Policy LINK Supports the African Union Commission's Efforts to Bolster Stakeholder Engagement
Policy LINK has engaged more than 200 youth organizations across Africa, asking about their participation in the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) and policymaking processes more broadly.
African countries are currently experiencing one of the worst food and hunger crises in decades. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, 278 million people faced hunger in 2021. In 2022, the number of people experiencing acute food insecurity spiked—by 60 percent in East Africa and 40 percent in West Africa—in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s war on Ukraine.
As these numbers make clear, the need to sustainably strengthen Africa’s food and agriculture systems is more urgent than ever. While the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) provides a strong framework for improving food security and nutrition, many countries are not on track to meet their commitments under the 2015 Malabo Declaration, which include ending hunger, halving poverty, and increasing agricultural investment.
One way to help countries meet their commitments is by strengthening collaborative, multi-stakeholder approaches, which are increasingly recognized as a key element of strong, effective policy systems. This is especially true for agricultural policy systems, as the sector’s performance broadly affects food security, employment, resilience, and development. While the CAADP framework emphasizes collaboration, dialogue, joint action, and resource pooling across the government, private sector, civil society, and research and academic communities, in practice, stakeholder engagement is limited and inconsistent. Non-state actors such as farmer groups, the private sector, youth, women, and parliamentarians, in particular, have largely been left out of CAADP processes.
In 2022, the number of people experiencing acute food insecurity spiked—by 60 percent in East Africa and 40 percent in West Africa—in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s war on Ukraine.
As the African Union Commission (AUC) begins thinking about the post-Malabo CAADP agenda, it is looking for promising strategies to improve stakeholder engagement and strengthen multi-stakeholder collaboration. Policy LINK is supporting the AUC’s efforts by assessing the gaps, opportunities, and lessons learned under CAADP. The Activity is also mapping key agriculture sector actors, networks, and platforms, as well as their activities and how they interact. To date, Policy LINK has solicited input from more than 200 policy actors, including members of the research and academic communities, regional economic communities, the private sector, development partners, and civil society, using surveys and focus group discussions. The initial findings highlight the need to incentivize greater private sector participation in CAADP, enhance institutional structures for engaging non-state actors, and better align country priorities with CAADP (and other continental) commitments.
Policy LINK is also assessing the engagement of youth—Africa’s largest demographic group—in CAADP and agricultural policymaking processes. Youth could play a decisive role in transforming the agricultural sector, especially as it is under increasing pressure to adopt new technologies and meet higher social and environmental standards. But youth participation in the sector is quite low. To understand why, Policy LINK has engaged more than 200 youth organizations across Africa, asking about their participation in CAADP and policymaking processes more broadly. The Activity’s findings will inform the development of a continental youth consortium in agriculture and climate change that can effectively advocate youth interests in CAADP and other global food system initiatives such as the United Nations Food Systems Summit.
Strengthening Africa’s food and agriculture systems will require the creativity and commitment of all sector stakeholders. With Policy LINK’s analysis, the AUC will be better positioned to encourage and institutionalize strong multi-stakeholder collaboration in its post-Malabo CAADP agenda.
Resources
Listening to Youth-Led Organizations on Climate Change and Africa’s Agricultural Development