and the Centre Inter-Etat de Lutte contre la Secheresse au Sahel

(CILSS) have been mobilized to provide the necessary technical expertise and facilitation to

guide program planning and implementation. They have contributed to the development

of concept papers to guide the four pillars of the CAADP.

3.3 The Need for a Regional Approach to Agricultural Development

Justification for a Continent Wide Compact - Africa is the most subdivided continent, with

165 borders dividing 51 countries and 14 Regional Economic Communities (RECs). Africa

suffers from a notable lack of economic integration. The multiplicity of RECs has further

contributed to significant overlap in development programmes. Efforts are needed to

streamline the various agendas, harmonise policies and remove unnecessary programme

duplication in order to unify regional markets. However, to be successful, these efforts

require investment in infrastructure to link the various economic spaces more closely,

thereby reducing the transaction cost of economic and social interaction.

In pursuit of the broader objectives of the African Union to accelerate economic integration

of the continent, with the aim to achieve economic growth, reduce poverty and attain

sustainable economic development, COMESA, EAC and SADC signed a Tripartite Agreement

in Kampala, Uganda on 22 October 2008. This agreement saw the integration of nearly half

of African economies. This tripartite alliance is envisaged to solve the trouble of overlapping

membership, most of the member countries belong to more than one regional grouping.

17

The need for a regional approach arises from a number of factors. First, the current

agricultural challenges such as environment degradation, plant and animal diseases,

climatic change, rising food prices, food insecurity and hunger transcend beyond individual

country boundaries, including the capacities to address these challenges. The regional

CAADP Compacts will concentrate on strategic regional investments that individual

countries, acting alone, cannot achieve but which serve to accelerate individual country

agricultural growth by enabling them to benefit from regional spill-overs and economies of

scale in technology development, trade and investment.

Secondly, there are artificial barriers imposed by political and administrative frontiers

inherited from the colonial era, which could easily be overlooked or simply not be resolved

by each country acting alone. For example, across the COMESA Region, inherited political

borders frequently separate surplus food production zones from the deficit markets they

would normally serve. These political boundaries separate food surplus areas in northern

Mozambique from deficit markets in Malawi and eastern Zambia, and divide the maize

surplus highlands of southern Tanzania from deficit markets in the DRC and Malawi. They

also separate food surplus zones in Uganda from deficit markets in Kenya and Sudan.

Regional cross-border trade can clearly contribute to improved regional food security,

although this will require infrastructural investment and policy harmonization along key

regional trade corridors. By and large, these challenges are of a regional nature that can

better be resolved through a regional approach.

Thirdly, because the region’s many small countries often straddle common agro-ecological

zones, regional research collaboration can generate significant technology spill-overs, as

well as efficiency gains from economies of scale. Likewise, major scope exists for achieving

scale economies through regionally co-ordinated research on problems of common interest

including: plant breeding in shared crops; soil fertility management systems; biotechnology

research; and bio-safety regulation. Regional collaboration in controlling plant and animal

diseases remains imperative, as experience with the cassava mealie bug and major livestock

diseases have shown.

Successful containment of livestock and plant diseases demand careful co-ordination across

borders, as past experience in combating rinderpest and cassava mosaic virus in the region

attests. The sharing of improved plant and livestock breeding material across countries,

likewise, offers significant prospects for reducing costs and accelerating productivity gains

across countries that straddle common agro-ecological zones. Early warning and forecasting

systems work most efficiently when conducted on a regional basis. Even purely national

programmes, such as emergency and school feeding programmes, clearly benefit from the

sharing of information and experience across countries.

3.4 The Role of Regional Economic Communities in supporting Agriculture Development

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During the process of developing national compacts, it became apparent that: (i) national

CAADP Compacts have to be aligned with agricultural policies of regional and sub-regional

groupings, (ii) Member States need guidance on how to deal with agricultural priorities that

transcend their national frontiers, and (iii) Member States have capacity gaps in effective

planning and implementation of CAADP processes. However, no agency or institution has

been charged with the development of such capacities at the regional level. Therefore,

RECs have two significant and yet distinct roles to play: i) harmonisation, and ii) facilitation.

The detailed roles and responsibilities at regional level include the following:

1. Ensure harmonization of policy or standards to enhance inter-regional trade. Some

harmonization is already taking place at sub regional level, such as among the EAC

partner states in accordance with the EAC Treaty on Standardization, Quality

Assurance, Metrology and Testing (SQMT) Act, 2006. The Compact will ensure that

this is scaled up to cover the entire COMESA Region.

2. Enhance effective management of trans-boundary resources such as water bodies

and trans-border forestry and other resources.

3. Better position the region to minimize the effects of global warming and associated

climate change.

4. Promote improvement in agricultural infrastructure especially storage and

marketing and expansion of general physical infrastructure in areas of transport,

energy and communications.

5. Capacity building in critical areas such as research, standards, quality assurance,

meteorology and testing.

6. Promote creation of investment programmes that balance out the region’s food

surplus and deficit areas. This will reduce food insecurity, which is progressively

escalating as agricultural productivity and the overall performance of the economy

continues to decline.

7. Improve sharing of information on issues of common interests (public goods) for

Member States. These issues include disease and pandemic surveillance, pest

invasion, money laundering and security alerts. This will also entail capacity building

in agricultural forecasts and early warning systems.

The mandate of COMESA is to create a fully integrated, internationally competitive REC

with high standards of living for all its people and with free movement of goods, services,

capital, and labour across national boundaries. In pursuit of its mandate, COMESA has

designed and implemented a wide range of programmes and activities in inter alia trade

liberalization and facilitation, monetary integration, infrastructure development and ICT.

COMESA further implements programmes and activities in support of the NEPAD priority

projects, such as in water management, ICT, road transport facilitation and under the

Yammoussoukro Decision.

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3.5 The Role of Sub-Regional Organisations in supporting agricultural development

Policy development and development in general requires the involvement of state and non-

state actors. Therefore, in implementation there is a need for COMESA to identify the

appropriate non-state stakeholders who are representative of the broader agriculture civil

society domain. These ideally should be sub-regional organisations (SROs) with roots at

national level so as to ensure those closest to the issues are delegated to implement

programmmes. This is in line with the principle of subsidiarity.

SROs mainly help the RECs access Civil Society Organisations (CSOs). Civil society

encompasses a constellation of human and associational activities operating in the public

sphere outside the market and the state. It is a voluntary expression of the interests and

aspirations of citizens organized and united by common interests, goals, values or

traditions, and mobilized into collective action either as beneficiaries or stakeholders of the

development process. Although civil society stands apart from state and market forces, it is

not necessarily in basic contradiction to them, and it ultimately influences and is influenced

by both.

Subsidiarity is an organizing principle that matters ought to be handled by the smallest,

lowest or least centralized competent authority. The demand for their intervention in both

service delivery and policy work compels CSOs to operate beyond national borders - at sub-

regional and regional levels. The unimpeded movement of people, ideas, and resources

across geographic borders has created new sets of challenges and calls for innovative

responses. Trans-boundary environmental issues, cross-border migration of displaced

persons, the spillover effect of conflicts/natural disasters, and broader regional challenges,

such as the debt burden and HIV/AIDS, impels CSOs to form alliances and engage in action

beyond their national boarders.

Poverty reduction outcomes can be broader, deeper, and more sustainable where

appropriate stakeholder groups in civil society help design, steer, and otherwise participate

in them. Those actors can reinforce public sector institutions, while not substituting for

them. CSOs, therefore, have instrumental value with respect to COMESA’s development

aims, although they should not be viewed as mere instruments or contractors.

The myriad of civic organisations in civil society include, but are not limited to,

nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), people's and professional organisations, trade

unions, cooperatives, consumer and human rights groups, women's associations, youth

clubs, independent media (radio, television, print and electronic), neighbourhood or

community-based coalitions, religious groups, academic and research institutions,

grassroots movements and organisations of indigenous peoples.

Organisations in this category are usually visible, formally constituted, urban-based bodies

that seek to provide goods and services to certain categories of people, or to advocate

certain policies. They include:

20

• knowledge-based NGOs (for example, in research and policy analysis);

• international private aid agencies for development or humanitarian action.

Sub-Regional Organisations (SROs) play an important role in supporting agricultural

development at national and regional levels. They provide an interface between the RECs

and Member States. COMESA consequently has concluded Memoranda of Understanding

with a number of SROs (Annex 16). Examples of SROs supporting agricultural development

in COMESA are the Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions (SACAU), the East

African Farmers Federation (EAFF), the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research

in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA), The Regional Universities Forum for Capacity

Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM), and the Food, Agricultural and Natural Resources Policy

Analysis Network (FANRPAN).

The SACAU contributes to agricultural development in the region by strengthening the

capacities of farmers’ organisations, providing a collective voice for farmers on regional and

international matters, and providing agriculture related information to its members and

others stakeholders. The EAFF voices the views and demands of the farmers on

crosscutting issues and endeavours to promote regional integration of the farmers through

trade and good neighbourliness. FANRPAN is a regional multi-stakeholder network and

provides independent evidence to inform policy harmonisation at regional level. ASARECA

aims to increase the efficiency of agricultural research in the region in order to facilitate

economic growth, food security and export competitiveness through productive and

sustainable agriculture. RUFORUM, a consortium of 25 universities in Eastern and Southern

Africa, is mandated to oversee graduate training and networks of specialization in COMESA

countries. It recognizes the important and largely unfulfilled role that universities play in

contributing to the well-being of small-scale farmers and economic development of

countries throughout the SSA region.

COMESA values the services of sub-regional organisations (SRO) and has formalised

partnerships through Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with four (EAFF, SACAU,

FANRPAN and ASARECA) of the five SROs. RUFORUM is being reviewed pending finalisation

of a MOU. SROs in COMESA participate in ‘Technical Committee on Agriculture Meetings’

and ‘Ministers of Agriculture Meetings’.

3.6 Linking National and Regional CAADP Compacts in COMESA

The regional CAADP Compacts are not a synthesis of the various national CAADP Compacts.

They will also not replace the national CAADP Compacts. They will constitute an agreement

among Member States around investments that are needed to enable individual countries

to better deal with transboundary issues that impact on agricultural development in their

respective countries. Stakeholders will subscribe to the regional CAADP Compacts but will

not have to accept sole responsibility for its implementation, as collective action is required

to respond to the regional spillovers.

21

The goal of the COMESA Regional CAADP Compact (the Compact) is to reinforce the

development of long-term coordinated strategies for agricultural development in the

region; strengthen and establish viable regional partnerships for sustainable agricultural

growth, and enforce guidelines for ensuring commitment by regional stakeholders to the

implementation of the Compact for increased agricultural productivity and production.

National CAADP Compacts identify a number of country level priority interventions, which

accumulatively will contribute to the ultimate goal of agricultural-led growth in the region.

However, to be able to realize significant impact at a regional level, there is a need to

complement national level priority interventions with Regional Investment Programmes.

For multi-country investments, COMESA will play a facilitating role.

The facilitating role of COMESA for nationally identified programmes will include:

1. Assist in the harmonization, streamlining and prioritization of the agricultural sector

developmental initiatives.

2. Facilitate compliance of agreed commitments regarding agriculture financing and

rural development. This includes meeting the 10% financial resources allocation to

agriculture at country level through a complementing regional approach that

provides conducive policy, infrastructural and investment climates to support

country efforts beyond national borders.

3. Support the drive for the commercialization and diversification of agriculture in the

short to long-term through linking farmers at country level to markets across the

region.

The CAADP process at a regional level will play a pivotal role in the consolidation,

strengthening and value addition of Member States’ efforts in improving agriculture

development. The Compact will also encourage the identification of strategic options to

directly address poverty reduction at national level in support of national compacts. The

identification of regional investment programmes requires a regional approach if they are

to address common trans-boundary binding constraints to agricultural development of the

COMESA Region.

The Compact will provide the glue to link countries together in ways that accelerate

agricultural growth and improve food and nutrition security. It will largely address itself on

high-end policy promotion, advocacy and resource mobilization functions while giving

discretion to Member States to implement their own compacts in the style and with the

approach they find most befitting and appropriate.

22

The process of national CAADP roundtables

1. Government appoints focal point(s)

2. REC and Government launch process

3. Country steering and technical committee

4. Cabinet memo and endorsement

5. Stocktaking, growth, investment, analysis

6. Drafting of country CAADP compact

7. Roundtable signing of compact

8. Elaboration of detailed investment plans

9. Post-compact review meeting and validation of

investment plans

10. Agreement of financing plan, financing instruments,

and annual review mechanism

11. Operational design and other technical studies and

assessment for programme execution

12. Execution of new investment programmes

13. First annual review meeting

14. Second annual review meeting

3.7 National Level CAADP Frameworks of COMESA Member States

Since 2000, COMESA countries have been committed to developing the Poverty Reduction

Strategies and Action Programme (PRASPs) and/or long term national vision frameworks as

principle documents guiding their national development agenda. Consistent with this

policy framework and following a sector-wide approach, many countries have developed

specific Policy and Investment Frameworks/Plans (PIF/P) for guiding the strategic

development of their agricultural sectors. In most of the COMESA countries, development

of Agricultural Sector Strategic Plans predates the adoption of the CAADP framework. These

strategies have been reviewed and are being harmonized to reflect the CAADP principles.

The 'CAADP roundtable' is fundamental for the successful implementation of CAADP at

national level. It is an iterative learning process comprising analysis, design, implementation

and evaluation of agricultural investment programmes. The actors involved in country

process include: government representatives, REC representatives, CAADP focal points,

CSOs, Farmer Organisations, Private Sector and Development Partners. The ‘country

process implementation’ focuses on identification of growth options leading specific core

activities, which are then clearly outlined in the national compact document. Once the

national compact is signed, the development and implementation of agriculture investment

plans begins.

National CAADP Compacts are high-level agreements between governments, regional

representatives and development partners for a focused implementation of CAADP within

the respective country. They are meant to detail programmes, projects and other

investments that the various stakeholders can buy into and that address national priorities.

They are also meant to define actions, commitments, partnerships and alliances and guide:

• country policy and investment responses;

• planning of development assistance; and

• public-private partnerships and business to business alliances to raise and sustain

the necessary investments.

By June 2010, six COMESA Member States

have signed their national compacts.

Rwanda was the first country in Africa to

conclude its country CAADP compact in

2007. This was followed in 2009 by Ethiopia

and Burundi and in 2010 by Uganda,

Swaziland and Malawi. More countries are

continuously embracing CAADP values and

moving towards concluding their compacts

with an additional four Member States

(Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Sudan) in

23

COMESA expected to sign by the end of 2010.

Table 3.1: Identified and Agreed Priorities in National CAADP Compacts

COUNTRY CAADP National Priority Focus/ Strategic Priorities

Ethiopia

Compact signed on:

28 August 2009

• Strengthen human capacity

• Adapt development path to different agro-ecological zones,

• Effective agricultural marketing systems, and

• Promote sustainable natural resources management,

Malawi

Compact signed on:

19 April 2010

• Food security and risk management

• Commercial agriculture, agro-processing and market

development,

• Sustainable agricultural land and water management

• Technology generation and dissemination

• Institutional and human capacity strengthening

• HIV prevention and AIDS mitigation

• Gender Equity and Empowerment

Rwanda

Compact signed on:

31 March 2007

• Food and nutrition security

• Modern and specialized agriculture,

• Commercialising agriculture

• Balance market orientation and social protection in

agriculture,

• Economic empowerment for all in agriculture

• Integrated and diversified agriculture

Uganda

Compact signed on:

31 March 2010

• Enhancing sustainable production and productivity

• Improving access to markets and value addition

• Creating an enabling environment

• Institutional strengthening

• Support stakeholder-led and broad-based agriculture

development

• Promote domestic, regional and international trade in

agriculture

• Ensure sustainable use and management of agricultural

resources

Swaziland

Compact signed on:

4 March 2010

• Water and Irrigation Development Programme.

• Integrated Land Management for Combating Land

Degradation

• Development of sustainable agriculture markets

• Development of extension, and implementation policy

frameworks

24

• Capacity building for Farmers and Extension Staff

• Improving agriculture information and data management

systems

• Strengthening food emergency response mechanism

Burundi

Compact signed on: 24

August 2009

• Increase efficiency in planning and mobilization of foreign aid

to the agriculture sector; and

• Development of a framework under which assistance can be

increased to meet the short and long term investment needs

of the agricultural sector.

• Meet MDG Objective 1 and go further to ensure food and

nutritional security for all citizens

• Adopt market and export led strategies

• Promote value addition, competitiveness and high quality

across entire value chains

• Promote technical approaches that encourage: e.g.

development of biotechnology research and application;

The development of national CAADP Compacts has been a participatory and inclusive

process. There has also, been some analytical work done at the national level to inform the

identification of binding constraints and priority strategies and interventions to address

them. In most countries, the process has been co-ordinated by ministries responsible for

agriculture and livestock. National CAADP teams also played key roles in driving the

national CAADP processes, including maintaining linkages with COMESA Secretariat and

other relevant stakeholders.

25

Section 4: Development of Regional CAADP Compacts

The CAADP process has been well articulated and implemented at national levels. However,

implementation at the regional level has been slower. By June 2010, only one of the eight

Regional Economic Communities (RECs) in Africa, namely ECOWAS, had concluded its

regional compact. The Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) has

commenced with a process of developing its Regional CAADP Compact. This section

outlines the processes that were followed in ECOWAS and COMESA when they developed

their respective Regional CAADP Compacts. Both processes provide useful case-studies and

examples that other RECs could consider when designing their own Regional CAADP

Compacts. They also represent important steps towards attaining the vision of developing

a continent-wide food security Compact.

4.1 Introduction

The vision of the ECOWAS Compact (ECOWAP) is of “a modern and sustainable agriculture,

based on the effectiveness and efficiency of family farms and the promotion of private

agricultural enterprises, that are productive and competitive in the intra-Community and

International markets in order to ensure food security and remunerative incomes to its

workers.” It has seven specific objectives and its operationalisation has been translated

into the development of action programmes targeting six themes.

The COMESA Regional CAADP Compact will serve as a trans-boundary implementation

policy for the CAADP framework in the region. The Compact will provide a ‘bird’s eye view’

in the identification of regional investment programmes critical for improving food

production and food security by taking into account cross-border concerns such as Non -

Tariff Barriers (NTBs), Common External tariff (CET) and Double Tax Avoidance (DTA). The

Compact should ensure that regional investments add value to national agriculture and

food security investment plans (NAFSIP) and further strengthen regional integration. It is

also anticipated that the Compact will consolidate and accelerate achievement of

objectives of regional programmes such as those implemented under IGAD, ASARECA, Lake

Victoria Basin Management and others at COMESA-SADC-EAC levels as recommended

under the tripartite arrangement.

4.2 Towards an Africa- wide Compact

The Vision of AU Chairmain H.E Bingu wa Mutharika -

The current Chairman of the African Union, H.E Prof. Bingu wa Mutharika, President of the

Republic of Malawi, has included in the priorities of his tenure, ensuring a food-secure

26

Africa and the development of a continent wide food security compact. The AUC is taking

forward his vision in its own work on the continent and within the CAADP framework. The

AUC is working together with the RECs and Member States on a set of quick-win actions

which can, within an agricultural season or two, begin to turn the situation around (as

happened in Malawi). These proposals call for clear policy changes and effective strategic

interventions that will enable any country to achieve demonstrable impact within seasons

rather than years. These quick win actions include:

(a) Putting in place policies, strategies and investments for faster access to inputs

such as fertilizers, seeds and pesticides including the possibility of subsidising

some of them.

(b) Incentives to farmers for stabilisation of markets especially to continue

producing even when prices decline.

(c) Collective or national protection of African markets from subsidised imports and

unpredictable food aid.

(d) Immediate launch of substantive policies and programmes such as home-grown

foods to improve nutrition of the most vulnerable – in particular children under

two years of age.

(e) Enhancing risk management mechanisms – an integral part of CAADP Pillar III –

to protect investments in agriculture from recurring, predictable weather

shocks.

The Tripartite Agreement between COMESA-EAC-SADC

In October 2008, the Heads of State and/or Government of COMESA, ECA and SADC agreed

on a programme of harmonization of trading arrangements amongst the three RECs, free

movement of business persons, joint implementation of inter-regional infrastructure

programmes as well as institutional arrangements on the basis of which the three RECs

would foster co-operation. On the area of food security, the Tripartite Summit agreed to

make “strategic interventions to exploit the potential of African economies in the

production of food and enhance accessibility of markets”.

The communiqué approved the expeditious establishment of an enlarged Free Trade Area

(FTA) encompassing 26 Member States in three sub-regions. The proposed FTA will open

borders to half of the continent, spanning the entire southern and eastern regions of Africa.

The combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the FTA currently stands at approximately

US$625 billion with a combined population of 527 million. It was an important milestone

towards continental integration as envisaged by the African Union (AU), including under the

AU and the Abuja Treaty framework of continental integration, which recognises that RECs

are the building blocks for the African Economic Community. The Abuja Treaty envisages a

continental economic zone by 2028, gradually built upon merging of the many RECs across

the African continent.

The Summit directed the three RECs to put in place joint programmes for the

implementation of a single seamless upper airspace; an accelerated, seamless inter-

regional ICT Broadband Infrastructure Network; and a harmonized policy and regulatory

27

framework that will govern ICT and infrastructural development in the three RECs. The

RECs are also expected to "effectively co-ordinate and harmonize" the Regional Transport

Master Plans and the Regional Energy Priority Investment Plans, as well as their respective

Energy Master Plans. This directive paves the way for COMESA to consider the scaling-up of

its Compact to incorporate priorities of SADC and EAC.

4.3 ECOWAS Process and Outputs

Since the early 2000s, West Africa has stimulated a political dialogue involving Member

States, socio-professional actors, civil society and development partners in order to define a

regional agricultural policy. The dialogue reviewed the region’s agricultural sector, its

development potential, the strengths and weaknesses of national agricultural sectors, and

also identified key issues and challenges with regards to agriculture and food and nutrition

security.

As a result of this process, the Heads of States and/or Government adopted at their 19

January 2005 meeting the Agricultural Policy of the West African States, ECOWAP, as an

instrument for implementing CAADP (See Annex 10). The ECOWAS compact’s vision is of “a

modern and sustainable agriculture, based on the effectiveness and efficiency of family

farms and the promotion of agricultural enterprises through the involvement of the private

sector that are productive and competitive in the intra-Community and International

markets, so as to ensure food security and remunerative incomes to its workers.”

Based on this vision, ECOWAP pursues a general objective to: “contribute in a sustainable

manner to satisfying the food needs of the population, to economic and social development

and to poverty reduction in Member States as well as to address inequalities between

territories, areas, and countries.” This overall objective is divided into seven specific

objectives: (i) food security of the populations; (ii) reducing food dependency in a

perspective of food sovereignty; (iii) integration of producers into markets; (iv) creation of

jobs that guarantee remunerative incomes to improve the living conditions of rural

populations as well as the delivery of services in rural areas; (v) sustainable intensification

of production systems; (vi) reducing vulnerability of West African economies by limiting

factors that lead to regional instability and insecurity; and (vii) adoption of appropriate

funding mechanisms.

The operationalisation of the ECOWAP/CAADP Compact has been translated into the

development of action programmes targeting six themes: (i) Water management; (ii)

Management of other shared natural resources; (iii) Sustainable development of farms; (iv)

Markets and supply chains; (v) Prevention and management of food crises and other

natural disasters; and (vi) Institutional strengthening. Finally, the ECOWAS Member States

28

have defined the institutional set up and co-ordination mechanisms for financing, including,

in particular, the creation of a “Regional Technical Agency for Agriculture and Food” and the

establishment of a “Regional Fund for Agriculture and Food.”

The implementation of ECOWAS/CAADP is based on the implementation of investment

programmes at the national level (NAIP) as well as at the regional level. At the regional

level, the mobilizing programmes combine investments and public policy reforms

(instruments and measures). They complement the NAIP, incorporate regional dimensions,

manage interdependent relationships between countries and organize their co-operation

on common issues.

4.4 COMESA Process and Outputs

The development of the COMESA Regional CAADP Compact involved desk reviews,

stakeholder consultations, development of the framework document, and finally drafting

the actual compact document for signing. Once the compact document is approved, it will

be signed and post-compact programme activities initiated. Details on the process are

outlined in the sections below.

Desk reviews were undertaken in order to develop a better understanding of the mandate

of COMESA and to determine a baseline of the institutional arrangements and programmes.

The desk reviews involved: 1) reviewing the mandate of COMESA in terms of its

responsibilities towards the agriculture sector and its existing institutional arrangements; 2)

taking an inventory of regional implementing institutions; and 3) conducting a stock-take of

ongoing regional programmes related to CAADP.

Desk reviews were undertaken on the COMESA Treaty, the COMESA Strategy, AU/NEPAD

CAADP principles, National CAADP Compacts and processes, regional projects stock take

and gap analysis, human and institutional capacities, regional concept papers for all the

four pillars, programmes focusing on youth and women in the COMESA Region,

stakeholders in the region, existing regional projects and programmes, Early Action

Programmes under each of the CAADP Pillars, and institutional arrangements for the

implementation of CAADP in COMESA.

Stakeholder consultations were undertaken to prepare a gap analysis and determine what

has to be done by COMESA. The consultations focused on: 1) gaining consensus on the

priority areas of focus for the Compact; 2) identifying gaps in the ongoing regional

programmes; and 3) identifying potential investment programmes. Stakeholder

consultations were done electronically, face-to-face, telephonically and in side meetings.

In-country and regional level consultations were undertaken. Stakeholders consulted

included policy makers, farmers’ groups, civil society, the private sector, research

29

organisations, regional networks, agriculture agencies, development and technical partners,

and the COMESA Secretariat.

Following the reviews and consultations, a COMESA CAADP Framework Document was

developed. The document evaluates the opportunities and challenges faced by the

agricultural sector in COMESA. It outlines the rationale for regional action. The document

provides a framework for a COMESA Regional CAADP Compact and proposes priority areas

of focus for the Compact. It outlines on-going regional agricultural programmes and gaps in

the priority areas. The Framework further proposes programmes for the Compact and

institutional arrangements for implementation. The draft Compact is an agreement

between stakeholders while the Framework provides the evidence that was used to

determine the priorities, proposed programmes for and implementation aspects of the

Compact.

As part of the drafting process for the Compact, the signatories had to be identified and the

priorities had to be defined. The next step in completing this process involves the

endorsement of the agreed priorities, signing of the Compact and the designing of

investment programmes or the Regional Investment Programme for Agriculture (RIPA). The

Compact will serve as a commitment by the stakeholders to develop and implement the

investment programmes within the priority focus areas, according to agreed upon roles and

functions.

After the signing of the Compact, investment programmes will be developed and funding

mechanisms will be agreed upon. The RIPA will be a compendium to the Compact.

Institutional arrangements will have to be either aligned or established in order to monitor

and evaluate the implementation of the Compact

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Section 5: Proposed Priorities for the COMESA Regional CAADP

Compact

This section outlines the rationale for prioritizing a few flagship areas that COMESA should

concentrate on over the next ten years at the minimum, in order to achieve and sustain the

CAADP objective of attaining at least 6% annual growth in the agricultural sector. Three

priority areas identified under the COMESA Regional CAADP Compact are (i) Food Systems

Productivity; (ii) Trade, Infrastructure and Agricultural Development Corridors; and (iii)

Human and Institutional Capacity Strengthening. For each of these, this section provides

justification, an inventory of existing programmes and programmes that have been

proposed by COMESA stakeholders, and suggests a holistic approach to maximising the

potential of each of these priority areas to achieve CAADP goals. This analysis should

inform the next phase of the Compact, which is the development of regional investment

programmes.

5.1 Introduction

COMESA currently spends an estimated US$19 billion per year on commercial food imports.

Of the US$808 million spent on maize, bought and sold in the COMESA Region in recent

years, approximately US$30 million annually (3.71 percent) is traded among Member

States. This demonstrates the immense opportunity for trade in food agricultural

commodities within the region. Future projections envisage that urban markets for

commodities (staple and others) are going to increasingly drive commodity movement both

in terms of price and absorption of surpluses. Urban growth is projected to more than

double that of rural populations within 25 years (340 million people in urban areas

compared to 160 million in rural areas). Demand in Africa’s urban and regional markets is

estimated to be around US$ 50 billion and is expected to reach US$150 billion within 25

years.

Trends in agricultural productivity have remained flat over the past generation, barely

keeping pace with population growth. Meanwhile, over dependence on rain-fed agriculture

leads to wide fluctuations in output and significant price volatility from one year to the

next. As a result, many cereal producers in the COMESA Region face the threat of a boom

and bust cycle. Consequently, the COMESA Region remains highly dependent on food-aid.

Half of COMESA’s Member States are chronically food insecure and eleven out of 19

Member States receive regular food-aid inflows.

The high volumes of food-aid inflows offer stark testimony to the region’s failure to achieve

food security. For this reason, COMESA has identified regional food security and improved

productivity of staples within the common market as key to economic development. At an

31

international level, Heads of State and/or Government have also committed to bolstering

agriculture development in Africa. Globally there is renewed interest in the agricultural

sector. Examples of major international decisions affirming the importance of agricultural

development include: the G8 L’Aquila Declaration in 2009, the 2009 UN World Summit on

Food Security, the 2009 African Union Sirte Declaration, the Global Reform of the CGIAR in

2008, the Seychelles Declaration on Seed adopted by the COMESA Ministers of Agriculture

in 2008, and the Abuja Fertiliser Summit in 2007. Renewed global interest in agriculture

and a call for increased productivity validate the urgent need to prioritise the development

of food systems in COMESA.

5.2 Proposed priority areas of focus for the COMESA Regional CAADP Compact

Three priority areas of focus have been identified for the COMESA Regional CAADP

Compact. These priorities have been endorsed by a wide array of agriculture stakeholders

in the COMESA Region (see Annex 11). The priorities are based on a comprehensive

analysis of the agricultural challenges and opportunities in the COMESA Region and are

consistent with the priorities of the COMESA Treaty and the COMESA Agriculture Strategy

(see table 5.1 below). The priority areas of focus are:

• Food Systems Productivity,

• Trade, Infrastructure and Agricultural Development Corridors, and

• Human and Institutional Capacity Strengthening.

Table 5.1 COMESA Policy Framework and Regional CAADP Priorities

DRIVERS PILLAR 1 PILLAR 2 PILLAR 3

COMESA Treaty Increased Agricultural

Productivity

Harmonise

Agriculture Policies

Ensure Regional

Food Self-

Sufficiency

COMESA

Agriculture

Strategy

Adoption of

Productivity-

Enhancing

Technologies

Promotion of

Enabling Agriculture

Policy Environ

Facilitate Efficient

Agricultural

Markets

COMESA

CAADP

Priorities

Food Systems

Productivity

Policy Harmonisation

and, Human &

Institutional Capacity

Trade &

Development

Corridor

The recommendation to prioritise Food Systems Productivity as a focus area in the

COMESA Regional CAADP Compact is consistent with the respective priorities of the

32

COMESA Treaty and COMESA Agriculture Strategy to increase agricultural productivity and

adopt productivity-enhancing technologies. Currently, food products – including starchy

staples, pulses, fresh fruits and vegetables, meat, fish and dairy products – account for

nearly three-quarters of the value of all regional agricultural production. And over the next

generation, growing trade in food products appears poised to dwarf that in other

agricultural markets in the COMESA region. Improving productivity in these food systems

will include all activities along the “food chain” including production, processing, packaging,

distribution, retailing and consumption of food. Positive outcomes of food systems reflect

an increase in three critical areas, namely, food availability, food access, and food utilization

(nutritional and social values of food along with food safety). It is a crucial area of

development because of the quickly changing demographics of the region including

growing pressure on urban locations and dwindling rural farm production. Food imports

have grown drastically and increased productivity in food staples offers the single most

powerful lever available for stimulating agricultural growth and poverty reduction in the

region.

The second priority area, Trade, Infrastructure and Agricultural Development Corridors,

transcends the COMESA Region and speaks to the importance of improving, developing and

utilising existing intra-regional infrastructure linking countries, regions and ports to boost

regional economic development through the trade of all agricultural commodities including

staples, non-staple foods, and non-food agriculture commodities. Increased market access

through improved rural, local and regional infrastructure, and access to modern trade

infrastructure, such as transport, energy and information, to connect regional and

international markets will not only benefit the supply of inputs but are key to supporting

the production and export of all agricultural commodities. Non-staple crops such as pulses,

oils seeds, tea, coffee, fruits, vegetables, tobacco cotton, wool, hides and skin, fisheries,

wildlife, milk, eggs and milk products, being crops that have commercial benefits to

farmers, are in demand not only locally and regionally but more so internationally, hence

the need for functional infrastructure that will enable efficient export at competitive prices.

We are reminded that regional approaches are important for the improvement of

infrastructure, communication and regulations that have to be co-ordinated not only

between regions but ultimately on an Africa-wide scale. The recommendation to prioritise

‘Trade, Infrastructure and Agricultural Development Corridors’ as a focus area in the

Compact is consistent with the priorities of the COMESA Treaty, the COMESA Agriculture

Strategy, and the COMESA-EAC- SADC Tripartite agreement, respectively, to ensure regional

food self-sufficiency and agricultural productivity, facilitate efficient agricultural markets,

and to adopt productivity-enhancing technologies.

The third priority area, Human and Institutional Capacity Strengthening, is critical if

agriculture is to be modernised and developed on a sustainable basis. The region’s ability to

run a successful agriculture and food security programme is determined by the human

capacity that it has built up through adequate training and/or education of the people

involved. Institutional capacity also plays a critical role in promoting agricultural

productivity. Capacity building in this sense is about the ability to acquire and apply

33

knowledge at individual, organisational and institutional level. The recommendation to

prioritise Human and Institutional Capacity Strengthening as a focus area in the Compact is

consistent with the respective priorities of the COMESA Treaty and COMESA Agriculture

Strategy to harmonise agriculture policies and the promotion of enabling agriculture policy

environment.

A stocktaking exercise that was done during the course of the regional compact design

process identified current programmes in COMESA, which are aligned with the priority

areas. Some of these programmes were ongoing and others have been developed by

COMESA as early actions for the implementation of CAADP (Annex 4 and Annex 5).

Through several rounds of consultations, stakeholders have helped to identify existing

programmes with special relevance to the COMESA Regional CAADP Compact priorities.

They have likewise helped to identify synergies and gaps among programmes. Based on the

existing portfolio of regional programmes that address the strategic priorities, the

requirements by stakeholders, and the gaps and required synergies that have been

identified, stakeholder consultations have generated a list of potential future COMESA

Regional CAADP programmes (Annex 6).

A holistic approach has been suggested for programmes in each priority area in order to

maximise the potential of each. Such an approach should integrate the process of macro-,

meso- and micro-planning and management of national development efforts. This will

enable donors under COMESA leadership to support one or several components of the

regional programme framework in line with their comparative advantage. The programme

approach also encourages the integration of all available resources (national, regional and

external) in addressing regional priorities.

Concerted action to promote private sector engagement and interest in agricultural

development, specifically with regard to rural infrastructure development, will be required.

The private sector should be a close partner from the earliest stages of constituency

building and projects identification. COMESA Member States should create the policy and

institutional conditions to make investment in the three priority areas attractive to private

capital.

5.3 Priority 1: Food Systems Productivity

Production of staple foods in Africa is dominated by smallholders. In the COMESA Region

more than 90 percent of staple producers are smallholders. Increased productivity in food

staples offers a powerful tool for stimulating agricultural growth and reducing poverty and

malnutrition in the region, for three principal reasons: 1) due to the fact that large

numbers of smallholder farmers produce food staples, the direct income benefits from

productivity gains accrue to a broad segment of the rural economy; 2) increased

productivity lowers food prices; and 3) poor households in rural and urban areas typically

spend the majority of their income on staple foods. As a result, lower food prices translate

34

directly into increased real incomes for the rural and urban poor and productivity growth

among food producers generates strong economic growth linkages with the rest of the

economy, further compounding the economic gains from productivity gains in food staples.

Currently, food products – including starchy staples, pulses, fresh fruits and vegetables,

meat, fish and dairy products – account for nearly three-quarters of the value of all regional

agricultural production. Given growing urbanisation, high rates of poverty and high

expenditure on staple foods, these food markets are projected to double, from roughly $30

billion per year in 2000 to $60 billion in 2020 (Diao and Hazell, 2004). As a result,

production of a growing array of food products - for growing urban markets and food-

deficit rural areas - represents the largest growth opportunity available to farmers in the

COMESA Region (Diao and Hazell, 2004; Diao, Dorosh and Rahman, 2007).

Productivity of staples cannot be addressed without considering the productivity of the

food system in which these staples are produced. Food system productivity comprises four

sets of activities: (i) producing food; (ii) processing food; (iii) packaging and distributing

food; and (iv) retailing and consuming food. These activities are often referred to as the

“food chain”, and are considered to be a continuum from primary production (including the

production of animal feed) to the consumption of food by the consumer. The private sector

or food industry is a key player in this system and the productivity of the food system is

influenced by factors, such as the level of sophistication of the private sector, industry

linkages between countries and between regions, and the relationship between farmers

and the private sector.

Food security is the result of a complex set of interactions between households, the

environment in which they operate (physical, technological, policy, social), and markets.

Food security outcomes are described in terms of three components and their sub-

components (see Figure 5.2 below): food availability (production, distribution and

exchange); food access (affordability, allocation and preference); and food utilisation

(nutritional and social values, and food safety).

35

Figure 5.1: The three components of food security outcomes

5.3.1 Ongoing and Proposed Projects for Food Systems Productivity

The demand for prioritization of food systems is affirmed by the prominence of

programmes that are currently being implemented in the region by organisations, such as

Alliance for Commodity Trade in Eastern and Southern Africa (ACTESA), the Association for

Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA) and the

Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).

Table 5.2 Priority 1: Organisations currently implementing programmes in the COMESA

Region

Organisation Background Information and Objective

ACTESA The primary agency for achieving the COMESA vision of increased

regional integration and improved competitiveness of staple food

markets. It works to develop regional agricultural policies, promote

investments in agriculture and develop agricultural, livestock, pastoral

and fisheries sectors.

ASARECA The mission is to enhance regional collective action in agricultural

research for development, extension and agricultural training and

education to promote economic growth, fight poverty, eradicate hunger

and enhance sustainable use of resources in Eastern and Central Africa.

AGRA It seeks to help millions of small-scale farmers and their families across

Africa to lift them and their families out of poverty and hunger through

sustainable increases in farm productivity and incomes. It strongly

endorses the vision laid out in the CAADP agenda and sets out a plan for

a “new uniquely African Green Revolution—a revolution that is long

overdue, a revolution that will help the continent in its quest for dignity

and peace.”

36

Table 5.3 Ongoing and Proposed Regional Projects Co-ordinated by the COMESA

Secretariat

Priority 1 Food Systems Productivity

Projects Funding Source

Conservation Agriculture (CA) and Climate Change Initiative: The

CA addresses the problems of soil degradation resulting from

agriculture practices. Also a feasible option for enhancing carbon

sequestration by farmers. CA and Climate Change Initiative

developed as a successor programme under Climate Change

mitigation and adaptation framework where upscaling of CA is

most important component

Norwegian

Government/EC/US

AID

Rockefeller

Foundation

Adaptation to Climate Change (Proposed) USAID/East Africa

COMESA Regional Agro-Input Programme (COMRAP): Response to

rising food prices of major staples and seeks to bridge the gap

between emergency aid and medium to long-term development

through objectives which include increasing food production

capacity, increasing food supply; dealing with the effect of volatile

food prices. It is expected to increase agriculture productivity

through enhances access to finance, seeds an fertilisers

European

Community (EC)

Regional Enhanced Livelihoods in Pastoral Areas (RELPA)

USAID/East Africa

Strengthening Trade in Agriculture Inputs (STAR) Hewlett

Foundation,

European

Community

Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWSNET) USAID

Regional Food Security and Risk Management Programme for

Eastern and Southern Africa (REFORM)

European

Community (EC)

Making Markets Work for the Poor: Enhancing Food Security and

Productivity Growth in Eastern and Southern Africa (MMWP)

World Bank/DfID

Improved Regional Trade in Food Staples (RTFS) World Bank

Cassava Transformation in Southern Africa (CATISA), SIDA

Home-Grown School Feeding (HGSF), WFP and DfID

WFP Purchase for Progress Programme (P4P): Promotes

procurement of commodities from smallholder farmers –

connecting smallholder farmers to markets in a sustainable

fashion.

World Food

Programme (WFP)

Regional Strategy Analysis and Knowledge Support Systems

(ReSAKSS)

USAID

The USAID-funded Regional Enhanced Livelihoods in Pastoral USAID

37

Areas (RELPA) programme, and its successor programme, at

ACTESA has made important contributions to market development

and trade in livestock and livestock products, mostly in the east

Africa and Horn of Africa regions.

Two regional input market development programmes, funded by

the European Community (EC) and the Hewlett Foundation, at

ACTESA focus on trade development and commercial finance.

European

Community (EC);

Hewlett

Foundation

African Agricultural Markets Programme (AAMP): A regional

programme implemented by ACTESA to support enhanced access

to regional markets, trade, and private sector participation in

agriculture in terms of its objective to enhance knowledge of

national decision makers by providing information and analysis

concerning issues facing agriculture input and output markets for

major food staples and inputs .

DFID/World Bank

The Regional Approach to Biotechnology and Bio-safety for

Eastern and Southern Africa programme (RABESA II) may have the

potential to resolve important policy issues surrounding the use of

biotechnology in food commodities that have an impact on food

production and trade.

USAID

Guiding Investments in Agricultural Markets in Africa (GISAMA) BMGF

Southern Africa Root Crops Research Network (covering cassava

and sweet potatoes) in COMESA Member States, such as Zambia

and Malawi.

COMESA Carbon Fund Proposed

Bio Carbon Initiative Rockefeller &

Norwegian

Government

Fisheries Development Strategy: 1) Fisheries and Climate Change

Adaptation; 2) Acceleration and expansion of sustainable

aquaculture; 3) Enhancing Regional Trade and Fisheries Products

Pending

Irrigation and Agriculture Water Management for Increased

Productivity

Pending

Inland Management of Agriculture Water Resources Project Pending

Forest Development Strategy Proposed

Capitalizing on experiences and lessons learned from

implementing watershed management projects

Institutional and Network Development.

5.3.2 Gaps in Food System Productivity

38

Through extensive stakeholder consultation a number of areas or gaps have been

identified, which require increased focus and investment.

Gap 1. Food processing technology and food safety

Rapid growth in food production and trade will require expanded use of food processing

and packaging. Given the limited research capacity of individual countries and given a

dearth of developed country research in COMESA Member States on food processing

fermentations and technologies for most tropical crops, regional centres of excellence for

food processing and food safety will be necessary to underwrite private sector investment

in processing and public efforts to ensure food safety.

Gap 2. Livestock, fisheries, wild life and forestry products

Most of the COMESA Region’s fish resources lie in rivers and water bodies that border

multiple member countries. Therefore, improving productivity will require regional

collaboration in managing these common resources. Similarly with livestock, many

productivity gains arise through improved disease control. Given cross-border movement

of both livestock and pests, these efforts will also require regional collaboration. In the

future, COMESA Member States will aim to restore priority for regional livestock, fisheries,

wildlife and forestry promotion in order to exploit their considerable potential for

underpinning income growth and improved nutrition.

Despite the introduction of programmes such as Regional Enhanced Livelihoods in Pastoral

Areas (RELPA), livestock continues to receive limited attention in terms of value and

contribution towards food security and the economy. The livestock share of agricultural

output is significant in COMESA Member States, and varies between 3% and 45%. As such it

is important for COMESA to promote livestock as a viable option for both social and

economic benefits.

Gap 3. Cross-border input marketing

In order to capture the substantial economies of scale attainable in fertilizer, seed and

other agricultural input marketing will require regional markets, harmonized standards and

policies, and regional assessment of port and transport infrastructure investments. To

date, however, most input discussions have focused on small, fractured national markets.

Gap 4. Enhancing Nutritional Quality

High rates of malnutrition require a multi-sectoral approach to food security and nutrition

and specifically designed interventions that use available technologies, such as fortification

of food or bio engineering of seeds and soils to enhance nutritional quality of staples. The

Framework for Agriculture and Food Security (FAFS) provides short, medium and long-term

options for improving access, distribution and utilisation of nutritious food. It also makes

39

practical suggestions for improved government, donor, and private sector co-ordination

and co-operation.

Gap 5. Strengthen capacity of women farmers

The key gender concerns in the agricultural sector include inadequate participation of

women in programme activities, particularly as entrepreneurs in various industries. Women

and men are differentially integrated in the sector. Women concentrate on food crops for

home consumption, rarely own or control land and are not involved in cash crops

production. Agribusiness, therefore, tends to be solidly in men's hands. The majority of

women also lack access to regional markets while their productivity is constrained by lack of

technical skills, limited access to technology, credit/financial and agricultural services

generally. In order to facilitate effective participation of women in the sector, COMESA

should enhance effective participation of women in programme activities in the whole

agricultural sector value chain. It is also key that COMESA mainstreams gender in its

agricultural policies and enhances women's access to regional and international markets.

Gap 6: Policy harmonisation and price risk management

Policy harmonisation will likewise be required to enable producers in surplus zones to

supply cross-border deficit markets in the region. While policy analysis and dialogue have

been a priority, there is currently a gap in supporting regional and national policy making

processes to implement cross-border agricultural trade commodity policies. ACTESA,

among others, is expected to fill this gap.

Modern instruments for regional price risk management have emerged in recent years with

the development of the structured trading mechanisms such as commodity exchanges,

warehouse receipt systems. But governments and private traders have yet to apply these

instruments, largely because unpredictable and inimical trade policies provide disincentives

to storage and trade.

5.3.3 Adopting a Holistic Approach for enhanced Food System Productivity

Food security and productive food systems are inextricably linked and by improving one

aspect of the food chain, positive outcomes will accrue to food security as a whole in the

region. Conversely, however, the deterioration of any one aspect could have a dire impact

on food security. As such a holistic approach is required and the following key actions have

been identified which would fundamentally strengthen the food systems in the region and

shore up food security gains.

Share knowledge - While much of the knowledge needed to improve agriculture in the

COMESA Region already exists, including within remote rural communities, it often does

40

not reach those farmers that could benefit most from it. There is a need to increase the

level of education on crop and natural resource management for farmers and to promote

the development of village-based knowledge centres. Scalable information technologies for

farmers to receive weather, crop, and market alerts, as well as other early warning systems

to help them make the right decisions for sustainability and productivity should be made

accessible to farmers. Furthermore there is need to establish open and transparent two-

way exchanges that capture the ‘voice of the farmer’ in the process of policy formulation

and implementation.

Prioritise research imperatives - Achieving sustainable agriculture requires intensified and

continuous research, as well as prioritising locally relevant crops, stewardship techniques,

and adaptation to climate change. Research institutions within the COMESA Region need to

conduct agronomic research related to water availability, soil fertility and post-harvest

losses, climate change challenges, as well as conduct research into crop varieties needed by

the poorest and most vulnerable regions. Furthermore, there is need to conduct farmer-

centred research in accordance with farmer needs. Productivity can also be improved

through the responsible use of science and technology.

Build local access to resources - Fundamental resources should be available to farmers to

help them manage their production process more reliably and at less cost. Farmers should

have access to land and water resources, especially women farmers. There is a need to

make supplies available to farmers and to improve access to agricultural inputs and

services, including mechanical tools, seeds, fertilizers, and crop protection materials.

Enable access to markets - Farmers need to be able to get their products to market and

receive equitable price treatment when they do. There is a need to provide remote access

on up-to-date market pricing information; develop well-functioning markets through

transparent information, fair prices, sound infrastructure and reduced speculation; and

encourage co-operative approaches to marketing for smallholder farmers. There is also a

need to improve smallholder farmers’ marketing skills through entrepreneurship training

and reduce market distortions to improve opportunities for all strata of agriculture

worldwide.

Understanding and supporting the role of the private sector – Policies and programmes

that facilitate the efficient processing, packaging, distributing and retailing of food are

required and efforts should be made to overcome the problems of low trade in

intermediate and manufactured goods within RECs, industrial polarization, lack of

diversification, and poor industrial competitiveness. Farmers should also be supported to

interact more effectively with the private sector to shorten the distance from farm to plate

and to ensure that they receive a fair share of the price paid by the consumer for their

goods.

Safeguard natural resources - Land management should be improved through the

widespread adoption of sustainable practices of land use such as conservation agriculture,

41

which can be used to prevent soil erosion and land degradation. There is also a need to

protect wildlife habitat and biodiversity through an integrated ecosystems approach and to

provide incentives for improving ecosystem services

Protect harvests - In many of the COMESA countries, 20-40% of crop yields are lost because

of inadequate pre- and post-harvest support. Likewise, vast quantities of food are

squandered during production and consumption phases of the food chain. There is a need

to build local storage facilities and transportation mechanisms, including cold chain storage

for food preservation. Furthermore, farmers have to be educated on sustainable

consumption, production needs and behaviours, pest-identification, and meteorological

information. Member States also need to provide risk management tools to support

farmers in managing weather and market variations.

5.3.4 Priority 1 Compact Programme for Food System Productivity

Given the focus and progress made by both the Alliance for Commodity Trade in Eastern

and Southern Africa (ACTESA) it is recommended that the programmes for Compact

Priorities 1 be anchored on ACTESA. The three objectives of ACTESA are:

1) Improve competitiveness and integration of staple foods markets in COMESA

Member States through improved micro and macroeconomic policies as the drivers

of staple food markets;

2) Improve and expand market facilities and services for staple foods

commercialization to facilitate growth in staple food markets; and

3) Increase commercial integration of staple foods producers into national and

regional markets to promote growth in food staples and food security.

5.4 Priority 2: Trade, Infrastructure and Agricultural Development Corridors

The Eastern and Southern Africa Region has vast untapped potential in the form of a strong

agricultural development base. Intraregional trade in agricultural commodities has

potential for boosting food availability and so doing contribute to food security of poor and

non-poor households. However, the costs of trading and transportation in the region are

significantly higher than the rest of the world (see Table 5.4 below).

Table 5.4 Cost of Transportation in Africa and Other Regions

Country Transport Route Distance Cost (to transport 1

ton)

Pakistan Karachi - Okara 1117 km $22

Brazil Salvador – Ceara 1219 km $43

USA Chicago - Washington

D.C

1123 km $45

42

France Lille – Perpignan 1066 km $53

China Beijing - Xi’an 1100 km $55

Uganda-Kenya Kampala - Mombasa 1144 km $92

South Africa-

Zambia

Durban – Lusaka 3051 km $184

Chad-Cameroon Doula - N’Djamena 2257 km $248

This has a direct impact on the region’s capacity to produce and trade competitively. High

transport costs and transit delays result in lower production and trading levels. They also

impact on commodity and food prices. Consequently, the potential for regional and

international trade is lowered, which limits economic growth.

In 2008, the World Bank highlighted that transport costs in Eastern and Southern Africa

were affected by delays (at border crossings, weighbridges, and ports) and long custom

procedures. The longer the transit delays the higher are the costs of transport to users.

Furthermore, whilst volumes of goods moving within the region are expected to increase in

the coming years, the quality of infrastructure will further deteriorate, adding additional

transport costs, without remedial action being taken. The World Bank estimates that for

every $1 spent on preventative road maintenance, $4 is saved on rehabilitation.

Landlocked countries, of which COMESA has a proportionately large share, suffer most

from high transport costs. COMESA comprises nine landlocked countries that face very

specific challenges. Burundi, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Rwanda, Swaziland, Uganda,

Zambia and Zimbabwe lack maritime access and are isolated from the world markets and

suffer high transit costs, which seriously constrain their overall socio economic

development. In order to address the special needs of the region’s landlocked nations,

certain trade and transport transit corridors have been established. COMESA has a total of

16 corridors—routes linking several economic centres, countries and ports. These corridors,

or networks of transport facilities and infrastructure, have been established either through

existing routes that are accepted by custom authorities, RECs protocols or protocols

involving concerned landlocked and transit countries.

In order to maintain producer incentives in the region’s many surplus food production

zones, farmers in these zones need access to growing cross-border markets. Without

access to regional export markets, recent studies suggest that production surges in thinly

traded national markets can easily lead to price collapses, which, in turn, risk stalling

production growth and private investment in agriculture (Diao, Heady and Johnson, 2008).

As a result, more fluid cross-border flows of food staples will play a critical role in

maintaining production incentives for producers in high-potential areas while at the same

time ensuring low-cost food supplies in deficit zones. Open borders likewise moderate

price volatility. Studies commissioned in the wake of the world food price spikes of 2007

and 2008 concluded that COMESA countries with open trade policies experienced reduced

43

price volatility and higher agricultural growth rates than countries that imposed trade bans

(Chapoto and Jayne, 2010).

The Regional Economic Communities (RECs), such as COMESA, SADC and the EAC, have long

recognized the importance of improving trade facilitation (amongst other issues) in the

context of deepening regional integration and in reducing the costs of cross-border

transactions and so improving economic livelihoods. As such, the RECs have supported a

number of trade facilitation instruments as well as developing plans for regional

infrastructural development programmes. In 2009, COMESA, SADC and EAC tripartite

alliance launched the North-South Corridor Pilot Aid for Trade Programme. The North-

South Corridor is a combination of two traditional corridors (Durban Corridor and the Dar

es Salaam Corridor) linking the port of Durban and others in Southern Africa to the Eastern

Port of Dar es Salaam. The Durban corridor also has direct links into the Beira, Maputo,

Walvis Bay, Benguela and Lobito corridors. From the Port of Dar es Salaam the corridors link

to the Central and from the border post of Tunduma the corridor links the Tunduma

(Tanzania) – Moyale (Kenya) corridor and Northern Corridor linking the Port of Mombasa to

Eastern DRC through Uganda and Rwanda thereby giving physical interconnectivity

between Eastern and Southern Africa (see Table 5.5 below).

Table 5.5 Trade, Infrastructure and Agricultural Development Corridors in COMESA, SADC

and EAC Region

Development Corridor Route

1 North-South (Durban) Corridor Durban-Beit Bridge-Harare-Lusaka-

Lubumbashi

2 Northern Corridor Mombasa-Malaba-Kampala-Kigali-

Bujumbura

Mombasa-Malaba-Kampala-Kasese

Mombasa-Kisumu-Kampala

3 Central Corridor Dar-Isaka-Rusumo-Kigali

Dar-Isaka-Bujumbura

Dar-Kigoma-Bujumbura

Dar-Mbeya-Kapiri-Mposhi

4 Beira Corridor Beira-Harare-Lusaka-Lubumbashi

Beira-Harare-Lusaka-Lubumbashi

5 Maputo Corridor Maputo-Ressano Garcia-Johannesburg

6 Nacala Corridor Nacala-Lilongwe-Lusaka

Nacala-Lilongwe

7 Berbera-Addis Ababa-Khartoum

Corridor

Berbera-Dire Dawa-Addis Ababa- Khartoum

8 Djibouti-Addis Ababa Corridor Djibouti-Addis Ababa

44

Djibouti-Galafi- Addis

Djibouti-Dewente- Addis

Djibouti- Addis-Khartoum

9 Port Sudan - Addis Ababa Corridor Port Sudan – Khartoum – Addis Ababa

10 Dar TAZARA Corridor Dar-Mbeya-Kapiri Mposhi

Dar-Lusaka-Harare

Dar-Lilongwe-Blantyre

11 Massawa – Addis Ababa Corridor Massawa-Asmara -Addis Ababa

12 Banguela Corridor Lobito-Lubumbashi-Ndola

13 Mtwara Corridor Mtwara-Mbamba Bay

14 Assab - Addis Ababa Corridor Assab - Addis Ababa

Assab-Dire Dawa- Addis Ababa

15 Trans Kalahari Corridor Walvis Bay-Windhoek-Lobatse-

Johannesburg

16 Trans Caprivi Corridor Walvis Bay- Katima-Mulilo-Lusaka-

Lubumbashi

5.4.1 Ongoing and Proposed Regional Projects Co-ordinated by the COMESA Secretariat

The following ongoing and proposed programmes within COMESA are a result of a

stocktaking which aims to provide and overview of current and future initiatives that seek

to maximise the region’s potential for trade in agriculture commodities.

Table 5.6 Ongoing and Proposed Regional Projects in Agriculture Growth Corridors

Priority 2 : Trade, Infrastructure and Agricultural Development Corridors

Projects Funding Source

TradeMark DFID

Northern and Central Corridor Diagnostics Programme DFID, JICA,

USAID

North-South Development Corridor, African Development Corridor

Platform (ADCP)

Northern Corridor Transit Facilitation AfDB

Regional Food Security and Risk Management (CTBT/REFORM) Project

The trade component of the REFORM Food Security Programme seeks

to improve food security by pushing for liberalisation of trade in food so

that it flows freely across borders, and areas of surplus production in

one country are naturally linked to provide areas of deficit in a

neighbouring country

European

Community (EC)

Competitiveness and Trade Expansion Programme (COMPETE), USAID/East

Africa

45

Market Linkages Programme USAID/East

Africa

African Agricultural Markets Programme (AAMP): A regional programme

implemented by ACTESA to support enhanced access to regional

markets, trade, and private sector participation in agriculture through

the support of the regional policy making processes through

institutional capacity building, both at the level of analysts and policy

makers.

DFID/WB

Agricultural Markets Programme and Regional Integration (AMPRIP)

- Food and Agriculture Market Information System (FAMIS)

- Regulations and Applications of Sanitary and Phytosanitary

Measures

AfDB/COMESA

MS /COMESA

Secretariat

Participation of African Nations in Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standard-

Setting Organisations (PANSPSO) Project

European

Community (EC)

Strengthening Markets for Regional Trade and Food Security (SMART-

FS): To help ACTESA achieve objectives of improving integration of

smallholders into national regional and international markets through

policy improvements, improved agriculture and financial services and

capacity building to commercialise smallholder farmers.

AusAID/World

Bank

Cotton/Tobacco in the Nacala Corridor –Malawi and Zambia

Floriculture in East Africa Great Lakes Region – Ethiopia To be confirmed

with WWF-

EARPO

Zambezi Headwaters – Zambia, D.R. Congo, Angola

Regional Strategy Analysis and Knowledge Support Systems (ReSAKSS) USAID

Regional Value Chain Sectoral strategies : As part of the Regional

Industrialisation Strategy which focuses on Agro-Based Industries,

regional strategies have been developed or are being developed for

Cotton to Clothing, leather and leather products; Agro- Food processing

Various

Programme for Building African Capacity for Trade (PACT II) International

Trade Center

ACP Agricultural Commodities Programme (AAACP): To improve

incomes and livelihoods of agricultural producers in Commodity

Dependant Developing Countries within the ACP group

European

Community (EC)

ACTESA Seed Trade Regulations and Harmonisation Implementation

Programme ASHTRIP): Will contribute among other to increased seed

trade among member states across border. (Proposed)

Swiss

Government

5.4.2 Gaps in Trade, Infrastructure and Agricultural Development Corridors

Through extensive stakeholder consultation a key gap has been identified, which require

increased focus and investment.

46

Gap 1: Invest in infrastructure that supports the development of agricultural production,

processing and trade.

Current infrastructure investments focus on regional transport routes. Yet agricultural

development, as part of corridor development, will require a specific set of investments,

such as rural roads, rural electrification, communications, basic services, a functioning land

market, and access to water on the farm. The regional trade and infrastructure initiatives

are mainly located off-farm, as such there is need to integrate regional priorities with

national CAADP compacts. This should involve bringing power, water and road access to the

farm gate.

Gap 2: Policy impediments to cross-border trade.

Policy harmonization will be required to enable producers in surplus zones to supply cross-

border deficit markets in the region. In recent years, some governments have imposed

bans on cross-border trade in staple foods. While policy analysis and dialogue have been a

priority, there is currently a gap in supporting regional and national policy making processes

to implement cross-border food staple trade policies.

Gap 3: Modern tools for risk management.

Modern instruments for regional price risk management have emerged in recent years with

the development of the South African Futures Exchange (SAFEX). But governments and

private traders have yet to apply these instruments, in part because of lack of knowledge

and experience with these products and in part because of unpredictable and inimical trade

policies.

5.4.3 Adopting a Holistic Approach: From Trade, Infrastructure and Agriculture

Development Corridors

There is a need for applying a food security and agricultural development lenses to trade

corridor infrastructure and development efforts that are currently being considered under

the Tripartite Arrangement, including the establishment of a Committee on Agriculture that

will focus on infrastructure and support the development of agricultural production,

processing and trade.

Improvements to infrastructure, communications, and regulations need to be properly co-

ordinated and sequenced, to maximize synergies and to ensure that advances in one area

are not cancelled by bottlenecks in another. Regional approaches are particularly important

in the African context given the geographic and structural barriers that exporters have to

47

overcome. For example, the impact of transport infrastructure improvements in Rwanda

hinge on improvements across East Africa as a whole.

The region needs access to the modern “trade infrastructure” such as transport, energy and

information systems to connect producers to regional and international markets; modern

customs facilities to move products rapidly and efficiently across borders; testing labs to

ensure that exports meet international standards; financial “safety nets” to ease concerns

about economic adjustment; and the expertise and institutions needed to manage a

complex trading system. Just as important is the need to ensure that individual capacity-

building projects form part of an integrated, comprehensive strategy.

Develop ICT Infrastructure to enable access to reliable, timely and accurate access to

market functions - Among the wide range of factors shaping the incomes of rural poor

farmers, issues related to market information and marketing effectiveness are crucial.

Improving timely access to information – about market prices, transport arrangements and

costs, the locations and desires of buyers, and related issues such as weather – is crucial for

farmers. Traditionally, farmers have accessed this information largely through social

networks and broadcast media (particularly radio.). However, ICT can provide access to

information benefiting rural producers and supply chains (market price information, supply

chain information, weather information, etc.) They facilitate access to services, such as

financial services, land registration, and government services. They facilitate access to

markets. Mobile phone-enabled services show particular promise, both because of their

portability and because a growing majority of the world's population is covered by the

mobile "footprint".

Support of regional harmonisation of standards and quality assurance systems -

Standards are a decisive factor in market access. Although harmonised sanitary,

phytosanitary and zoosanitary regulations and quality standards exist in some regional

economic communities for selected products, enforcing them is a major problem. This is

because of the lack of knowledge of the regulations on the part of customs officials,

producers and traders. This highlights the challenge of achieving harmonised standards and

building shared and regionally recognised quality assurance systems.

Support of the reduction of regional trade barriers - Removing regional trade barriers is

necessary to ease and simplify cross-border agricultural and food trade and consequently to

change informal trade into formal trade. Therefore, trade barriers and their impacts have to

be analysed and discussed among stakeholders involved, which is crucial to develop

strategies to overcome those barriers.

Support of regional initiatives for risk management and price stabilisation - Short-term

supply bottlenecks can be overcome by creating buffer stocks and by regional exchange of

strategic reserves, hence guaranteeing food supply and availability. In addition, price

48

escalations for consumers can be avoided by channelling additional supplies from

neighbouring markets.

Promotion of market information systems for regional markets - Inadequate information

about markets and prices is a significant barrier to trade. Monopolistic distribution

structures push down the prices paid to producers for agricultural products. The

consequent price distortions then lead to the loss of any incentives for market-led

production and regional trade. The information systems that have already been developed,

in which market prices are recorded, processed and disseminated, should be supported and

expanded.

Promotion of access to agricultural services and inputs at regional level - The provision of

agriculture extension services, improved seed, and other inputs is fundamental for

increased agriculture productivity and trade growth. There is strong need for universities

and relevant training institution to develop agriculture courses/programmes which are

directed at addressing the present and future challenges. The improved knowledge and

awareness about agriculture and development should have a positive effect on adoption

and use of new technology innovations such as seed and fertilizer.

Support of regional bio-trade initiatives - The establishment of an internationally

recognised frame for bio-patented products and the set up of regional trading structures,

for example Geographical Indication and Labelling (GI and GL), could increase regional

agricultural trade and open up new market opportunities.

Practical trade promotion measures - Practical trade promotion measures can increase the

exchange of agricultural and food products and open up new market opportunities when,

e.g. setting-up regional marketing structures and initiatives.

Creating a basis for informed choice in setting rural infrastructure investment intervention

priorities - Through analytical work to identify areas of agricultural production, agro-

processing and agricultural trade where the region has or can relatively easily develop

comparative advantage so that the choice of rural investments has a high probability of

commercial success and sustainability. Such preparatory analysis is necessary also to draw

attention to cases where COMESA countries might work at cross-purposes in their rural

investments and to suggest complementary investments among them.

Formulating and funding of additional concrete rural infrastructure projects that can

most usefully link up with CAADP intentions, as well as formulating and funding of

additional interventions to include both investment and systemic

capacity/institutional/policy improvement interventions for domestic funding or technical

co-operation.

49

Integrating COMESA rural infrastructure programmes into NEPAD development budgets

and in national development plans and plans of smaller Regional Economic Organisations in

the region hence making COMESA the leader in rural investment championing.

5.4.4 Priority 2 Compact Programme for Trade, Infrastructure and Agriculture

Development Corridors

The North-South Corridor Programme Model Aid for Trade Programme is based on the

decisions of the COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Summit held in Kampala. It was chosen as a

pilot programme because it is the busiest corridor in the region in terms of values and

volumes of freight. The pilot programme aims to improve both the state of physical

transport infrastructure (roads, rail, border-posts, ports) along the North-South Corridor,

and the regulatory environment for trade and transport (i.e. by simplifying and reducing

cross-border clearing procedures, harmonising transit and transport regulations, and

simplifying administrative requirements).

This joint effort brings a greater level of urgency to the efforts of COMESA, EAC and SADC to

bring together respective regional integration programmes in order to further enlarge the

Eastern and Southern markets, unlock productive potential, increase levels of intra-African

trade and enhance regional prospects. This opens an opportunity for the scaling up of the

COMESA Regional CAADP Compact within the tripartite framework. As such it is proposed

that the North-South Corridor Programme be developed by applying a food security and

agriculture development lense to ensure that, in addition to being a trade and transport

corridor, it also becomes an agriculture growth corridor.

5.5 Priority 3: Human and Institutional Capacity Strengthening

There is a need to modernise agriculture by utilizing new agriculture technologies,

increasing productivity and utilising information communication technologies. This will

require training across the entire value chain, including the research, marketing,

managerial, production, and labour components; and in public and private institutions. In

the Region, public institutions include the COMESA Secretariat and COMESA Organs (see

Annex 14). Sub-Regional Organisations (SROs) include farmer organisations, such as SACAU

and EAFF; research and extension organisations, such as FANRPAN, ASARECA, and

RUFORUM; and the private sector (see Annex 16).

Capacity building plays a critical role in promoting agricultural productivity, increasing food

security, improving rural livelihoods, and promoting agriculture as an appropriate option for

economic growth and development. It is about the ability to acquire and apply knowledge

at individual, organisational and institutional level. There are three components in capacity

building: i) human capacity, which is mainly addressed through training of various forms; ii)

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organisational capacity, which involves organisational arrangements such as structure,

process, networking and systems; and iii) institutional capacity, which entails rules,

regulatory framework, policies and laws.

COMESA - In the COMESA Region, human and institutional capacities are two critical

elements that need urgent attention if agriculture is to be modernised and become

competitive. The region’s ability to run a successful agriculture and food security

programme is determined by the human capacity that it has built up through adequate

training and/or education of the people involved in food production, food processing, food

storage and distribution, income generation, and technology development and

maintenance. Traditionally, Sub-Sahara African countries have neglected these key factors

in planning agriculture and food security programmes. There is need to build

scientific/technical capacity, and managerial capacity in the agriculture sector.

Like all other RECs, COMESA is neither training enough agriculture experts nor establishing

new institutions that meet the agriculture development needs of the region. The availability

of the few professionals in the region is affected by diseases such as HIV/AIDS, conflicts and

migration to other countries in or outside the continent. Capacity building is a challenge

facing the continent and not limited to COMESA. A regional approach consequently is

required to address these challenges and balance the capacity deficit that is very serious in

some parts of the region.

COMESA Secretariat - A recent stocktaking exercise found that there is a great difference

between regions in terms of CAADP process implementation and actor interactions. The

lack of dedicated capacity of RECs to facilitate the implementation of CAADP is partly to

blame for the slow and uneven progress. The exercise found that the RECs, generally,

dedicate limited human resources to CAADP, for example, the Joint Technical Review of the

Strategic Plan found that only one long term staff member in the COMESA Secretariat has

been assigned to support the CAADP. ECCAS has assigned only one person who is dealing

with other issues and not only focusing on CAADP. ECOWAS, however, has been able to

advance in CAADP implementation in the last two years partly because it has been able to

devote more staff to ECOWAP (ECDPM, 2010). The lack of capacity is also expected to

impact on the full potential of harmonized donor support to regional processes. The

institutional capacities of RECs should be assessed for their potential to sustain CAADP

processes over time. It may therefore be more important to understand what mechanism

can be used to increase REC capacities to the level where they can more effectively

translate donor support into successful CAADP implementation in their respective regions

(ECDPM, 2010).

In 2006, the CAADP Coordinator was appointed and a CAADP Co-ordination Unit was

established under the Investment Promotion and Private Sector Development (IPPSD)

division. The Unit consisted of six core staff and nine subject matter specialist. In 2009,

ACTESA was established and most of the core staff and some of the subject matter

specialists moved to ACTESA. As at March 2010, the CAADP had only one core staff

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member, which led to a slowdown in the CAADP implementation process in COMESA. A

new structure for the CAADP Unit was designed with the planned positions including the

CAADP Coordinator, two Country Process Facilitators, one Regional Process and

Partnerships Facilitator, one Agricultural Policy Analyst, one Monitoring and Evaluation

Expert and one Communication Specialist. In addition, the COMESA Secretariat is

undertaking a restructuring process to establish a new division to replace the current IPPSD.

The current restructuring exercise provides an opportunity to enhance the institutional

arrangements within the COMESA Secretariat for the implementation of the CAADP in

COMESA (COMESA Secretariat Agricultural Strategic Framework 2010-2014).

Farmer Organisations - represent the demand side of agricultural knowledge and

technologies requiring capacity to be able to articulate “real” demand for services and

goods in the agricultural system. Without strong farmer organisations, all efforts directed

into strengthening agricultural research and extension can be futile. CAADP Pillar IV stresses

the importance of farmer empowerment along with agricultural research, extension,

education and training. The Framework for African Agricultural Productivity (FAAP) has

further elaborated the role that farmer empowerment will play a key role in improving

agricultural productivity and efforts to develop systems that foster greater farmer

knowledge, control of funds, organisational power and institutional participation; thus

allowing producers to become more active partners in agricultural productivity initiatives.

Farmers who have the capacity to analyse their constraints and identify opportunities,

articulate their needs, exchange knowledge, and improve their bargaining power will have

better access to, and use of, relevant agricultural knowledge and technologies. At a regional

level, COMESA is closely associated with two regional farmer associations (SACAU and

EAFF) and numerous commodity associations.

Private Sector - One of the main challenges facing adoption of promising agricultural

technologies is lack of agricultural equipment and spare parts. These are essential in

promoting growth and development in the sector. It is unfortunate to note that there are

few industrial units to process agricultural commodities despite a growing demand for

traditional food grains, feeds and livestock products. Agricultural input markets are

characterized by two additional drawbacks: i) marketing stages and channels for major

purchased inputs and implements (equipment, fertilizers, pesticides, seeds, etc.) have for a

long time been under heavy public-sector control, and ii) poor performance is caused by

inefficiencies in agricultural credit markets. This is because of the dual nature of most

African economies, which have formal and informal sectors. The scarce financial resources

results in tight credit rationing with restrictive and politically biased access.

Many of the best African scientists and managers are driven away from their countries and

the COMESA Region by extremely low salaries, lack of fulfilling career prospects and poor

working conditions. The causes of brain drain in the region is the inability of African

Governments to create an enabling environment and working conditions capable of

promoting professional excellence and paying salary levels that can attract and retain

national experts.

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5.5.1 Ongoing and Proposed Projects for Human and Institutional Capacity Development

There are very few existing programmes that strengthen human and institutional capacity

within the COMESA Region, which the Compact will endeavour to consolidate. Most of

these are implemented under the auspices of COMESA and through other regional

initiatives such as EAC, IGAD and ASARECA. These programmes address areas of staff

training and exposure, collaborative research projects, and equipment re-tooling. The

initiatives include:

a) Capacity building to ACTESA supported through global donor trust fund and other

donors.

b) ASARECA’s capacity building programme for CAADP, which is available to the 10

ASERECA member countries.

c) Programmes providing analytical support to agricultural policy makers at national

and regional levels. The Guiding Investments in Sustainable Agricultural Markets in

Africa programme (GISAMA) and Regional Strategy Analysis and Knowledge Support

Systems (ReSAKSS) at COMESA focus on investment and policy analysis in support of

the CAADP programming process and ACTESA’s planning of strategic interventions.

GISAMA is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and is implemented in

collaboration with Michigan State University.

Attention will also be paid to capacity strengthening in the region in priority areas of

greater deficiency, which includes:

a) Building sustainable systems for Standardisation, Quality Assurance, and

Measurement and Testing (SMQT).

b) Research and commercialisation of research findings in critical areas such as

biosafety and biotechnology

c) Programme development and Monitoring and Evaluation

d) Policy advocacy – strengthening the interface between policy makers and

evidence from policy analysis. Building the capacity of CSOs to use evidence in

policy advocacy

The capacity strengthening should not only be delivered at national and sub-regional levels

but also at the level of the COMESA Secretariat.

5.5.2 Gaps in Human and Institutional Capacity Strengthening

Gap 1. Sustained funding for regional commodity research and policy networks

Despite interest regionally, funding for regional commodity research and policy networks

has been insufficient. There is need for financial resources to cover all key commodities

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throughout the COMESA Region, representing all important market basins with their unique

market and agro-ecological characteristics. With regards to policy networks, the funding

has been insufficient, fragmented and mainly provided on a short term basis, thus making it

difficult to build trust and institutional capacity. Consequently regional policy networks,

such as FANRPAN, have become reactive rather than proactive because they lack databases

that are updated through longitudinal surveys. In the long term, ASARECA, FANRPAN,

RUFORUM and other regional networks will require sustained support in order to fully

address regional priorities.

Gap 2. Inconsistent policies

Most policy making processes focus on addressing immediate needs and do not necessarily

fit into a coherent long-term framework.

Gap 3. Weak capacity

There is a need to invest in and promote partnerships to improve skills for policy

development analysis and advocacy; increase capacity for participatory programming;

strengthened data systems; improved information exchange and networking; and improve

capacity for Monitoring and Evaluation.

Gap 4. Gender and roles of women

Insufficient emphasis is being placed on the capacity requirements of women and youth in

order to increase their role in agricultural value chain.

Gap 5. Building institutions and empowering stakeholders

Public institutions need to be strengthened in their capacity to develop an appropriate

blend of policies, regulatory frameworks and investments to re-launch the agricultural

sector. The capacity of stakeholders such as the private sector, farmers and researchers

must be developed to enable them to maximise their inputs in policy processes, ensure the

accountability of policy makers and contribute significantly to boosting productivity and

reducing food security.

Gap 6. Capacity development of public and private stakeholders at regional and national

level

Capacity development includes building trust and mutual understanding, which are decisive

for any integration processes. The involvement of non-state actors in agricultural

development remains segregated and not institutionalized.

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5.5.3 A Holistic Approach for Strengthening Human and Institutional Capacity

In order for these key capacity-building challenges to be tackled successfully in future,

COMESA needs to critically examine the following:

• the level of agricultural transformation and food insecurity situation at household,

national, sub-regional and regional levels;

• meaningful changes to food production systems and agricultural practice;

• specific identified national capacities that need to be urgently tackled to reduce

persistent food emergencies;

• agro-industrial food processing/preservation/distribution capacities that ensure

constant food availability; and

• general human and institutional capacity development.

At regional level there are a number of priorities for capacity building in the agriculture

sector. The identified agriculture capacity development areas of focus include the following:

Capacity Development of the COMESA Member States: COMESA Member States will be

responsible for implementing the priority areas and programmes that they have agreed to

in the COMESA Regional CAADP Compact. In order to implement the Compact, Member

States will have to develop capacity for policy analysis and require capacity for inter-

sectoral approach in addressing food security through aligned polices in agriculture, natural

resources, climate change, trade, energy security and poverty reduction. They will require

capacity to demand evidence to inform policy formulation; collate, manage and

disseminate information; and to engage and support regional processes. Training on Round

Table processes, investment programme design, monitoring and evaluation, and specialised

training on policy analysis and planning tools will be needed.

Capacity Development of the COMESA Secretariat: A Division should be established within

the COMESA Secretariat to facilitate the implementation of the Compact. This could be

done by elevating the CAADP Unit to a fully-fledged division of agriculture and natural

resources. The Division could design policy programmes for achieving food security,

promote the use of appropriate agriculture research and technology development for

increased production and productivity, adapt appropriate legislation and governance

mechanisms for effective monitoring and evaluation, develop policies that promote public-

private partnerships, and develop effective systems for resource management. An

adequate level of core experts will be needed for the effective co-ordination and

monitoring of programme implementation. The capacity of the Secretariat should be

enhanced in order to assist Member States in resource mobilization for regional projects, as

well as to promote and strengthen networks that could share information, experiences and

best practices. The Secretariat’s capacity in providing pre- and post-Compact support to

Member States should be enhanced. Its capacity in assisting Member States in the

mainstreaming of agriculture as a national appropriate mitigation action should also be

enhanced.

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The CAADP Unit will undertake capacity building measures and specific training

programmes for its staff to strengthen the capacities and skills in different areas related to

their work, including planning and analytical capacities. In order to implement its envisaged

strategic functions, the CAADP Unit will have to work in close collaboration with other RECs,

the ACTESA, the different divisions and units within the COMESA Secretariat, and external

partners. Key stakeholders and partners should be involved in the planning and

implementation of agricultural programmes in the region, in order to benefit from their

contributions to agricultural development. Strengthened collaboration will enhance the co-

ordination of activities at a regional level and the leveraging of resources for the

implementation of programmes that will enhance regional integration and COMESA’s food

security agenda.

Capacity Development of Public Institutions: Consistent with the concept of promoting

wider and deeper analysis of capacity development needs, the COMESA Agriculture Division

will work with a number of independent regional stakeholder bodies that have an interest

in agriculture including, such as farmer organisations, research and extension organisations,

CSOs, and private sector companies. Stakeholders, through their respective institutions,

should be prepared to respond to the dynamic needs of the sector and ensure the

attainment of long term goals for agriculture in the region. The stakeholder institutions are

expected to work with governments in ensuring that delivery on the set priorities is

achieved. As such institutions should play an oversight function and in relevant

circumstances assist with implementation of agriculture programmes. These important

stakeholders are expected to support and own the regional CAADP process. They should

participate in the identification of capacity building/development priorities, and in the

design and implementation of regional investment programmes for agriculture.

Farmer Organisations: Developing grass-root farmer institutions requires building capacity

in two sets of people: the farmers and the managers of the farm institutions. Capacity

building in farmers will involve a number of important issues. These include training and/or

educating them, enhancing their ability to access extension support and information,

improving their appreciation of the returns to investment in research and extension,

creating interest in the financing of research and extension services, increasing their

awareness of environmental concerns, and building individual and community commitment

to saving the environment. Furthermore, their ability to access extension support and

extension information (or even to develop their own extension support systems) should be

enhanced.

Research and Extension Organisations: COMESA in collaboration with its partners, such as

the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM), ASARECA,

EAFF, SACAU and FANRPAN, will strengthen the region’s capacity for agricultural innovation

by providing a framework for improved institutional arrangements. Arrangements in

respect of capacity building, empowering farmers and strengthening farmers’ support

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services; as well as by promoting resource alignment and increased funding should be

improved.

COMESA will promote joint efforts between public and private entities in which each

contributes to planning, commits resources, shares risks and benefits, and conducts

activities to accomplish CAADP development goals. Partnerships between public

institutions, private firms, and civil society organisations offer a means of tapping the

strengths of diverse actors and channelling knowledge and resources into areas where they

can address complex development problems that are relevant to the needs of resource-

poor farmers and food-insecure consumers. By exploiting the potential for synergies,

complementarities, scale economies and knowledge-sharing among participants,

partnerships can implement CAADP programmes with greater chances of success, or at

lower costs than public or private actors might otherwise be able to do when acting alone.

It is expected that the public-private partnerships will help attract private sector resources.

5.5.4 Priority 3 Compact Programme for Human and Institutional Capacity Development

A human and institutional capacity development programme should be formed around the

Sub-Regional Organisations that are dealing with human capacity development and

institutional issues in the region. These are: ASARECA, FANRPAN, RESAKSS, RUFORUM,

Farmer Organisatons (EAFF, SACAU), Consultative Committee of Business Community and

regional women and youth organisations. A database of women and youth organisations

that can assist COMESA with implementation has been produced as part of this assignment

(see Annex 12).

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Section 6: Implementation framework for the COMESA Regional

CAADP Compact

This section explores the engagement on how investment programmes for each of the

three priorities should be chosen, as well as the functional programme planning based on

new initiatives and those on-going ones requiring scale up. The implementation component

highlights the technical support that will be required, as well as the financing options for

the regional programmes.

6.1 Introduction

Transforming the CAADP framework into tangible programmes at regional level requires a

substantial amount of technological financial and human resources to support the

proposed activities at regional, sub-regional and national levels. The flow of resources for

the implementation of the COMESA Regional CAADP Compact will require corresponding

responsibility for all actors in the government and non state actor domains to work

together to harmonize their respective inputs. Therefore the roles of the COMESA

Secretariat, of the COMESA Member States, Regional and Sub-Regional Organisations and

the donors, have to be defined clearly. A clear implementation plan has to be put in place.

Although there appears to be a myriad of options for COMESA to access financial resources,

the feasibility of donor financing at the regional level will depend on the extent to which

varying stakeholder concerns presented below are addressed.

6.2 Developing the Regional Investment Programme for Agriculture (RIPA)

6.2.1 From a Project to a Programme Approach

Coming from the early start-up and pilot projects to a comprehensive approach to CAADP

implementation calls for COMESA to design regional investment programmes for

agriculture (RIPA). The programme approach is much more than a means of collecting

projects in a given area into a "programme". It is a logical approach that integrates the

processes of macro-, meso- and micro-planning and management of any national/regional

development effort. The programme approach permits all donors, under Government

leadership, or in this case REC leadership, to support one or several components of a

regional programme framework in line with their comparative advantage. It encourages the

integration of all available resources in addressing regional priorities.

The programme approach is, first, an instrument that enhances ownership and leadership

in the development process. Second, it promotes the integration of financial investments,

technical co-operation, and the identification of support requirements. Third, it harmonizes

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support from different external sources with the regional programme framework, thereby

maximizing internal and external resource mobilization

The value addition of the COMESA Regional CAADP Compact (the Compact), therefore, lies

not only in the agreement by all stakeholders on the areas which need to be prioritised for

accelerated agricultural growth, food and nutrition security and poverty alleviation. By

following a programme approach in the implementation of the Compact and its associated

RIPA, the COMESA Secretariat and the COMESA Member States will have the opportunity to

take ownership of the regional development process, the co-ordination and streamlining of

technical and financial resources will be facilitated, and efforts within the region to achieve

the agreed upon development goals will be maximised.

Three programmes are proposed for the COMESA Regional CAADP Compact, one under

each of the three priority areas:

1) Food System Productivity Programme:

The Alliance for Commodity Trade in Eastern and Southern Africa (ACTESA)

The Alliance for Commodity Trade in Eastern and Southern Africa (ACTESA)

comprises regional programmes and institutions working on agriculture trade and

food security in eastern and southern Africa. ACTESA has a management structure

which includes a Board of Directors, a Steering Committee and a Secretariat and is

already receiving substantial support from development partners. The ACTESA

Partnership Forum includes farmer and trader organisation, processors, lead

agribusinesses implementing partners and supporting financial partners. As a

programme under the Compact, ACTESA will be well placed to address the full scope

of food system productivity challenges.

2) Trade, Infrastructure and Agricultural Development Corridors Programme:

North-South Corridor Programme Model Aid for Trade Programme

The North-South Corridor Programme Model Aid for Trade Programme is a tripartite

collaboration between COMESA, EAC and SADC. From its inception it was envisaged

that this road and rail corridor will bring together respective regional integration

programmes in order to further enlarge the Eastern and Southern markets, unlock

productive potential, increase levels of intra-African trade and enhance regional

prospects. As a programme under the Compact, the North-South Corridor

Programme can be enhanced through applying a food security and agriculture

development lense to ensure that, in addition to being a trade and transport

corridor, it also becomes an agriculture growth corridor.

3) Human and Institutional Capacity Strengthening Programme:

Crosscutting Programme

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A human and institutional capacity development programme should be developed

around the COMESA Secretariat and Sub-Regional Organisations that are dealing

with human capacity development and institutional issues in the region. These are:

ASARECA, FANRPAN, RESAKSS, RUFORUM, Farmer Organisatons (EAFF, SACAU),

Consultative Committee of Business Community and regional women and youth

organisations. This programme should form an integral part of programmes 1 and 2

in providing the human and institutional capacity needs required to achieve food

system productivity and agriculture growth corridors.

With three clear programmes to be implemented under the Compact, ongoing projects in

the region can be assessed in terms of their relevance and complementarity to any one of

the three priority programmes and either scaled-up or integrated into the relevant priority

Compact programme.

Implementation of the Compact and its associated RIPA will be co-ordinated within the

existing COMESA institutional framework. Institutional strengthening and re-engineering,

however, will be required to ensure that the existing structures take on new and added

responsibilities.

6.3 Institutional Arrangements

6.3.1 Co-ordination Mechanisms

The COMESA Secretariat will be responsible for the overall co-ordination of the

implementation of the Regional Compact and its associated RIPA. The implementation of

the Compact will take place at country level through national governments, Civil Society

Organisations, Non-Governmental Organisations and Sub-Regional Organisations.

Currently, COMESA has assigned responsibility for CAADP planning and implementation to

the Agriculture Unit within the Investment Promotion and Private Sector Division (IPPSD).

Given the added long-term responsibility of coordinating the Compact and facilitating

country CAADP processes, the Agriculture Unit should be provided with the support to

transform into a fully-fledged Agriculture Division. The Agriculture Unit/Division should be

adequately staffed and equipped to carry out its additional responsibilities. The COMESA

Secretariat, through its Agriculture Division should co-ordinate meetings of the

COMESA/CAADP Steering Committee.

A set of strategic functions have been identified in line with the COMESA Secretariat’s

mandate within the CAADP framework. The Secretariat will target the facilitation of country

and regional processes for the countries to achieve the overall targets of attaining the

desired agricultural growth, food security and poverty reduction. The above-mentioned

functions of the Secretariat include:

• Supporting implementation of CAADP at regional and national levels.

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• Strengthening Regional Planning and Policy Formulation.

• Facilitating Monitoring and Evaluation of Regional Strategic Objectives and Targets.

• Facilitating Regional Communication and Information Sharing.

• Capacity Building at Regional and National Levels for CAADP Implementation.

• Supporting Partnerships to fulfill Strategic Objectives.

Different organs, structures and stakeholders at the COMESA Secretariat will play different

roles in the review, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the Compact. The roles

and responsibilities are enumerated in subsequent sections below.

Policy Oversight: the policy oversight of the Compact will be the responsibility of what is

currently known as the Joint Meeting of Ministers on Agriculture, Environment and Natural

Resources. The Joint Meeting of Ministers, however, should be extended to include

Ministers of Trade, Infrastructure and Finance. It will be responsible for providing policy

direction and oversight during the implementation of the Compact, as well as approving

programme proposal requests from implementing partners. During discussion of proposals,

the COMESA/CAADP Steering Committee may invite or co-opt technical officers that are

relevant to subject matters of discussion.

Strategic Planning and Management: implementation of the Compact will require

continuous strategic planning and management at both the level of the COMESA

Secretariat and in implementing Member States.

In April 1994, the COMESA Council of Ministers adopted the following recommendations on

Agriculture and Food Security:

a) the Annual Conference of Ministers of Agriculture for Eastern and Southern

Africa (CMA-ESA) as constituted in a meeting on 14 – 15 April, 1994 in Harare,

Zimbabwe, should be the Policy Organ for food security in the COMESA region;

b) a permanent Food Security Technical Committee (FTSC) composed of technical

experts from IGADD, COMESA and SADC should be formed to serve as the

technical advisory body to the Conference of Ministers;

c) a joint Food Security Newsletter or Bulletin for Eastern and Southern African

should be introduced;

d) meetings of the COMESA Director of Agriculture, IGADD Director of Programmes

and SADC Food Security Coordinator should be on a scheduled periodic basis; and

e) there should be regular joint IGADD/COMESA/SADC consultations with donors on

matters of food security.

In keeping with the above resolution the ‘Ministers of Agriculture Meeting’ has a

responsibility of establishing a Technical Committee that could incorporate other RECs and

focus on matters of Food Security and Agriculture. In the present context, such a

committee should draw experts from the COMESA, EAC and SADC in-line with COMESA-

EAC-SADC Tripartite arrangement adopted in October 2008. This committee shall co-

ordinate the RIPA design process, assisted by the Secretariat including call for proposals;

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commissioning M&E, the Peer Review and the approval of subsequent programme

components (see Annex 15).

Technical Review of Proposals: The COMESA-EAC-SADC Secretariat shall use a Technical

Committee on Agriculture (TCA) to review all proposals submitted for consideration under

this Regional Compact. The TCA on the COMESA CAADP Regional Compact may be

constituted into various technical sub-committees as deemed necessary and they may

include finance/budget committee, advocacy and liaison committee and technical review

committee, among others. It will include representatives from regional farmer groups, the

private agribusiness community, government, policy makers, and researchers. The TCA will

also include, as observers, representatives from key donors and from the NEPAD

Secretariat.

Regional agricultural stakeholders, public or private, may prepare a regional proposal for

consideration by TCA. The Compact encourages partnerships and active public and private

sector involvement in proposal submissions. Each programme submission will require a

detailed investment proposal including the elements outlined in Annex 7.

Stakeholders Review Forum: in order to assess progress on implementation of the

Compact, a Stakeholders Platform will incorporate the ACTESA Partnership Forum, the

North-South Corridor stakeholders, and the Sub-Regional Organisations that deal with

human capacity development and institutional issues in the region. The purpose of this

forum will be to bring together national implementers, policy makers, development

partners and other stakeholders in order to promote dialogue and mutual learning and to

review the progress and performance towards aligning performance to target.

6.4 Financial Arrangements

6.4.1 Review of Current Mechanisms

African integration is impeded by a lack of financial resources and limited programming

capacity at REC level. RECs are supposed to be the drivers of African integration, are

responsible for the implementation of the CAADP at a regional level and for the overall co-

ordination of the implementation of the CAADP at national level. Relying principally on

contributions from their Member States and on donor funding, the RECs are severely

underfunded and lacking the capacity to fulfill their mandate.

Most RECs depend heavily on international donor-partners. The challenges in this regard

are well known. On the one hand donors complain that there is a problem of backlog of

unused funds, which reduces their incentive to increase funding to RECs. On the other

hand, RECs complain about the difficulty associated with donor procedures. Modalities set

by donors for accessing and administering both bilateral and multilateral funds are usually

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complex and in some cases do not take into account the RECs priorities or procedures for

channeling financial support. Hence, if utilization of these funds is dependent on adherence

to the bilateral donor or World Bank modalities, RECs are reluctant to engage in disbursing

the funds for activities they consider not in their interest.

Donor and REC co-ordination - Donor co-ordination at the regional level is very different

from the national level and harmonization processes prompted by the Paris Declaration/

Accra Agenda for Action are far less advanced. There are fewer donors involved and

therefore less urgency to co-ordinate, as a result there is less of a culture of co-ordination

and fewer resources to put into co-ordination. Donors are also handicapped when it comes

to human resources and do not always have enough staff, if at all they have a regional

office, or much time to invest in co-ordination. Donors are yet to establish a harmonized

and aligned approach to regional implementation of CAADP. Therefore, any support donors

give to the region’s agricultural sector is in the form of direct support to on-going projects,

with most donors operating on a project-by-project basis. This is the case exemplified in

COMESA where donors attest to having a relatively more formalised co-ordination of

support to ACTESA and ASARECA.

Member States Contributions - For Member States to own and drive the regional CAADP

process, something has to be done about mobilizing internal resources. Innovative

instruments for generating adequate resources to finance programmes and projects have

to be developed. These could include the traditional taxes and possibly income from the

green economy.

The Multi Donor Trust Fund (MDTF), managed by the World Bank, is designed to provide

reliable and systematic support for CAADP planning processes pre- and post-Compact

activities at country, regional and continental levels. The MDTF was not designed to finance

agricultural investment programs, or to become the sole mechanism of support to CAADP

institutions. It will not provide for investment funding needs, and therefore, partners and

countries are encouraged to explore complementary funding options.

The Global Agriculture and Food Security Programme (GAFSP) could be a supplementary

source of finance viewed as a potential catalyst to boost agriculture development and food

security in their respective regions2. Where the CAADP MDTF falls short in terms of

sufficiency and function, the GAFSP surpasses by providing access to a significantly larger

pool of resources, and enabling RECs with the financial and technical capability to support

investment operations3. The ECDPM review points out that although one of the underlying

principles of the GAFSP is complementary support to existing finance mechanisms, there is

the possibility that parallel support and increased funding could result in fragmented and

overlapping funding systems. The numerous donor processes could limit the extent to

2 World Bank (2009) ‘Framework Document for a Global Agriculture and Food Security Program’. World Bank.

3 ECDPM 2010

63

which donors can efficiently and effectively transfer resources to agricultural development

programmes.

The GAFSP has a timeframe of three years and no operational start date has been provided

for it so far. If this new fund is to support on-going CAADP activities and, as noted by the

ECDPM, timely decision and a defined period are needed. As the GAFSP is still being

developed, COMESA can take the opportunity to take GAFSP into consideration in the

designing of the regional investment programmes.

There is also the reality that RECs, as is the case with many other African institutions, are

often unable to absorb an influx of large amounts of money. Typically, as indicated by the

NEPAD CAADP Review, the RECs are handicapped by an absence of strong regional financial

structures and mechanisms to receive and route the funds; the lack of institutional and

human capacity to manage disbursement for regional projects; the difficulty in

understanding exactly how donor and International Finance Institutions (IFI) loan and grant

processes work; the scale of unspent resources and; evidence of low expenditure efficiency

in the sector4..

6.4.2 New Opportunities

Effective implementation of the Regional Compact will not only rely on the ability to

mobilize adequate funds but also on obtaining sustainable funding sources.

Carbon Fund – COMESA is in the process of setting up a carbon fund. The COMESA Carbon

Fund will invest in carbon abatement projects, as well as purchase trade in CER (Certified

Emissions Reduction certificates). The Fund will also concentrate on AFOLU type projects

that have previously been avoided in the international carbon markets. It is envisaged that

the following facilities be structured as components of the COMESA Carbon Fund: a) the

COMESA Carbon Credit Exchange; b) The COMESA Carbon Offset Fund; c) The COMESA

Technical Advisory Services; and d) The COMESA Promotion and Capacity Building Services.

The structure proposed through which COMESA, EAC and SADC can secure access into the

global carbon markets is a Public Private Partnership structure wherein a COMESA Fund

Management Protected Cell Company will house the COMESA Carbon Fund.

Emissions trading was formalised as a global mechanism to address climate change

mitigation under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

Kyoto Protocol of 1997. The price of a tone of carbon dioxide varies from as low as US$0.50

to as high as US$47.00 depending on the methodologies and standards applied. In 2008 the

global carbon market transected emission reductions units worth about USD126 billion – an

amount comparable to a quarter of the COMESA Region’s GDP.

4 NEPAD (2009) ‘CAADP Review: Renewing the commitment to African agriculture (Draft)’. NEPAD.

64

A Special Fund has been proposed to mainly finance the COMESA Secretariat’s co-

ordination, liaison and advocacy activities for the Regional Compact and for the trans-

boundary programmes and projects. It is envisaged that the proposed fund will be

capitalized by donations, allocations from COMESA and other innovative funding sources.

Alternative funding will also be secured for national level projects that will be approved

through the Compact.

A Catalytic Fund has been discussed that would provide some additionality where there

were shortfalls or gaps in donor presence at a country level. This fund could also rapidly

disburse bridging finance, where budget cycles make it difficult for donors to immediately

respond to new agricultural investment programmes. It would support country-level

decision-making and have a light central governance structure.

Investment Programmes, developed with donors as co-investors along with government

and the private sector, with the intent of building long-term financial sustainability are also

a possibility and have been discussed between donor and recipient countries.

African Regional Development Banks - Regional development banks could be instrumental

in facilitating regional agricultural activities. Their relevance is obvious to African and

European actors, yet their shortfall in terms of capacity, governance, etc, makes it difficult

to fully incorporate them into financing processes. The involvement of regional banks could

to an extent address concerns such as ownership and participation. The African

Development Bank (AFDB), as a continental financing structure, provides a platform to co-

ordinate the financing of regional programmes.

Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) – The implementation of the Compact provides

opportunities for PPPs in infrastructure, such as railway networks and roads, irrigation,

packaging, storage and other services related to food system productivity and the North-

South Development Corridor.

6.5 Monitoring and Evaluation

6.5.1 Introduction

Ensuring that the CAADP objective of broad-based, agricultural sector growth of 6 percent

per year on average and the goals of halving poverty and hunger by 2015 are achieved

requires a mechanism by which investments made, the sector’s performance, and any

changes in poverty and hunger are regularly and transparently measured against these

targets and, if necessary, can lead to the revision of policies, investments and practices in

order for CAADP to stay on track.

65

At continental level NEPAD facilitates and co-ordinates monitoring and evaluation. This

includes assessing impact and facilitating the sharing of lessons and peer review. NEPAD

captures and shares key lessons through peer review and joint assessment. This also means

evaluating the impact of the CAADP agenda on NEPAD national and continental

development objectives. As part of this, NEPAD provides help in designing and mobilising

support for CAADP monitoring and evaluation systems. In 2007 the Second CAADP-Sirte

Partnership Platform Meeting in Addis Ababa, tasked NEPAD to develop a framework to be

used in monitoring progress towards the successful implementation of CAADP and for

providing a conceptual basis for assessing the impacts and returns to CAADP investments.

COMESA, in close consultation with NEPAD, will make use of the comprehensive Monitoring

and Evaluation (M&E) framework that was developed for CAADP by the Regional Strategic

Analysis and Knowledge Support System (ReSAKSS) in 2008. The framework is designed to

support mutual, peer and progress reviews of CAADP at the continental, regional and

national levels, respectively, and to provide a conceptual basis for future impact evaluations

of CAADP. The framework is based on the underlying logic of CAADP to show how the

investments and outputs associated with any one pillar of CAADP interact with (i.e. affects

and is affected by) the investments and outputs associated with the other pillars through

complementarity or substitutability of investments (or through price effects, for example)

to affect achievement of the overall CAADP goals and objectives.

Furthermore, it shows how the investment decision and the various outputs, outcomes and

goals of the programme are influenced by several conditioning factors that also need to be

monitored. This includes governance and trade and macroeconomic policies that can have

much greater impact on the performance of the agriculture sector and, consequently, on

achieving the overall CAADP goals and objectives, compared to investments and policies

that directly target the agricultural sector. COMESA, therefore, will work with NEPAD to

monitor and evaluate the designed programmes under the COMESA Regional CAADP

Compact.

Using participatory approaches will support COMESA Member States to improve open and

responsive, honest, and competent governance. Such an approach can and should promote

and involve active and responsible citizens, and other key civil society actors. Their

monitoring of issues and institutions can help improve transparency - the overall quality

and breadth of public knowledge of policies and workings of the public and private sectors.

Raising awareness and understanding can help promote checks and balances on policies

and practices of the public and private sectors, thereby building up public confidence in

intentions and competencies, and curb tendencies toward corruption and mal-

administration.

The COMESA Secretariat has a monitoring and evaluation role with respect to the

implementation of CAADP and COMESA strategies and targets within its Member States.

The Secretariat has a mandate to monitor progress on achieving objectives within the

COMESA Region for its own Member States and communicating progress to the continental

66

level institution AU and NEPAD5. An M&E Framework will be developed by COMESA in line

with already existing guidelines set by the continent-wide CAADP M&E Framework.

COMESA and its stakeholders in the various Compact priority programmes will need to:

1) Agree on a minimum common set of indicators, benchmarks and milestones;

2) Identify formal responsibilities and roles for the M&E system;

3) Agree on the range of tools, additional information and the degree in the

depth of analysis that will be required to successfully undertake serious

evaluations of progress and impact over time; and

4) Fill in any serious data gaps over time (coverage, frequency and quality),

once the indicators have been agreed to.6

Care should be taken not to duplicate M&E activities already in place in ACTESA, North-

South Corridor Programme, or its Member States, but rather to amalgamate these activities

into the broader COMESA Regional CAADP M&E Framework.

6.6 COMESA Compact Signatories

The COMESA Regional CAADP Compact defines a set of priorities that have to be considered

in developing regional investment programmes. The COMESA Region needs to adopt these

priorities and take ownership of them. They are of regional relevance, and all stakeholders

should make commitments to consider and adhere to the ideals and principles of this

regional CAADP compact. Ten stakeholder representatives have been identified for

consideration as custodians of the Compact (see Table 6.1). A summary profile of the

proposed signatories is detailed on Annex 8.

Table 6.1 Proposed Signatories for the COMESA CAADP Compact

1. Secretary-General of COMESA

2. Chairman of the COMESA Council of Ministers

3. Chairman of the Tripartite

4. African Union Commission

5. Farmer Organisations (SACAU/EAFF)

6. Private Sector (COMESA Business Council)

7. CSOs/INGOs/Policy Networks/Think Thanks (FANRPAN)

8. Research Organisations (ASARECA)

9. Alliance for Commodity Trade in Eastern and Southern Africa (ACTESA)

10. Development Partners

5 COMESA Secretariat’s Agriculture Strategic Framework March 2010

6 ReSAKKS Working Paper No.6, June 2008, Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) System for the CAADP

67

6.7 Next Steps to Completing the Regional COMESA CAADP Compact

As the process of developing the Compact comes to finality, it is important for all

stakeholders, including COMESA, EAC and SADC, to realise that the signing of the Compact

is not an end to itself. Instead it is the beginning of a set of activities and programme work

aimed at operationalising the Compact. The Secretariat should take the process forward by

ensuring the finalisation of long-term institutional arrangements/structures that can co-

ordinate CAADP Investment Programmes.

The next steps that are envisaged on the development of the Compact include:

• Discussion of proposed areas of regional investments and agreements between the

three RECs: COMESA, EAC and SADC.

• Approval and adoption of the Tripartite CAADP Regional Compact to be approved

and adopted by the three RECs.

• Signing and launch of the Tripartite Regional CAADP Compact.

• Development of Regional Investment Programmes for Agriculture (RIPAs).

• Establishment of recommended institutions.

• Implementation of investment programmes.

• Annual reviews of RIPAs.

68

Annexes

Annex 1: Terms of Reference COMESA-FANRPAN service contract No. CS/P/10/08JK

i. To finalise the COMESA CAADP regional concept papers for all the four pillars and, the

cross cutting pillar.

ii. Design and facilitate implementation of programmes focusing on youth and women in

the COMESA region.

iii. Take inventory of key stakeholders in the region that COMESA can work with in

successfully implementing the CAADP.

iv. Take inventory of existing regional projects and programmes which COMESA-CAADP

Team should take into consideration

v. Finalise the design of COMESA Early Action Programmes under each of the CAADP

pillars.

vi. Design institutional arrangements for the implementation of CAADP in COMESA

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Annex 2: Methodology for Compact Development

The methodology mobilized to develop the present draft compact document presents a

two-pronged approach. On the one hand, there has been a desktop and technical content

development, while on the other hand there have been some stakeholders consultations

through an awareness raising field missions.

Desktop Review and Development of Technical Content

This review involved:

a) Finalizing the COMESA CAADP regional concept papers to ensure they are updated

and aligned to regional priorities;

b) taking an inventory of key stakeholders in the region that COMESA can work with in

implementing CAADP;

c) taking an inventory of existing regional projects and programmes which COMESA-

CAADP Team should take into consideration;

d) review and finalizing the design of COMESA Early Action Programmes under each of

the 4 CAADP Pillars

e) design core institutional arrangements for the implementation of CAADP in COMESA

Advocacy and Stakeholders’ Consultations

The overall methodology mobilized by the team responsible for the development of this

compact consists of some specific elements. In fact and following the successful FANRPAN’s

response to a COMESA competitive bidding in May 2008 to assist develop a Regional CAADP

Compact Framework Document for discussion and adoption; there was an official signing of

the service contract between the two parties. It was in this context that the contractor

prepared an inception report submitted to COMESA in February 2009, comments were

returned to FANRPAN a month later.

From there on, a range of key engagements that took place afterwards were meant to

strategically position the Regional CAADP Compact. These engagements include the

attendance by FANRPAN of key political gatherings including: (i) the COMESA Ministers of

agriculture meeting in Seychelles (March 2009); (ii) the COMESA Heads of State Summit

Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe (June, 2009); (iii) the AU Heads of State Summit Sirte, Libya

(June/July 2009); (iv) the 2nd Joint COMESA Ministers of Agriculture and Ministers of

Environment Conference Nairobi, Kenya (August 2009), as well as (v) the stakeholders

consultation on the COMESA Compact framework (December 2009). Besides, attending

these high level meetings, the convening of (i) the COMESA CAADP Regional Compact

launch Livingstone, Zambia (May, 2009) on the one hand; and the (ii) the COMESA

Stakeholders consultation and updates process took place in Maputo, Mozambique

70

(September 2009) on the other hand offered substantial opportunities to start to raise

awareness of key constituencies on the rationale and role of a regional CAADP Compact for

COMESA. , just a month ahead of the most critical COMESA institutional review (October

2009).

To further engage with key constituencies, an advocacy team of consultants was hired by

FANRPAN between February and May 2010, with the mission to facilitate design and

implementation of a social marketing strategy for the Regional CAADP Compact Framework

through field missions, as per the mandate bestowed to FANRPAN by COMESA. The

stakeholders concerned in the advocacy activities include: (i) Permanent Secretaries in the

Ministries of Agriculture; (iii) Permanent Secretaries in the Ministries of Finance; (iv)

Members of Parliament sitting on Committees on Agriculture and Finance; (v) Farmers'

groups'; (vi) Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) coordinating body; (vii) Private sector

representative as well as (viii) the CAADP Country Teams.

71

Annex 3: CAADP Principles

Measurable targets: Two key intermediate targets were set to measure the impact of

CAADP: (i) Pursuit of a 6 % average annual agricultural sector growth rate at the national

level; and (ii) Allocation of 10 % of national annual budgets to the agricultural sector.

Political endorsement: CAADP has been driven by the conviction that Africa’s development

problems and challenges can only be sustainably addressed by Africa’s own commitment

and concerted action. No initiative in the past has enjoyed the level of political

endorsement and continent-wide focus achieved by CAADP. Nor has there previously been

such a strong commitment of the countries’ own domestic resources. Thus, CAADP provides

the first comprehensive effort at harnessing Africa’s own energies and commitment to

address the continent’s development challenges and specifically deal with barriers and/or

opportunities for enhanced agricultural productivity.

Inclusiveness: At the national level, CAADP opens the process to inclusive participation in

strategic planning of multi-stakeholders including private sector, government, development

partners, non-government organisations, and down to local and grassroots structures.

Collective ownership: CAADP fosters value change to create mutual responsibility and

accountability across sectors and actors for results that strengthen the agricultural system

as a whole. This implies agreement on a common vision and agreed targets, which will be

achieved through joint analysis and ownership of problems across sectors, an

institutionalized peer review system, and nurturing of commitments from the Heads of

State level downwards through advocacy at all levels.

Regional integration: CAADP fosters regional integration to reach economies of scale

around use of common resources, systems, and infrastructures; and cultivates regional

complementarities along mutual need, regional comparative advantages, and common

goals.

Evidence-based planning: CAADP is a platform of institutionalizing a systemic analysis of the

growth options and strategy by key players through evidence-based planning and policy

making and analytical support systems that allow strategic and scenario-based planning

that build on learning from the successes and failures of the past.

Consistency and harmonization: The CAADP agenda and process will enhance co-ordination,

consistency, and continuity in regional and national development efforts, guided by shared

sustainable growth and investment targets. It provides a direct and efficient entry point for

harmonized donor partners to engage with the African agricultural agenda.

72

Annex 4: Existing Regional Programmes

Regional Programmes Funding Source Lead

Institutions

Pillar 1.

Land and Water

1.1 Water Resource Management

(project still under design,

undergoing consultation, to

include irrigation)

1.2 Conservation Agriculture NORAD

1.3 Climate Change Initiative,

Irrigation Programme, Fisheries

Strategy, Forestry Strategy

NORAD

Adaptation to climate change

(pipeline)

USAID/East Africa

Pillar 2.

Trade and

Infrastructure

2.1 TradeMark DFID

2.2 Northern and Central Corridor

Diagnostics Programme

DFID, JICA

2.3 North-South Development

Corridor, African Development

Corridor Platform (ADCP)

COMESA

Secretariat

Northern Corridor Transit

Facilitation

AfDB COMESA

Secretariat

2.4 Food and Agriculture Market

Information System (FAMIS)

COMESA

Secretariat

2.5 Risk management Programme

for Eastern and Southern Africa

(REFORM)

EC COMESA

Secretariat

2.6 Cross Border Trade Initiative

(CBT)

COMESA

Secretariat

2.7 Competitiveness and Trade

Expansion

Programme(COMPETE),

USAID/East Africa USAID/East

Africa

Establishing the Centre of

Excellence in Pest Risk Analysis

(COPE) at KEPHIS, Kenya

WTO STDF / East

Africa

KEPHIS and

CABI in Kenya

Market Linkages Programme USAID/East Africa

Pillar 3.

Food Security

Guiding Investments in

Agricultural Markets in Africa

(GISAMA)

BMGF COMESA

Secretariat,

MSU

2.1 African Agricultural Markets

Programme (AAMP)

DFID/WB ACTESA

2.3 Agricultural Markets

Programme and Regional

Integration (AMPRIP)

COMESA

Secretariat

73

3.1 COMESA Regional Agro-Input

Programme (COMRAP)

EC ACTESA

The East Africa Phytosanitary

Information Council (EAPIC)

Regional Pest Data base

USDA/USAID/FAO

/East Africa

Co-ordinated

by KEPHIS in

Kenya

3.2 Regional Enhanced

Livelihoods in Pastoral Areas

(RELPA)

USAID/East Africa ACTESA

3.3 Strengthening Trade in

Agriculture Inputs (STAR)

Hewlett

Foundation, EC

ACTESA

Competitive African Cotton

Initiative (COPACI)

GTZ Private Sector

3.4 ReSAKSS USAID

3.5 ASARECA USAID/East Africa

Famine Early Warning System

Network (FEWSNET)

USAID USAID

Pillar 4.

Agricultural

Technology

4.1 Regional Approach to

Biotechnology and Bio-safety for

Eastern and Southern Africa

(RABESA II)

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Annex 5: Early Action Summary from COMESA Draft Regional Pillar Documents

Pillar 1. Land and Water

A. Objectives

Objective 1: Support COMESA Member States to elaborate Sustainable Land and Water

Management (SLWM) investment frameworks related project/programme

developed and implemented

Objective 2: Establish and manage interactive SLWM knowledge and Information

management platform facilitating the sharing of evolving

knowledge/lessons/data on practices as well as tracking of SLWM impact

Objective 3: Stimulate and facilitate harmonization of the SLWM agenda in line with the

NEPAD, EAP, other CAADP Pillars and the UNCCD thrust including and in

particular regional and national Fertilizer strategies

Objective 4: Support and facilitate increased investment and Project support to country

and regional interventions to expand area and number of farmers applying

SLWM practices

B. Proposed Early Actions

• Sustainability in development corridors

Proposed Early Action Project 1. Cotton/Tobacco in the Nacala Corridor –Malawi and

Zambia. This project will engage local stakeholders to adapt and scale-up sustainable land

and water management and entrepreneurship development opportunities for maximizing

smallholder welfare and promoting sustainable resources management in out-grower

schemes in western Malawi and eastern Zambia.

Proposed Early Action Project 2. Floriculture in East Africa Great Lakes Region – Ethiopia (to

be confirmed with WWF-EARPO). This project will engage local stakeholders to examine the

opportunities for maximizing smallholder welfare and promoting sustainable resources

management in floriculture schemes in East Africa’s Great Lakes Region and south-west

Ethiopia.

• Watershed management

Proposed Early Action Project 3a. Zambezi Headwaters – Zambia, D.R. Congo, Angola

This project will bring together national and local stakeholders in an effort to create a

regional structure for the management of this important watershed.

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Proposed Early Action Project 3b. Capitalizing on experiences and lessons learned from

implementing watershed management projects. This project will synthesize WWF

experiences with watershed management in different countries around the world.

Proposed Early Action Project 4. Lake Naivasha – Kenya (to be confirmed with WWF-

EARPO). This project will bring together national and local stakeholders in an effort to

create a structure for the management of this important lake and its surroundings.

• Climate change

Proposed Early Action Project 5. Regional climate change initiatives. This activity will

explore relationships between agriculture, biodiversity conservation, energy use, land and

water management, livelihoods and climate change.

• Constituencies for natural resources management

Proposed Early Action 6. Institutional and network development. This activity will seek to

strengthen COMESA’s capacities and networking arrangements to enable delivery on

COMESA’s charter commitment to natural resources management.

Pillar 2. Infrastructure, Trade and Markets

A. Four critical needs

1. Creating a basis for informed choice in setting rural infrastructure investment

/intervention priorities through analytical work to identify areas of agricultural production,

agro-processing and agricultural trade where the region has or can relatively easily develop

comparative advantage so that the choice of rural investments has a high probability of

commercial success and sustainability. Such preparatory analysis is necessary also to draw

attention to cases where COMESA countries might work at cross-purposes in their rural

investments and so to suggest complementary investments among them;

2. Formulating and funding of additional concrete rural infrastructure projects that can

most usefully link up with CAADP intentions as well as formulating and funding of additional

interventions to include both investment and systemic capacity/institutional/policy

improvement interventions for domestic funding or technical co-operation;

3. Integrating COMESA rural infrastructure programmes into NEPAD development budgets

and in national development plans and plans of smaller Regional Economic Organisations in

the region hence making COMESA be the leader in rural investment championing; and

76

4. Concerted action to promote private sector engagement and interest in rural

infrastructure development. This will require that the private sector be a close partner from

the earliest stages of constituency building and projects identification but also that

COMESA governments should create the policy and institutional conditions to make rural

infrastructure development attractive to private capital.

B. Key recommended next steps/early action areas.

1. Involve Member States, national centers of excellence, NGO’s, and the private sector in

finalizing Regional Compact.

2. Organize a regional meeting of the Reference Group of experts and policy makers to

adopt the recommendations and establish ownership.

3. Move the agenda to national platforms for implementation.

4. Prepare a structured means of implementation monitoring and evaluation including a

results framework for bench marking.

5. Focus on strengthening farmer organisations such as SACAU and the EAFF

6. Prioritise value addition (agro-processing) as a way of strengthening improved markets

for farmers.

7. Ensure that farmer organisations play a meaningful role in the COMESA Business Council

(CBC)

Pillar 3. Food Security

A. Goal

Improve regional food supply, reduce hunger and improve emergency response

B. Objectives

1. Improve domestic production and marketing

2. Facilitate regional trade in food staples

3. Build household productivity and assets

C. Early Actions

The early actions proposed in this section reflect project and programme proposals that

have been recently funded or are likely to be funded in the very near future, that are

consistent with the strategic approach laid out in this document, and that are expected to

be able to yield quick impact. These actions do not constitute, and are not intended to

constitute, a comprehensive approach to realizing the CAADP strategy.

1. Regional Enhanced Livelihoods for Pastoral Areas (RELPA), funded by USAID ($19.8

million). This Horn of Africa programme for enhancing livelihoods of pastoralists across

three countries has been launched.

77

2. Regional Food Security and Risk Management Programme for Eastern and Southern

Africa (REFORM), funded by the European Union (€10 million). This programme is mostly

capacity building (i.e., skills transfer, technical studies, documentation of best practice,

information sharing, policy dialogue, etc.).

3. Making Markets Work for the Poor: Enhancing Food Security and Productivity Growth in

Eastern and Southern Africa (MMWP), funded by World Bank/DfID ($3.8 million). This

project involves a three-year programme of practical analysis, policy outreach, consensus

building, and capacity strengthening to promote the goals of national and regional food

security, poverty reduction, and agricultural productivity growth.

4. Improved Regional Trade in Food Staples (RTFS), total $5 million, with startup funding by

the World Bank. This programme of work aims to assemble spatial evidence on existing

regional production and trade in food staples and to develop predictive analytical tools that

will enable spatial mapping of the outcomes resulting from common natural and policy

shocks.

5. Cassava Transformation in Southern Africa (CATISA), total $2 million, with startup

funded by SIDA. The CATISA project aims to analyze and help accelerate cassava

commercialisation in Southern Africa in order to help improve food security in the region.

6. Home-Grown School Feeding (HGSF), funded by World Food Programme and DfID ($25

million). NEPAD, WFP and the Millennium Hunger Task Force (MHTF) launched a pilot

Home-Grown School Feeding and Health Programme designed to link school feeding to

agricultural development through the purchase and use of locally and domestically

produced food.

Pillar 4. Agricultural Research and Technology

A. Goals

Research entities in COMESA aim at increasing economic growth and improving livelihoods

in the COMESA Region while enhancing the quality of the environment. This will be

achieved through enhanced productivity, value added and competitiveness of the regional

agricultural system.

B. Results areas

ASARECA aims to achieve these goals by working in four result areas:

1. Promoting generation of demand driven technologies and /innovations

2. Facilitation of regional and national policy options for enhancing agricultural systems

3. Strengthening of regional and national capacity for implementing agricultural research in

the IAR4D paradigm and

78

4. Enhancing the availability of information on agricultural research and development.

C. Five policy themes affecting research

1. Trade liberalization: 1) collaboration with COMESA and East African Community, 2)

ECAPAPA projects on harmonization of biosafety, seed, dairy and fertilizer policies, 3)

institutional innovations favoring sub-regional collaboration on commodities and animals

crossing national borders

2. Agricultural transformation and markets: 1) Viewing regional agricultural planning in a

multi-market framework, 2) highlighting market access as a criterion in prioritizing

development domains, 3) identifying marketing as a cross-cutting theme for capacity

building

3. Poverty reduction: 1) identification of commodities (e.g., major staples, livestock

products) with the largest poverty reduction impact; 2) use poverty reduction indicators in

scoring activities in commodity and thematic priority setting in the NPPs.

4. Stakeholder participation: full participation of NARS, IARCs, Civil Society Organisations,

and Farmer Organisations in NPP priority setting, ASARECA strategic planning and calls for

proposals under competitive grants.

5. Regional collaboration in agricultural research: ASARECA’s strategy has refined the basis

for regional collaboration in terms of: i) production of regional public goods, ii) services to

members, iii) collective action and sub-regional solidarity, iv) achievement of economies of

scope and scale and v) the increased attractiveness of the region for investment in research

by governments and donors as a result of the above.

D. Priority commodities and themes

ASARECA’s strategic planning has identified priorities by commodity sub-sector,

development domain, and theme.

1. Commodities: To have a large impact on the Millennium Development Goals of

reducing poverty and hunger, ASARECA’s Networks, Programmes and Projects (NPPs) will

continue to address basic staples and commodities with a growing domestic market

(cereals, livestock, dairy products, edible oils). These offer a larger impact and broader

distribution of gains than either traditional exports with mature markets or niche exports

with thin markets. ASARECA will move to strengthen its coverage of commodities with the

capacity to reduce poverty. The prominent role of livestock calls for strengthening support

to the work of its animal agriculture network which has a broad range of priorities but

narrow funding. ASARECA will study the opportunity to undertake an initiative in oilseeds,

a commodity sub-sector that has demand potential but its potential for regional action may

be more limited. Fruits, vegetables and horticultural crops are the third area in which

increased attention is indicated.

2. Themes: ASARECA has identified three thematic areas that are critical areas for

strengthening: i) applied social sciences in agricultural research, ii) integrated and

79

participatory approaches associated with natural resources management, and iii)

technology uptake and technology up-scaling.

The three thematic issues highlight the need for greater regional integration of agricultural

research issues.

80

Annex 6: Potential Future Regional Programmes Identified during the Stakeholder

Consultations

Regional Programmes Policy Requirement Lead Institutions

Pillar 1.

Land and Water

1.1 Regional irrigation,

water management

Public resource allocation:

public works

PPPs: technical lead,

Corridor Development

lead, governments, CPs

1.2 Regional support for

conservation farming

research and extension

Public resource allocation:

extension systems

PPPs: TerrAfrique, Corridor

Development lead, CPs,

local farmer groups

1.3 Fisheries development

in key transnational lake

and river systems

Public resource allocation:

public works

World Fish Center, CPs,

governments

Pillar 2.

Trade and

Infrastructure

2.1. Priority Trade and

Development Corridors (3-

4) including infrastructure

for agricultural land and

trade development (land

market, roads, rail, ports,

storage)

a) Land policy conducive to

private investment

b) Public resource

allocation: public works

c) Regional food trade

facilitated

PPPs: Corridor

Development leads,

agribusinesses, financial

sector, governments, CPs

2.2 Development of

structured regional

commodity trade

mechanisms, institutions,

and information systems

a) Regional food trade

facilitated

b) Legal framework

facilitated

c) Resource allocation: data

collection and

dissemination

PPPs: ACTESA, COMPETE,

governments, CPs,

agribusinesses, financial

sector, commodity/stock

exchanges.

2.3 Sub-regional Working

Groups on Trade Policy and

Trade Development

a) Participation in Working

Group

b) Regional food trade

facilitated

PPPs: ACTESA, private

sector, governments

2.4 Livestock trade

development

a) Livestock trade

regulatory harmonization

b) Resource allocation:

Disease control

PPPs: ACTESA, Corridor

Development lead,

governments, CPs

Pillar 3.

Food Security

3.1 Food supply, demand,

and trade information

systems

a) Public resource

allocation: info system

b) Disclosure of

information legislation

PPP: ACTESA, CPs, East

African Grains Council

(RATIN), FEWSNET,

governments

3.2 Market-based food

stock innovations

a) Public resource

allocation: food reserve

fund

b) Regional food trade

facilitated

c) Market-based

PPPs: ACTESA,

governments, CPs,

agribusinesses, financial

sector

81

instruments that

encourage trade

3.3. Regional centre of

excellence in food

processing technology and

food safety

a) harmonized food safety

standards

Pillar 4.

Agricultural

Technology

1. Regional research

networks on drought-

tolerant food staples

Public resource allocation:

extension systems

PPPs: Regional research

networks, agribusinesses,

ACTESA, governments, CPs

2. Regional fertilizer

production (e.g. at Lake

Kivu using methane

reserves)

a) Regional fertilizer trade

facilitated

PPP: IFDC, private

investors, CPs,

governments

82

Annex 7: Proposal Guidelines for Regional Investment Programme for Agriculture (RIPA)

A. Objectives

B. Background

• geographic setting

• profile of agriculture in the selected area

• summary of related existing programmes

C. Programme Inputs

• describe the intervention

• intended causal chain leading to increased food production and trade

• public and private investments required

• manpower requirements

• private sector collaboration required

• policy requirements

• lead regional institution

• national partners

• timetable

• costs

D. Expected results

• changes in productivity, production and trade

• number of beneficiaries (farmers, processors, traders, consumers)

• income gains anticipated

• other benefits

• total expected benefits

• risks

• key assumptions

E. Cost

• Investment cost

• Recurrent cost

• Resource mobilization

• Benefit/cost ratio

F. Factors critical to success

• Policy requirements

• Risk Analysis

G. Implementation and monitoring programme

83

Annex 8: Proposed Signatories for the COMESA CAADP compact

1. Secretary General of COMESA

2. Chairman of COMESA Council of Ministers

3. Chairman of the Tripartite

4. African Union Commission

5. Farmer Organisations (SACAU / EAFF)

6. Private Sector (COMESA Business Council)

7. CSOs / INGOs/ Policy Networks / Think Tanks (FANRPAN)

8. Research Organisations (ASARECA)

9. ACTESA

10. Development Partners

Summary Profile of Proposed Signatories for the COMESA CAADP compact

1. Secretary General of COMESA

The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) is the largest regional

economic grouping in Africa. The Treaty establishing COMESA was signed on 5th November

1993 and ratified on 8th December 1994. COMESA has 19 member states: Burundi,

Comoros, DR-Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi,

Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

COMESA has a Secretariat that is headed by the COMESA Secretary-General of the Common

Market. The Secretary-General is assisted by two Assistant Secretary-Generals: i) The first

Assistant Secretary-General is responsible for two division: a) Administration Division; and

b) Budget and Finance Division; ii) The second Assistant Secretary-General is responsible for

six Divisions: a) Trade, Customs and Monetary Affairs Division, b) Infrastructure

Development Division; c) Investment Promotion and Private Sector Development Division;

d) the Gender, Women in Business and Social Affairs Division; e) Information and

Technology Division; and, f) the Legal and Institutional Affairs Division.

2. Chairman of COMESA Council of Ministers

The COMESA Council of Ministers is responsible for overseeing the functioning and

development of COMESA and ensuring the implementation of agreed policies. Its

responsibilities include making recommendations to the Authority on matters of policy

84

aimed at the efficient and harmonious functioning and development of COMESA; giving

direction to all other subordinate organs of the Common Market (other than the COMESA

Court of Justice) in the exercise of its jurisdiction; and making regulations, issuing directives

and taking decisions. The COMESA Council comprises Ministers whose ministries are

responsible for the co-ordination of COMESA activities (so-called Coordinating Ministries).

Member States appoint their Minister Representatives. The Chairman, Vice-Chairman and

Rapporteur – who together form the Bureau of Council – are Ministers from the COMESA

Member States currently holding the Chairmanship, Vice-Chairmanship and Rapporteur of

the COMESA Authority, respectively. The Council takes decisions by consensus, or failure to

that, by two-thirds majority of its members.

3. Chairman of the Tripartite

The COMESA customs union will be harmonized with that of the East African Community

(EAC) and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) under the tripartite

arrangement.

4. African Union Commission

The advent of the African Union (AU) can be described as an event of great magnitude in

the institutional evolution of the continent. The main objectives of the OAU were, inter alia,

to rid the continent of the remaining vestiges of colonization and apartheid; to promote

unity and solidarity among African States; to co-ordinate and intensify co-operation for

development; to safeguard the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Member States and

to promote international co-operation within the framework of the United Nations. The AU

Commission (AUC) is the key organ playing a central role in the day-to-day management of

the African Union. Among others, it represents the Union and defends its interests;

elaborates draft common positions of the Union; prepares strategic plans and studies for

the consideration of the Executive Council; elaborates, promotes, co-ordinates and

harmonizes the programmes and policies of the Union with those of the RECs; ensures the

mainstreaming of gender in all programmes and activities of the Union.

5. Farmer Organisations (SACAU / EAFF)

Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions (SACAU)

SACAU is a regional farmers’ organisation that was established in 1992. Its membership is

open to national farmers’ unions and regional commodity associations in Southern Africa. It

is involved in agricultural development in the region by strengthening the capacities of

farmers’ organisations, by providing a collective voice for farmers on regional and

international matters, and by providing agriculture related information to its members and

others stakeholders.

Membership of SACAU is open to bona fide national farmers organisations and regional

commodity producer associations in Southern Africa, provided such organisations represent

85

farmers on a voluntary basis, are reasonably representative of farmers in the relevant

country or Southern Africa, are autonomous and legitimate farmer controlled

organisations, are independent of political parties, and share common values with SACAU.

Currently SACAU membership spans 16 national agriculture unions (or commodity

organisations) in 11 African countries.

East African Farmers Federation (EAFF)

EAFF is a non-political, non-profit and a democratic apex organisation of all Framers of

Eastern Africa. Its role is to voice legitimate concerns and interests of farmers of the region

with the aim of enhancing regional cohesiveness and social-economic status of the farmers.

The Federation, apart from voicing views and demands of the farmers on crosscutting

issues will also endeavour to promote regional integration of the farmers through trade and

good neighbourliness. The Eastern African Farmers Federation was formed in 2001 and its

chapter registered in member counties. A prosperous and cohesive farming community in

Eastern Africa

6. Private Sector (COMESA Business Council)

The main private sector body for co-ordination with various policy organs of COMESA is the

COMESA Business Council. To enhance productivity, market linkages and private sector co-

ordination, COMESA continues to facilitate the operations and to work closely with private

sector producer association in various sectors. These include the Eastern and Southern

African Dairy Association (ESADA), the African Cotton and Textiles Federation (ACTIF), and

the East African Fine Coffees Association (EAFCA).

7. CSOs / INGOs/ Policy Networks / Think Tanks (FANRPAN)

Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN)

FANRPAN is a regional multi-stakeholder network established in 1997. It was formed in

response to a call by Agriculture Ministers in the Eastern and Southern Africa region for a

network that could provide independent evidence to inform policy harmonisation at

regional level. The network is representative of government, farmer organisations,

researchers, the private sector, Parliamentarians and the media. The network currently

works in 13 countries in Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius,

Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

8. Research Organisations (ASARECA)

The Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa

(ASARECA) is a non-political organisation of the National Agricultural Research Institutes

(NARIs) of ten countries: Burundi, D. R. Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar,

Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. It aims at increasing the efficiency of agricultural

research in the region so as to facilitate economic growth, food security and export

competitiveness through productive and sustainable agriculture.

86

9. Alliance for Commodity Trade in Eastern and Southern Africa (ACTESA)

The ACTESA was launched on September 24 2008 by the Common Market for Eastern and

Southern Africa (COMESA)’s Ministers of Agriculture. On June 9, 2009, ACTESA was

established by the Heads of State of COMESA (the COMESA Authority) as a Specialized

Agency to integrate small farmers into national, regional and international markets. ACTESA

responds to the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP)’s

Pillar II and III agenda, that seek to improve rural infrastructure and trade-related capacities

for market access and increase food supply, reduce hunger, and improve responses to food

emergency crises respectively. Consequently, ACTESA is the primary agency for achieving

the COMESA vision of increased regional integration and improved competitiveness of

staple food markets, leading to broad based growth and decreased food insecurity.

10. Development Partners

87

Annex 9: Priorities in National CAADP Compacts in COMESA countries

Country Priority Focus/ Strategic Priorities

Ethiopia

Compact signed on: 28

August 2009

• Adequately strengthen human resources capacity and its effective

utilization,

• Ensure prudent allocation and use of existing land,

• Adapt development path to different agro-ecological zones,

• Specialize, diversify and commercialize agricultural production,

• Integrate development activities with other sectors

• Establish effective agricultural marketing systems, and

• Promote sustainable natural resources management, particularly in the

context of climate change adaptation.

Malawi

Compact signed on: 19

April 2010

Focus areas for investment

• Food security and risk management

• Commercial agriculture, agro-processing and market development, and

• Sustainable agricultural land and water management

• Technology generation and dissemination

• Institutional strengthening and capacity building

• HIV prevention and AIDS mitigation

• Gender Equity and Empowerment

Rwanda

Compact signed on: 31

March 2007

• Food and nutrition security through the creation of an environment

favorable to income generation and the implementation of nutrition

interventions

• Modern, professional, innovative, and specialized agriculture, turning

farming into a profitable, all year round income generating activity;

• A market oriented and socially responsible agriculture, targeting

domestic, sub-regional, regional, and international markets;

• Fair distribution of benefits from all products resulting from different

stages of processing;

• Integrated and diversified agriculture that is friendly to the

environment.

Swaziland

Compact signed on: 4

March 2010

• Water and Irrigation Development Programme.

• Integrated Land Management Programme for Combating Land

Degradation

• Development of sustainable markets programme

• Establishment and rehabilitation of small livestock seed stock centres.

• Enhancing Dairy Productivity through capacity building, revitalization of

the dairy cattle breeding programme and establishment of an Artificial

Insemination (AI) centre

• Revitalizing small-scale crop production

• Promotion of sustainable feed and fodder production and utilization.

• Improving beef cattle productivity and establishing smallholder cow-calf

operations and feedlot

• Establishment of Agriculture Development Bank.

• Development of extension policy, implementation framework and

capacity building of Farmers and Extension Staff

88

• Improving agriculture information and data management systems

• Strengthening the early warning system and food emergency response

mechanism

• Rehabilitation of Ministry’s Rural Development Centres

• Development of a National Research programme and related

infrastructure.

Uganda

Compact signed on: 31

March 2010

Priority areas

• Enhancing sustainable production and productivity

• Improving access to markets and value addition

• Creating an enabling environment

• Institutional strengthening

Specific Objectives

• Ensure household and national food and nutrition security of all

Ugandans

• Increase incomes of farming households from crops, livestock, fisheries

and all other agriculture related activities

• Support stakeholder-led identification, development and dissemination

of value chains that are strategic and profitable and offer scope for

complementing general, broad-based development efforts

• Promote domestic regional and international trade in agricultural

products

• Ensure sustainable use and management of agricultural resources and,

help farmers to adopt climate change conditions

Burundi

Compact signed on: 24

August 2009

Goals and priorities for agricultural sector

• Increase efficiency in planning and mobilization of foreign aid to the

agriculture sector; and

• Development of a framework under which assistance can be increased

to meet the short and long term investment needs of the agricultural

sector.

Specific objectives and principles

• Meet MDG Objective 1 and go further to ensure food and nutritional

security for all citizens

• Adopt market and export led strategies

• Promote value addition, competitiveness and high quality across entire

value chains -

• Promote technical approaches that encourage: results based policy

strategies and implementation; exploitation of Information and

communication technologies for production, transformation

89

Annex 10: ECOWAS/ECOWAP CAADP Priorities

Priority Component 1 Component 2 Component 3 Component 4 Component 5

1 Promotion of strategic

products for food

sovereignty

Promotion of food commodities that contribute

to food sovereignty: millet/sorghum, maize and

rice, roots and tubers, fruit and vegetables, and

animal products.

This component 1includes (i) support to the

modernization of family farms and sustainable

intensification of production systems; (ii) the

development of irrigation, (iii) structuring and

organizing value chains; (iv) promoting the

processing and value addition of products,

Promotion of the livestock, meat

and milk value chains. This

component includes (i) supporting

the adaptation and securing of the

various livestock production

systems; (ii) the management of

movement of herds among

countries and the

prevention/regulation of conflicts

in the use of natural resources; (iii)

the restructuring and organisation

of marketing channels or value

chains; and (iv) the promotion of

processing and value addition to

products.

2 Promotion of an overall

environment favorable

to regional agricultural

development

Improving the business environment of agri-

food chains through (i) the promotion of

regional trade of food products; (ii) the

development of trade infrastructure suitable for

agricultural food products, and (iii) the

adaptation and implementation of new trade

provisions at the borders of the ECOWAS sub-

region,

Adaptation to climate change and

variability, and integrated

management of shared resources.

This component includes: i)

strengthening regional research on

climate change and its impacts on

production systems; and ii)

strengthening the capacity for

integrated management of shared

water resources.

Operationalization of an

information and decision

support system including i)

monitoring of the

environmental and

macroeconomic context; ii)

monitoring of agricultural

policies; iii) monitoring of

production systems and of

the food and nutritional

situation, and (iv) monitoring

of markets and trade

opportunities,

Strengthening

institutional and

human capacities

through three

complementary sub-

components: i)

regional support to

capacity strengthening

initiatives; ii)

strengthening the

coherence of regional

policies; and iii)

improving the

management of

ECOWAP/ CAADP.

3 Reduction of food

vulnerability and

promotion of sustainable

access to food

Definition of a regional approach to safety nets

for vulnerable populations, including support for

defining a common approach and intervention

instruments concerning access to food for the

poorest, in urban as well as in rural areas,

Adaptation of the vulnerability and

food-crisis-prevention monitoring

system.

Promotion of safety nets for

vulnerable urban populations,

Component 4:

Implementation of

targeted safety nets

for poor or vulnerable

rural populations,

Component 5:

Promotion of

regional

instruments for

food security.

90

Annex 11: Listing Consultation for COMESA Regional CAADP Compact

TARGETED CONSULTATIONS

Date Meeting Place Number of

Participants

1. 23 July 2009 Meeting with Donors: Discussions and

Consultations on CAADP

Zambia

2. Meeting with Donors Zambia

3. 29 January 2010 Donors’ Meeting: Discuss on COMESA

CAADP Compact

Pretoria, South

Africa

4. 4 June 2010 Development Partners/Donors Meeting

on COMESA Regional CAADP Compact

Nairobi, Kenya 20

SIDE MEETINGS

Date Main Meeting Place Number of

Participants

5. 14-15 March 2008 Fifth Meeting of the Ministers of

Agriculture, COMESA

Seychelles

6. 1-2 Feb 2009 Meet with COMESA to discuss CAADP

contract and meeting with the

Norwegian to Discuss Climate Change

Lusaka, Zambia

7. 26-27 March 2009 4th CAADP Partnership Platform Meeting Pretoria, South

Africa

8. 28-29 April 2009 CAADP Concepts Workshop Zambia

9. 11-15 May 2009 COMESA Ministers of Agriculture

Meeting

Harare,

Zimbabwe

10. 22 May 2009 ACTESA Work plan and CAADP Compact

Workshop

Livingstone,

Zambia

33

11. 17 – 19 June 2009 Support to Farmers’ Organisations in

Africa Programme (SFOAP)

12. 27th June 2009 CAADP Day/ 13th Ordinary Session of

The Assembly of the African Union

Covering the Theme: “Investing In

Agriculture for Economic Growth and

Food Security”

Tripoli, Libya

13. 29 – 30 July 2009 Eastern Africa Farmers Federation (EAFF)

Congress

Arusha

Tanzania

91

14. 30 – 31 July 2009 SACAU Strategic Framework Stakeholder

Consultation Workshop

South Africa

15. 24-25 Aug 2009 Burundi CAADP Compact signing Burundi

16. 31 Aug – 2 Sept 2009 COMESA: Ninth Meeting of the

Committee on Agriculture & The Second

Joint Meeting of the Committee on

Agriculture, Environment and Natural

Resources

Victoria Falls,

Zimbabwe

17. 31 Aug - 4 Sept 2009, FANRPAN Annual Regional Policy

Dialogue – Session 13 on CAADP and

Putting Farmers First

Maputo,

Mozambique

18. 5 – 6 October, 2009 Meetings at COMESA Secretariat Lusaka, Zambia

19. 29 Oct 2009 CAADP Compact Meeting Uganda

20. 9– 10 November 2009, 5th CAADP Partnership Platform Meeting Abuja, Nigeria 150

21. 3 December 2009, 2009 CAADP Africa Forum Nairobi, Kenya 174

22. 2-4 Dec 2009 CAADP Compact Meeting Nairobi, Kenya 30

23. 25-29 January 2010, ACTESA 3rd AAMP Regional Workshop

and Seminar

Maputo,

Mozambique

70

24. 21 Jan 2010 Meeting with the German Agency for

Technical Co-operation (GTZ)

Pretoria, South

Africa

2

25. 22 Jan 2010 CAADP Meeting with CAADP Team

[Jan Nijhoff, Sam Kanyarukiga , Steve

Haggblade]

Pretoria, South

Africa

4

26. 29 Jan 2010 Meeting with CIDA: Discuss COMESA and

its role with CAADP

[Ellen Hagerman]

Pretoria, South

Africa

2

27. 12-13 Feb 2010 COMESA/CAADP Compact Review

Meeting

Pretoria, South

Africa

28. 3-4 March 2009 Swaziland CAADP National Round Table

and the Compact Signing Conference

Ezulwini,

Swaziland

29. 23 -27 March 2010 Regional Policy Dialogue on Agricultural

Commodity Markets for Eastern and

Southern Africa – FARA Strategic

Meeting

Nairobi, Kenya

30. 12-14 April 2010 COMESA CAADP Focal Points Meeting Lusaka Zambia

31. 19 April 2010 CAADP Compact Signing Malawi 18

32. 22 – 23 April 2010 The 6th CAADP Partnership Platform

Meeting

Johannesburg,

South Africa

24*

33. 10-14 May 2010 ACTESA 3RD Stakeholders’ Meeting Lusaka, Zambia 131

92

34. 10-14 May 2010 CAADP Compact Side Meeting with DFID Lusaka, Zambia 4

35. 4 June 2010 COMESA CAADP Compact Process

Discussion/ Consultation

Nairobi, Kenya

COUNTRY VISITS

Country No Institution Name & Title of the

Person contacted Physical Address & Telephone

Contact

ETHIOPIA

36.

Ethiopian Women

Exporters

Association

MS Hadia, Chairperson P.O Box 25577 Adis Ababa

Tel. +251-0911-201230/0911-

502157

Email. hadiamg@yahoo.com

37.

Ethiopian Seed Producers

Association

MS Hadia, Board Member

and Director of Hadia Seed

Production Agro-industry

P.O Box 25577 Adis Ababa

Tel. +251-0911-201230/0911-

502157

Email. hadiamg@yahoo.com

38.

Ethiopia Association of

Agriculture Professionals

Dr. Solomon Bellete,

President

P.O Box 8617, Adis Ababa

Tel +251-(0) 11-6187983; Cel+251-

(0) 911-601987,

Sbbezu@ethionet.et

39.

Food and Agriculture

organisation of the

United

nations

Mr. Hassen Ali

Assistant FAO

Representative in Ethiopia

FAO of the United nations; P.O Box

5536, Addis Ababa; Tel.+251

115511398; Cel.+2519911402420;

Hassen.ali@fao.org

40. Ministry of Agriculture Mr. Sorsa Natea,

Coordinator,

Rural Economic

Development and Food

Security (RED &FS)

Ministry of Agriculture

Tel. +250 9114112981

Eml. sorssan@yahoo.com

Kenya

41. Ministry of Agriculture Humphrey M. Mwangi

Director Agriculture

P.O Box 20028-000100 Nairobi

Kenya, Tel +254 –(0)20-2716665

Email. Mwangih-06@yahoo.com

42.

Agricultural Sector

Co-ordination Unit

(ASCU)

Dr. Mussolini Kithome

Coordinator

P.O Box 30028-00100 Nairobi,

Kenya, Tel. +254 – (0) 20- 2046856/

3001373

43.

Ministry of Agriculture

Mr. John Mungai

Director Agriculture and

Planning

Ministry of Agriculture; P.O Box

30028, Nairobi; Tel+254-722-297330

44. Kenya Eastern Africa Farmers

Federation (EAFF)

Harriet Ssali

1st Vice President

Rwanda

45. Rwanda Bureau of

Standards (RDS)

Mark Bagabe

Director General, RDS

Rwanda Bureau of Standards

P.O Box 7099, Kigali

Tel.+256-788304197 ; Email.

markbagabe@yahoo.co.uk

46. Ministry of Agriculture

and Livestock

Alexandra Lowe

Technical Advisor,

Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock

93

47.

Ministry of Agriculture

and Livestock

Pelojie Mukayiranga

Director Finance and

Administration

Ministry of Agriculture and

Livestock, Kigali, Rwanda; Tel + 250

788448516 ;

mukaypelagie@yahoo.fr

48.

Cooperative

Development Agency

Damien Mugabo

General Manager

Cooperative Development Agency

B.P 6249, Kigali; Tel.+250

n788301599; mugabodam@yahoo.fr

Uganda 49.

Plan for Modernisation of

Agriculture

Dr. Godfrey Bahiigwa Plan for Modernisation of

Agriculture (PMA) Secretariat

50.

Uganda National Farmers

Federation (UNFFE)

Harriet Ssali

Treasure

UNFFE, Cell.+256-772450464

Email. harrietssali@yahoo.com

51. Association for

strengthening agriculture

research in eastern and

Central Africa (ASARECA)

Eldad Tumukaire

Deputy Secretary General

ASARECA Secretariat, Plot 5, Mpigi

Road/ PO Box 765, Entebbe, Uganda;

Tel +256414323314/

+2564143222593

NB. Actual ‘Lists of Participants’ for some of the meetings are available in the companion

document/compendium

94

Annex 12 Summary List of Stakeholders that can assist COMESA with CAADP

Implementation

Category Number of

Organisations Number of Individuals

STAKEHOLDERS

African Union 1 2

CSOs / Farmers’ Organisation 2 3

Development Partners 23 61

Government 20 25

INGO 8 16

Media 1 1

NGO 2 4

Private Sector 10 12

Regional Economic Communities 2 4

Research Institutions/Organisations 23 28

Sub-Total 92 156

WOMEN ORGNISATIONS

CSO 1 1

INGO 4 6

NGO 4 4

Research 2 2

Sub-Total 11 13

YOUTH ORGANISATIONS

CSOs / Farmers’ Organisation 3 3

INGO 13 17

NGO 4 4

Research 1 1

Sub-Total 21 25

OVERALL 124 194

NB. Actual List is of 124 organisations is available on the companion document/compendium

95

Annex 13: Listing of Organisations that have Agriculture and Agriculture-related MOUs

with COMESA

No. Signing Parties Agreed Programmes Areas Type of Organisation

1. COMESA-ACCA • Capacity Building in Finance Training Institution

2. COMESA- Dubai Customs International

(DCI)

• Trade

• Capacity Building

Customs Company

3. COMESA-UNESCO • Education, Science, Culture and

Communication

UN Agency

4. COMESA- The Eastern and Southern

Dairy Association (ESADA)

• Agriculture Commodities and

productivity

• Trade

• Agriculture Technology

• Capacity Building

• Public-private sector partnership

• Market Development

Farmer Organisation

5. COMESA-ECOWAS • Capacity Building

• Women in Business

• Public-private sector partnership

• Funding

• Technology & Trade

• Agricultural development and food

security

REC

6. COMESA-MDG,

Centre Nairobi

Kenya

• Policy Development

• Food security and nutrition

• Capacity building

UN Agency

7. COMESA-EAFF (Eastern Africa Farmers,

Federation)

Advocacy

Projects Implementation

Farmers’ Organisation

8. • Policy development

• Policy dialogue

• Agricultural information

9. COMESA-WCO World Customs

Organisation

• Trade International

Company

10. COMESA-ABF

Agriculture Business Forum

• Trade

• Capacity Building

• Agricultural development

• Funding assistance

• Policy Harminisation

• Agriculture information

Private Sector

11. PTA (COMESA)–UNCTAD • Trade UN Agency

12. COMESA-EAFCA

The Eastern African Fine

Coffees Association

• Public-private partnerships

• Agriculture productivity

• Technology development

• Capacity building

• Agriculture development

• Technology

Farmer Organisation

Farmers Organisation

96

No. Signing Parties Agreed Programmes Areas Type of Organisation

13. ECSAFA-COMESA • Research

• Policy harmonisation

• Markets

• Research and Development

• Capacity Building

• Funding

14. COMESA and the AU Commission • Policy harmonisation and

• Research

Continental Body

15. COMESA and Michigan State University

(MSU) Department of Agricultural

Economics

• Policy research

• Networking

• Policy development

Research Institution

16. AU Commission and RECs • Capacity building

17. COMESA - NORGES VEL The Royal

Norwegian Society for Development

• Information & Knowledge Management

• Agriculture development

• Capacity building

18. COMESA and CEN-SAD • Regional Integration

• Rural Development

• Trade and industry

• Policy harmonization

19. COMESA-CABI International • Capacity building

• Information

20. COMESA-IGAD Intergovernmental

Authority on Development

• Information exchange

• Policy harmonisation & Trade

• Capacity building

21. COMESA-AARDO the Afro-Asian Rural

Development Organisation , India

• Information

• Rural development

• Implementation of projects

22. COMESA-SACAU

( Southern African Confederation of

Agricultural Unions)

• Trade and agriculture

• Agriculture information

• Agricultural policy

Farmers’ Organisation

23. FRANRPAN - COMESA • Capacity building (Human and

institutional)

• Research

• Agriculture productivity

Research Network

24. World Food Programme (WFP)-

COMESA

• Food nutrition

• Food security

• Climate change adaptation

INGO

25. COMESA -ASARECA • Agriculture research Research Organisation

26. COMESA-EAC • Capacity building

• Funding

Continental Body

27. COMESA-EAC • Policy development

• Trade, Markets

• Research

• Capacity building

REC

28. COMESA and Commonwealth

Secretariat

• Capacity building

• Policy development

97

No. Signing Parties Agreed Programmes Areas Type of Organisation

• Trade development

29. COMESA and GCC (Gulf Co-operation

Council)

• Trade and Investment in agriculture and

infrastructure

• Facilitate implementation

30. COMESA and Michigan State University

(MSU) Department of Agricultural

Economics

• Policy harmonisation

• Research

• Food security

Research Institution

31. AU Commission and RECs • Capacity building RECs

32. COMESA - TUFTS University • Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E)

• Policy development

• Policy development (livestock)

• Research

Research Institution

33. COMESA- African Organisation for

Standardisation (ARSO)

• Capacity building

• Policy development

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Annex 14: Summary profile of the COMESA organs

1. The Authority

The Authority consists of the Heads of State or Government of the Member States. It is the

supreme Policy Organ of the Common Market and is responsible for the general policy and

direction and control of the performance of the executive functions of the Common

Market.

Subject to the provisions of the COMESA Treaty, the directions and decisions of the

Authority taken or given in pursuance of the provisions of this Treaty, shall as the case may

be, be binding on the Member States and on all other organs of the Common Market other

than the Court in the exercise of its jurisdiction, and on those to whom they may be

addressed to under this Treaty.

The directions and decisions of the Authority shall be notified to those to whom they are

addressed and shall take effect upon the receipt of such notification or on such date as may

be specified in the direction or decision.

The Authority meets once every year and may hold extraordinary meetings at the request

of any member of the Authority, provided that such a request is supported by one-third of

the members of the Authority.

Subject to the provisions of the COMESA Treaty, the Authority shall determine its own

Rules of Procedure. The decisions of the Authority shall be taken by consensus.

2. The Council

The Council of Ministers of the Common Market consists of such Ministers as may be

designated by each Member State.

The Council’s responsibilities are to:

I. monitor and keep under constant review and ensure the proper functioning and

development of the Common Market in accordance with the provisions of the

COMESA Treaty;

II. make recommendations to the Authority on matters of policy aimed at the efficient

and harmonious functioning and development of the Common Market;

III. give directions to all other subordinate organs of the Common Market other than

the Court in the exercise of its jurisdiction;

IV. make regulations, issue directives, take decisions, make recommendations and give

opinions in accordance with the provisions of the COMESA Treaty;

99

V. request advisory opinions from the Court in accordance with the provisions of the

COMESA Treaty;

VI. consider and approve the budgets of the Secretariat and the Court;

VII. consider what measures should be taken by Member States in order to promote the

attainment of the aims of the Common Market;

VIII. make staff rules and regulations and financial regulations of the secretariat;

IX. make recommendations to the Authority on the designation of Least Developed

Countries;

X. designate economically depressed areas of the Common Market; and

XI. exercise such other powers and perform such other functions as are vested in or

conferred on it by the COMESA Treaty.

Subject to the provisions of the COMESA Treaty, the regulations, directives and decisions of

the Council taken or given in pursuance of the provisions of the Treaty shall be binding on

the Member States, on all subordinate organs of the Common Market other than the Court

in the exercise of its jurisdiction and on those to whom they may under the Treaty, be

addressed.

The Council shall meet once a year immediately preceding a meeting of the Authority.

Extraordinary meetings of the Council may be held at the request of a Member State

provided that such a request is supported by at least one-third of the Member States.

Subject to any directions that the Authority may give and to the provisions of the Treaty,

the Council shall determine its own rules of procedure.

The decisions of the Council shall be taken by consensus, failing which by two-thirds

majority of the members of the Council. Where an objection is recorded on behalf of a

Member State to a proposal submitted for the decision of the Council, the proposal shall,

unless such objection is withdrawn, be referred to the Authority for its decision.

Regulations, Directives, Decisions, Recommendations and Opinions of Council

1. The Council may, in accordance with the provisions of the COMESA Treaty, make

regulations, issue directives, take decisions, make recommendations or deliver

opinions.

2. A regulation shall be binding on all the Member States in its entirety.

3. A directive shall be binding upon each Member State to which it is addressed as to

the result to be achieved but not as to the means of achieving it.

4. A decision shall be binding upon those to whom it is addressed.

5. A recommendation and an opinion shall have no binding force.

Reasons for Regulations, Decisions and Directives

100

Regulations, directives and decisions of the Council shall state the reasons on which they

are based and shall refer to any proposals or opinions which were required to be obtained

pursuant to the COMESA treaty.

Entry into Force of Regulations, Directives and Decisions of the Council

Regulations shall be published in the Official Gazette of the Common Market and shall enter

into force on the date of their publication or such later date as may be specified in the

Regulations.

Directives and decisions shall be notified to those to whom they are addressed and shall

take effect upon the receipt of such notification or on such date as may be specified in the

directives or decisions.

3. The Court of Justice

Reference by Member States

A Member State which considers that another Member State or the Council has failed to

fulfill an obligation under the COMESA Treaty or has infringed a provision of the Treaty,

may refer the matter to the Court.

A Member State may refer for determination by the Court, the legality of any act,

regulation, directive or decision of the Council on the grounds that such act, regulation,

directive or decision is ultra vires or unlawful or an infringement of the provisions of this

Treaty or any rule of law relating to its application or amounts to a misuse or abuse of

power.

Advisory Opinions of the Court

The Authority, the Council or a Member State may request the Court to give an advisory

opinion regarding questions of law arising from the provisions of this Treaty affecting the

Common Market, and the Member States shall in the case of every such request have the

right to be represented and take part in the proceedings.

A request for an advisory opinion under paragraph 1 of this Article shall be made in writing

and shall contain an exact statement of the question upon which an opinion is required and

shall be accompanied by all relevant documents likely to be of assistance to the Court.

Upon the receipt of the request under paragraph 1 of this Article, the Registrar shall

forthwith give notice thereof, to all the Member States, and shall notify them that the Court

shall be prepared to accept, within a time fixed by the President, written submissions, or to

hear oral submissions relating to the question.

101

In the exercise of its advisory function, the Court shall be governed by the provisions of the

COMESA Treaty and the Rules of Court relating to references of disputes to the extent that

the Court considers appropriate.

4. The Committee of Governors of Central Banks

The Committee of Governors of Central Banks shall consist of the governors of the

monetary authorities designated for that purpose by the Member States.

The Committee of Governors of Central Banks shall:

I. be responsible for the development of programmes and action plans in the field of

finance and monetary co-operation;

II. monitor and keep under constant review and ensure the proper implementation of

the programmes and plans adopted pursuant to the provisions of Chapter Ten of

this Treaty on Monetary and Financial Co-operation;

III. for the purposes of sub-paragraphs (I) and (II) of this paragraph, request the

Secretary-General to undertake specific investigations;

IV. consider reports and recommendations from the Technical Committee on Finance

and Monetary Affairs;

V. submit from time to time, reports and recommendations to the Council concerning

the implementation of the Finance and Monetary Co-operation programme; and

VI. have such other functions as are conferred upon it by or under the COMESA Treaty.

Subject to any directions which may be given by the Council, the Committee of Governors

of Central Banks shall meet once a year and shall, subject to the COMESA Treaty, determine

its own Rules of Procedure.

5. The Intergovernmental Committee

The Intergovernmental Committee shall consist of such Permanent or Principal Secretaries

as may be designated by each Member State.

The Intergovernmental Committee shall:

a. be responsible for the development of programmes and action plans in all

the sectors of co-operation except in the finance and monetary sector;

b. monitor and keep under constant review and ensure proper functioning and

development of the Common Market in accordance with the provisions of

the COMESA Treaty;

c. oversee the implementation of the provisions of the COMESA Treaty and for

that purpose may request a Technical Committee to investigate any

particular matter;

102

d. for the purposes of sub-paragraph (a) of this paragraph, request the

Secretary General to undertake specific investigations;

e. submit from time to time either on its own initiative or upon the request of

the Council reports and recommendations to the Council; and

f. have such other functions as are conferred upon it by or under the COMESA

Treaty.

Subject to any directions which may be given by the Council, the Intergovernmental

Committee shall meet once a year and shall, subject to the COMESA Treaty, determine its

own Rules of Procedure.

6. The Technical Committees;

The Technical Committees of the Common Market shall be the following:

a. The Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Matters;

b. The Committee on Agriculture* ;

c. The Committee on Comprehensive Information Systems*;

d. The Committee on Energy;

e. The Committee on Finance and Monetary Affairs;

f. The Committee on Industry*;

g. The Committee on Labour, Human Resources and Social and Cultural Affairs;

h. The Committee on Legal Affairs;

i. The Committee on Natural Resources and Environment*;

j. The Committee on Tourism and Wildlife*;

k. The Committee on Trade and Customs*; and

l. The Committee on Transport and Communications*.

*TENCHNICAL COMMITTEES THAT WILL IMPORTANT FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF CAADP

The Technical Committees shall be composed of representatives of the Member States

designated for that purpose. The Council may establish such additional Technical

Committees as may be necessary for the attainment of the objectives of this Treaty. The

Technical Committees shall meet as often as necessary for the proper discharge of their

functions and shall determine their own Rules of Procedure.

Functions of the Technical Committees

Each Technical Committee shall:

a) be responsible for the preparation of a comprehensive implementation programme

and a time-table prioritising the programmes with respect to its sector;

b) monitor and keep under constant review the implementation of co-operation

programmes with respect to its sector;

103

c) for the purposes of paragraphs (a) and (b) of this Article request the Secretary

General to undertake specific investigations;

d) except for the Committee on Finance and Monetary Affairs which shall submit its

reports and recommendations to the Committee of Governors of Central Banks,

submit from time to time reports and recommendations to the Intergovernmental

Committee, either on its own initiative or upon the request of the Council,

concerning the implementation of the provisions of this Treaty; and

e) have such other functions as are assigned to it by or under this Treaty.

7. The Secretariat and the Secretary-General

The Secretariat shall be headed by a Secretary-General of the Common Market who shall be

appointed by the Authority to serve in such office for a term of five years and shall be

eligible for reappointment for a further term of five years.

The Secretary-General shall be the chief executive officer of the Common Market and shall

represent the Common Market in the exercise of its legal personality.

There shall be, in addition to the Secretary-General, two Assistant Secretaries-General who

shall be appointed by the Authority, and such other staff of the Secretariat as the Council

may determine.

The terms and conditions of service of the Secretary-General and the Assistant Secretaries-

General shall be determined by the Authority. The terms and conditions of service of the

other staff of the Secretariat shall be determined by the Council.

In appointing staff to offices in the Secretariat, regard shall be had, subject to the

paramount importance of securing the highest standards of integrity, efficiency and

technical competence, to the desirability of maintaining the principle of equal opportunities

and an equitable distribution of appointments to such offices among citizens of all the

Member States.

In the performance of their duties, the Secretary-General and Assistant Secretaries-General

and the staff of the Secretariat shall not seek or receive instructions from any Member

State or from any other authority external to the Common Market. They shall refrain from

any actions which may adversely reflect on their position as international officials and shall

be responsible only to the Common Market.

Each Member State undertakes to respect the international character of the responsibilities

of the Secretary General, Assistant Secretaries-General and the other staff of the

Secretariat and shall not seek to unduly influence them in the discharge of their

responsibilities.

104

The Secretary-General shall:

a. service and assist the organs of the Common Market in the performance of

their functions;

b. submit reports in consultation with the Intergovernmental Committee on

the activities of the Common Market to the Council and the Authority;

c. subject to the provisions of this Treaty, be responsible for the administration

and finances of the Common Market;

d. submit the budget of the Common Market to the Intergovernmental

Committee;

e. act as the secretary to the Authority and the Council;

f. ensure that the objectives set out in this Treaty are attained and shall, either

on his own initiative or on the basis of a complaint, investigate a presumed

breach of the provisions of this Treaty and report to the Council in

accordance with an investigative procedure to be determined by the Council;

g. keep the functioning of the Common Market under continuous examination

and may act in relation to any particular matter which appears to merit

examination either on his own initiative or upon the request of a Member

State where appropriate and report the results of his examination to the

Member State or the organ of the Common Market concerned;

h. subject to the provisions of this Treaty submit references to the Court

concerning the alleged breach of any obligation under this Treaty in relation

to the Common Market or as to any action or omission affecting the

Common Market;

i. promote the adoption of joint positions by the Member States in multilateral

negotiations with third countries or international organisations;

j. on his own initiative or as may be assigned to him by the Authority or the

Council, undertake such work and studies and perform such services as

relate to the aims of the Common Market and to the implementation of the

provisions of this Treaty; and

k. for the performance of the functions conferred upon him by this Article,

collect information and verify matters of fact relating to the functioning of

the Common Market and for that purpose may request a Member State to

provide information relating thereto.

The Member States agree to co-operate with and assist the Secretary-General in the

performance of his functions and agree in particular to provide any information which may

be requested under sub-paragraph (k) of this Article.

There may be established, such sub-regional offices or branch offices of the Secretariat in

the Member States as the Council may determine.

105

8. The Consultative Committee of the Business Community and Other Interest

Groups

The Consultative Committee shall consist of such representatives, of the business

community and other interest groups from the Member States as the Consultative

Committee shall determine. The representatives may be accompanied by such experts and

advisors as the Consultative Committee may deem necessary for its effective functioning.

The composition of the Consultative Committee shall be determined at a first meeting

which shall be convened by the Secretary-General for that purpose.

The Consultative Committee shall provide a link and facilitate dialogue between the

business community and other interest groups and other organs of the Common Market.

The Consultative Committee shall:

a) be responsible for ensuring that the interests of the business community and other

interest groups in the Common Market are taken into consideration by the organs

of the Common Market;

b) be responsible for monitoring the implementation of the provisions of Chapters

Twenty Three and Twenty Four of this Treaty and make recommendations to the

Intergovernmental Committee;

c) consult and receive reports from other interest groups; and

d) take part in the meetings of the Technical Committees and may make

recommendations to the Intergovernmental Committee.

The Consultative Committee shall meet as often as necessary for the proper discharge of its

functions and shall determine its own Rules of Procedure.

106

Annex 15: Profile of Proposed Implementation Institution

CONTINENTAL LEVEL

Platform Name Objectives

1 CAADP Partnership

Platform

• To facilitate a constructive consultation, dialogue and exchange

among senior level representatives of African governments,

development partners, the business sector, farmers’ organisations,

and civil society organisations (including professional associations) on

CAADP implementation, as well as on the broader strategic issues

facing African agriculture;

• To review lessons and good practices as well as challenges in the

implementation of the CAADP as a framework to support the

identification, design, and implementation of national and regional

agricultural policies and programmes

• To facilitate advocacy and building of a common understanding

for increased buy-in and rallying effective CAADP-based partnerships

in support of African agriculture;

• To facilitate and support alignment and harmonisation of

development partners’ actions, options and commitments that are

undertaken to support priority CAADP efforts and investments;

• To take stock of the types of assistance provided and CAADP

accomplishments achieved through the MDTF and related support

mechanisms;

To provide a forum for mutual-review of progress with CAADP

implementation based on the overall CAADP M&E indicators and the

Mutual Accountability Framework.

2 CAADP Africa Forum This process generated best practice tools to support and accelerate

implementation including;

• The development of a Step-by-Step CAADP Implementation Guide

designed to effectively elaborate and assist the country CAADP Teams

and other stakeholders to understand the value addition of the

framework to their existing national programmes.

• The integration of knowledge relating to the CAADP Pillars and their

cross-cutting issues conducted by African knowledge centres. This will

feed directly into the country Round Table Processes through the

Regional Economic Communities thereby strengthening these national

processes.

• The convening of various platforms such as the CAADP Partnership

Platform, which is a mechanism for aligning African and foreign

partners behind implementation of CAADP.

Specific objectives of the 2009 CAADP Africa Forum were:

• Facilitate the exchange between countries of best practices in making

the vulnerable take part in agriculture development and agriculture-

based economic activities;

• Advance the country’s agricultural agenda in support to the poorest

part of the population via CAADP implementation looking at next

steps regarding the uptake or upscaling of ‘best-fit’ practices shared at

the forum;

• Help country’s use the CAADP framework as an instrument in

supporting the poorest at country level by enabling them to enter into

economic agricultural activity;

107

• Enable CAADP Pillar Lead Institutions (especially Pillar III) to

disseminate their knowledge with respect to making agriculture

development work for the poorest;

• Enable CAADP Pillar Lead Institutions (especially Pillar III) to learn from

best practices to further sharpen their role in guiding the continent’s

agriculture agenda

3 NEPAD Steering

Committee Meeting

• Mobilise expertise to support country programme preparation

• Ensure quality and alignment to CAADP and national priorities

• Facilitating RECs to engage to strengthen political ownership

• Deepen bilateral & multilateral support and co-ordination within

countries in alignment with CAADP agenda

• Facilitation of quality assurance of entire process including alignment

of emergency responses to CAADP and country development Goals

• Brokering and leveraging additional financing and expertise

4 CAADP Day The purpose of CAADP Day to showcase the CAADP. CAADP Day is an

inclusive dialogue platform bringing together African political leaders,

CAADP Champions, farmers and civil society organisations, the private

sector, think-tank institutions, representatives from the Diaspora and the

development partners.

The principal objectives of the CAADP Day are:

• To facilitate a principled dialogue between state and non-state actors,

national and international stakeholders, in firmly establishing CAADP

as the framework for country-driven development of the agricultural

sector;

• To highlight, and help deepen, the involvement of farmers’

organisations, private business entities and Africa’s academic and

research institutions in the CAADP process;

• To reaffirm the commitments of African governments and

international development partners to the provision of co-ordinated

support to CAADP implementation at country and regional levels;

• To enlighten, through exhibitions, participants and the public on the

engagement of African stakeholders in different CAADP-related

activities and programmes and

• To publicise CAADP and the work of key CAADP partners and national

–level practitioners especially those from countries that have signed

CAADP Compacts / showed progress in implementing CAADP.

REGIONAL

1 COMESA Secretariat The Secretary-General shall:

b) service and assist the organs of the Common Market in the

performance of their functions;

c) submit reports in consultation with the Intergovernmental Committee

on the activities of the Common Market to the Council and the

Authority;

d) subject to the provisions of this Treaty, be responsible for the

administration and finances of the Common Market;

e) submit the budget of the Common Market to the Intergovernmental

Committee;

f) act as the secretary to the Authority and the Council;

g) ensure that the objectives set out in this Treaty are attained and shall,

either on his own initiative or on the basis of a complaint, investigate a

presumed breach of the provisions of this Treaty and report to the

Council in accordance with an investigative procedure to be

108

determined by the Council;

h) keep the functioning of the Common Market under continuous

examination and may act in relation to any particular matter which

appears to merit examination either on his own initiative or upon the

request of a Member State where appropriate and report the results

of his examination to the Member State or the organ of the Common

Market concerned;

i) subject to the provisions of this Treaty submit references to the Court

concerning the alleged breach of any obligation under this Treaty in

relation to the Common Market or as to any action or omission

affecting the Common Market;

j) promote the adoption of joint positions by the Member States in

multilateral negotiations with third countries or international

organisations;

k) on his own initiative or as may be assigned to him by the Authority or

the Council, undertake such work and studies and perform such

services as relate to the aims of the Common Market and to the

implementation of the provisions of this Treaty; and

l) for the performance of the functions conferred upon him by this

Article, collect information and verify matters of fact relating to the

functioning of the Common Market and for that purpose may request

a Member State to provide information relating thereto.

2 Consultative

Committee of the

Business Community

and Other Interest

Groups -

Composition and

Functions

The Consultative Committee shall provide a link and facilitate dialogue

between the business community and other interest groups and other

organs of the Common Market. The Consultative Committee shall:

(a) be responsible for ensuring that the interests of the business

community and other interest groups in the Common Market are taken

into consideration by the organs of the Common Market;

(b) be responsible for monitoring the implementation of the provisions of

Chapters Twenty Three and Twenty Four of this Treaty and make

recommendations to the Intergovernmental Committee;

(c) consult and receive reports from other interest groups; and

(d) take part in the meetings of the Technical Committees and may make

recommendations to the Intergovernmental Committee.

3 Technical

Committee on

Agriculture Meetings

Functions of the Technical Committees:

f) be responsible for the preparation of a comprehensive

implementation programme and a time-table prioritising the

programmes with respect to its sector;

g) monitor and keep under constant review the implementation of co-

operation programmes with respect to its sector;

h) for the purposes of paragraphs (a) and (b) of this Article request the

Secretary General to undertake specific investigations;

i) except for the Committee on Finance and Monetary Affairs which shall

submit its reports and recommendations to the Committee of

Governors of Central Banks, submit from time to time reports and

recommendations to the Intergovernmental Committee, either on its

own initiative or upon the request of the Council, concerning the

implementation of the provisions of this Treaty; and

j) have such other functions as are assigned to it by or under this Treaty.

4 Intergovernmental

Committee

The Intergovernmental Committee shall:

b) be responsible for the development of programmes and action plans

in all the sectors of co-operation except in the finance and monetary

109

sector;

c) monitor and keep under constant review and ensure proper

functioning and development of the Common Market in accordance

with the provisions of the COMESA Treaty;

d) oversee the implementation of the provisions of the COMESA Treaty

and for that purpose may request a Technical Committee to

investigate any particular matter;

e) for the purposes of sub-paragraph (a) of this paragraph, request the

Secretary General to undertake specific investigations;

f) submit from time to time either on its own initiative or upon the

request of the Council reports and recommendations to the Council;

and

g) have such other functions as are conferred upon it by or under the

COMESA Treaty.

5 Sectoral Ministerial

Meeting: Agriculture

Consider and take decisions on technical sector issues not having

budgetary implications

Decisions of the Sectoral Meetings shall take effect and shall be endorsed

at the next meeting of the Council of Ministers

6 COMESA Council of

Ministers

The Council’s responsibility is to:

a) monitor and keep under constant review and ensure the proper

functioning and development of the Common Market in accordance

with the provisions of the COMESA Treaty;

b) make recommendations to the Authority on matters of policy aimed

at the efficient and harmonious functioning and development of the

Common Market;

c) give directions to all other subordinate organs of the Common Market

other than the Court in the exercise of its jurisdiction;

d) make regulations, issue directives, take decisions, make

recommendations and give opinions in accordance with the provisions

of the COMESA Treaty;

e) request advisory opinions from the Court in accordance with the

provisions of the COMESA Treaty;

f) consider and approve the budgets of the Secretariat and the Court;

g) consider what measures should be taken by Member States in order

to promote the attainment of the aims of the Common Market;

h) make staff rules and regulations and financial regulations of the

secretariat;

i) make recommendations to the Authority on the designation of Least

Developed Countries;

j) designate economically depressed areas of the Common Market; and

k) exercise such other powers and perform such other functions as are

vested in or conferred on it by the COMESA Treaty.

7 COMESA Authority

(Heads of State and

Government)

The Authority consists of the Heads of State or Government of the

Member States. It is the supreme Policy Organ of the Common Market and

is responsible for the general policy and direction and control of the

performance of the executive functions of the Common Market.

Subject to the provisions of the COMESA Treaty, the directions and

decisions of the Authority taken or given in pursuance of the provisions of

this Treaty, shall as the case may be, be binding on the Member States and

on all other organs of the Common Market other than the Court in the

exercise of its jurisdiction, and on those to whom they may be addressed

to under this Treaty.

110

Annex 16: Summary Profile of Sub-Regional Organisations

Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions (SACAU)

SACAU is a regional farmers’ organisation that was established in 1992. Its membership is open to national

farmers’ unions and regional commodity associations in Southern Africa. It is involved in agricultural

development in the region by strengthening the capacities of farmers’ organisations, by providing a collective

voice for farmers on regional and international matters, and by providing agriculture related information to its

members and others stakeholders. Membership of SACAU is open to bona fide national farmers organisations

and regional commodity producer associations in Southern Africa, provided such organisations represent

farmers on a voluntary basis, are reasonably representative of farmers in the relevant country or Southern

Africa, are autonomous and legitimate farmer controlled organisations, are independent of political parties,

and share common values with SACAU. Currently SACAU membership spans 16 national agriculture unions (or

commodity organisations) in 11 African countries: Botswana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Namibia,

Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

East African Farmers Federation (EAFF)

EAFF is a non-political, non-profit and a democratic apex organisation of all Framers of Eastern Africa. Its role

is to voice legitimate concerns and interests of farmers of the region with the aim of enhancing regional

cohesiveness and social-economic status of the farmers. The Federation, apart from voicing views and

demands of the farmers on crosscutting issues will also endeavours to promote regional integration of the

farmers through trade and good neighbourliness. The Eastern African Farmers Federation was formed in 2001

and its chapter registered in member counties. A prosperous and cohesive farming community in Eastern

Africa

The EAFF is a regional organisation that is supposed to attract membership from Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia,

Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and Congo DRC. The membership to the federation are

supposed to be Country Apex peasants and producers organisations that are either lobby Farmers Unions,

commodity associations; Producer Cooperatives, women and youth organisations. Currently EAFF has

membership from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Congo and Rwanda.

Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA)

The Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA) is a non-

political organisation of the National Agricultural Research Institutes (NARIs) of ten countries: Burundi, D. R.

Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. It aims at increasing the

efficiency of agricultural research in the region so as to facilitate economic growth, food security and export

competitiveness through productive and sustainable agriculture.

Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN)

FANRPAN is a regional multi-stakeholder network established in 1997. It was formed in response to a call by

Agriculture Ministers in the Eastern and Southern Africa region for a network that could provide independent

evidence to inform policy harmonisation at regional level. The network is representative of government,

farmer organisations, researchers, the private sector, Parliamentarians and the media. The network currently

works in 13 countries in Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia,

South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM)

The Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM), a consortium of 25

universities in Eastern and Southern Africa, was established in 2004. The consortium originally operated as a

program of the Rockefeller Foundation from 1992. RUFORUM has a mandate to oversee graduate training and

networks of specialization in the following countries: Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania,

Malawi, Zambia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Burundi, Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland. Specifically, RUFORUM

recognizes the important and largely unfulfilled role that universities play in contributing to the well-being of

small-scale farmers and economic development of countries throughout the Sub-Saharan Africa region.

111

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