COMESA implementing CAADP and establishment of CAADP Partnership Platform
1. CAADP Partnership Platform Meeting held in Midrand, South Africa, September 29–30, 2006
Background
The proposal to establish the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme Partnership Platform (CAADP-PP) was a key recommendation of last year’s consultative process on the implementation of the CAADP agenda involving Regional Economic Communities (RECs), national governments, private sector and farmer organisations, and development partners. The need for the Platform was reaffirmed at the meeting of the African Partnership Forum taking place in Maputo, Mozambique in May 2006.
The CAADP Partnership Platform is to be a multi-partner, continent-wide mechanism for coordination, mutual review, and dialogue, and a complement to other CAADP related co-ordination mechanisms which currently exist, or are to be established at the regional and country level. It is a response to the perceived need for a senior level mechanism with a continent-wide perspective to ensure effective monitoring of overall progress and facilitate the necessary coordination of efforts for a successful implementation of the CAADP agenda at all levels. The benefits of such an arrangement include reduced transaction costs to national governments and other participating financing institutions as well as ensuring more consistent understanding of CAADP objectives and operational modalities across the different groups of actors and levels of implementation.
The NEPAD Secretariat organised the first CAADP Partnership Platform (CAADP-PP) meeting held in Midrand, South Africa on September 29 and 30, 2006. The CAADP-PP will play an important instrument in defining collective commitment in taking CAADP to the country level (see article at right).
Main outcome is a concrete Action Plan for accelerating the implementation of CAADP, and the identification of the need for a communication strategy to advocate the aim of CAADP. The CAADP-PP will serve as a mechanism for coordination, mutual review and dialogue throughout the implementation of CAADP and will be held twice a year.
Overall objective of the meeting was to foster and accelerate CAADP implementation, specified as follows:
- To analyse the state of CAADP implementation and its challenges
- To agree on options and measures to accelerate CAADP implementation
- To identify support mechanisms and process to make CAADP more efficient and effective
- To agree on modes of communication and reposting within CAADP
- To clarify indicators for success of CAADP process
- To elaborate the role and function of the CAADP partnership
The workshop identified five key challenges for supporting CAADP implementation, and identified the following actions and next steps:
- Further development of pillars for implementation
Specific actions identified for NEPAD Secretariat, RECs, AU and donors. Donors shall contribute technically as stakeholders to advance progress with the Pillar processes. Is the framework robust and credible enough to attract support and resources?
- Implementation capacity
Issues: Unclarity of Roles among all actors, weak capacity and insufficient real commitment to CAADP
Action: Advocacy plan is being elaborated.
Message to Donors: Donor support alignment - Donors to clarify their (intended) capacity building support at next meeting and should establish common depository of support information.
- Coordination and alignment
Issues: better alignment and coordination between RECs, NEPAD Secretariat and donors. Call for better donor coordination to support country processes.
- Country implementation
Developing template for roundtable discussions, strengthen Pillar II
- Clarity on framework versus programme in CAADP
Issues: CAADP is a partnership, it is a tool, operating at different levels; understanding for that is lacking Actions:
i) developing a communications strategy, led by NEPAD Secretariat, dissemination over Website and partners, targeting Heads of State, Ministers and possible partners
ii) developing progress reports on milestones and indicators
Please also read the  workshop documentation which is not to be understood as a final synthesised report but rather as capturing the workshop output in a non-interpreted way and documenting the results of the working groups and plenary sessions.
2. First COMESA CAADP Focal Point Meeting held in Lusaka, Zambia on August 28-29, 2006
The first meeting between the Country Focal Points for the CAADP implementation within the member-states of the  Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa COMESA, which is one of the major African Regional Economic Communities (RECs), focused on:
- Status of COMESA Regional CAADP Compact design and implementation;
- Activities leading to the launch of the Rwanda CAADP Roundtable;
- Activities leading to the launch of CAADP in the rest of COMESA;
- Role of CAADP focal points;
- Actions to quicken CAADP implementation in COMESA, and
- Modalities for upscaling proven agricultural technologies.
The event was opened by the acting COMESA Secretary General, Ambassador Nagla El Hussainy. Her speech provides a summary of the upcoming activities and processes. She outlines the importance of the CAADP partnership in which cooperating partners must play a crucial and critical role in assisting member States in identifying the gaps and providing the required sectoral investments. Furthermore she stresses that the private sector has to be encouraged to play a greater role and the constraints holding it back from investing in the region have to be addressed.
“Our target is to complete all design and consultative work and sign a concrete regional agreement with all our partners by December 2006”, she says. “In the coming year 2007, we want to see full implementation of the CAADP framework at the regional level.”
Later on, the Lead Coordinator of CAADP, Dr. Cris Muyunda, informed in his presentation about:
Status of the COMESA CAADP Regional Compact design and implementation
The Regional Compact is to be the High Level Agreement between COMESA and its development partners for the focused implementation of CAADP in the region and will comprise programs and projects that partners can buy into.
By December 2006 the Regional Compact is to be signed to be implemented throughout 2007.
Country level implementation of CAADP
May – November 2006: Complete Initial 6 Roundtable Processes (Stock Taking)
- Malawi: October 19 – 20 (tbc)
- Zambia: November 3 (tbc)
- Kenya: November 23 (tbc)
June 2007: Complete all Roundtables in COMESA
July 2007: National Level Implementation of CAADP initiated
December 2007: First performance reports under CAADP both at the national and regional level
Next Steps
- Finalisation of regional compact concepts and distribution to key stakeholders
- Agreement with national focal points on initiation of country roundtable process
- National focal point persons lead country level design/stock taking process
- COMESA fully implementing CAADP by July 2007
Read as well two examples of the broad media coverage this event generated, from The Times of Zambia and The Zambia Broadcasting Network Corporation.
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