COMING UP!>>Ep.70 (Season 4, Ep.5) | 12th CAADP Meeting: Matters Arising Around Africa’s Agriculture when the AU is in Accra

Episode #70

(Season 4; Ep.5):  

12^th CAADP Meeting: Matters Arising Around Africa’s Agriculture when the AU is in Accra

We continue Season 4 STILL on the theme of “making money for Africa”.

We started the Season with the Creative Economy, and concluded that Film, more than any other cog in the Creative Economy wheel, was probably the most dominant within that Economy.

In episode 2, we appreciated how, if managed properly, Sports could become the biggest employer in Ghana, the sub region, and the Continent.

Episode 3 saw us beginning to unpack customer service, concluding that, Ghana can achieve an “insanely customer-centric culture” as seen in the West, but it takes exposure and training of frontline staff to do that.

Last week, we revisited the topic of East Africa and its rise for the fourth time, concluding East Africa continues to rise, so it’s time in West Africa, we tweaked what has been working in that region and emulated it.

Today we are revisiting the issue of Africa’s agriculture for the third time. 

In Ep.32 (Season 2), we had our first discussion on the continental compact of CAADP.

Our earlier discussions last year had centred on the role of organisations like AgriPro, which are doing great things around the youth and agric. In 2015, the focus was necessarily continental, with a focus on what synergies can be created between the AU’s Continental CAADP Programme and the CAADP Country Teams, which are critical in the implementation of CAADP – especially at a time when CAADP has entered the next stage of Implementation and Strategy with a view to a 2025 goal.

In episode 70, we still stick with the Continental – not least because the AU is in town for the 12^th CAADP Platform meeting.

The meeting in question – this year’s 12^th Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) – is underway at La Palm Royal Beach Hotel here in Accra.

Organized by the AU Commission and NEPAD on the theme “Innovative Financing and Renewed Partnership to Accelerate CAADP Implementation”, the meeting is an annual continental Forum that seeks to bring together stakeholders in African agriculture.

This 12^th CAADP Meeting further-seeks to highlight how best to accelerate the implementation, through financial innovation and partnerships, for delivering the Malabo Declaration and the African Union Agenda 2063.

This meeting has a specific focus on helping build a shared understanding of country and regional needs and expectations to roll out the Implementation Strategy and Roadmap, including launching efforts to form technical partnerships to align with and support implementation.

CAADP faces new implementation challenges that will require evolving partnerships, including those that seek to integrate major initiatives and flagship efforts now in place that will help target the Malabo declaration.

In today’s edition, we will be speaking to Dr. Aggrey of FARA Secretariat here in Accra who will help unpack the meeting; its objectives; and the future for Africa’s agriculture.

Join us if you can at 2.05pm on 13 April, 2016.

Call us on the following numbers

+233(0)289.000.931

Guiding questions

1.   Why is the 12th  CAADP Partnership Platform meeting (on the theme “Financing African Agriculture and Implementation Support for Accelerated Agriculture Growth and Transformation.”) taking place at this time? Is it a follow-up of an earlier meeting? What's the objective?

2.   Malabo is supposed to be about implementation of CAADP: how central is financing for CAADP?

3.   How central is the private sector in scaling up the discussions on CAADP?

4.   What is the expected contribution of research and innovation; and leading institutions like FARA and the Sub-regional organisations in the implementation of Malabo?

Guests in the studio:

Ø Dr. Aggrey, Director for Corporate Partnerships and Communication; Forum for Agriculture Research in Africa (FARA Secretariat), Accra

   

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AFRICA NEWS BULLETIN @ 20h00 -- 2 February, 2016

AFRICA NEWS BULLETIN @ 20h00

2 February, 2016

Radio XYZ93.1FM

Lead Producer: E.K.Bensah Jr

Assistant Producer/Presenter: Joshua Quodja-Mensah

STORIES

1.       FOCUS: Ugandan Agri-business Expert Says Agriculture Can Help Create Jobs and Wealth in Africa

2.       EAST AFRICA: RwandAir Selects Ethiopian Airlines as Strategic Partner

3.       CENTRAL AFRICA: Newly-introduced Talk-time Tax to Fetch Cameroon CFA10billion

4.       WEST AFRICA: West & Central Africa to Meet over Terrorism

5.       NORTH AFRICA: While Warning Against Military Intervention, AU re-launches Libya Peace Drive

1.                   FOCUS:

Agribusiness Expert Dr.Alex Ariho believes Africans should begin making profit from Africa’s agriculture.

Ariho is Facility Coordinator of UNIBRAIN, which is a system that brings four actors – human capital; research institutions; private sector; and African governments – to work collectively in an enabling environment that will help make money for Africans working in the agricultural sector.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with E.K.Bensah Jr for “Africa in Focus”, he explained the rationale behind UNIBRAIN, and why Africans must be interested. In his view, “the unique value-proposition of UNIBRAIN is the connection of the key four actors that are required to provide the framework and the transitional path upon which agriculture can cause change in terms of jobs and wealth creation.”

Trying to connect the dots on the conversation of Africa’s agriculture for the last four years has been the Accra-based technical arm of the African Union – Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA). Ariho says people are tired of ideas, and now want action – especially on agriculture. This is where FARA has stepped in.

Ariho says “with support from DANIDA…and the institutional framework and support of the African Union, FARA spearheaded the implementation of this model to be able to create a business case to Africans: how do you create jobs, and how do you create wealth?” To this end, incubators were established in the following countries: Zambia; Uganda; Kenya; Ghana; and Mali in 2012 to provide an opportunity on how this can work in Africa.

Since 2011 to date, UNIBRAIN has been able to chalk successes with the six initial incubators, with 10,000 jobs being created.

Pressed to elaborate on what UNIBRAIN actually is, this is what Dr.Ariho said [AUDIO]:

That was Dr.Alex Ariho speaking exclusively to E.K.Bensah Jr.

2.                   EAST AFRICA:

The national carrier of Rwanda – RwandAir – has selected Ethiopian Airlines as a strategic partner.

This follows the airline’s decision to sell the 49% stake for a partner to invest in the airline; manage it; and offer technical assistance.

Only two Airlines – Ethiopian Airlines and Ethihad Airways – were among the international airlines that have shown interest in RwandAir’s offer.  CEO Tewolde Gebremariam told the Ethiopia Reporter that a fortnight ago, a RwandAir delegation went to Addis Ababa and informed the selection of Ethiopian Airlines as a strategic partner.

This strategic partnership by Ethiopian Airlines with RwandAir makes it the third African airline after ASKY and Malawi Airlines. This development also means that Kigali will also become Ethiopian’s fourth hub after Addis Ababa, Lome and Lilongwe.

3.                   CENTRAL AFRICA:

A newly-introduced tax on talk-time in the Central African country of Cameroon could fetch a comfortable FCFA10bn (US$16,317) for the country’s internal revenue.

Established by the 2016 Finance Bill, the tax on telephone communications and internet services for which telephone operators and internet access providers are now liable, ought to generate revenue in excess of USD10, 000 during the first year of its enforcement.

The authorities say in addition to binding Cameroon to the regulatory measures which this tax establishes in the CEMAC regional area, the new telephone communications and internet services licence fee will enable the Cameroonian Public Treasury to obtain more benefits from the development of the telco and internet sectors of Cameroon.

4.                   WEST AFRICA:

Reeling from terrorist attacks in the Sahel, and fearful of his country being one of the next targets, Senegalese President Macky Sall has disclosed to Xinhua news agency that a regional summit will soon bring together ECOWAS States and those of the Economic Community of Central African States(ECCAS).

This meeting will be followed by a tripartite meeting between Africa, China and France to consolidate efforts in the fight against terrorism. Sall disclosed this in a recent interview on the sidelines of the just-ended AU Summit.

This is not the first time both ECOWAS and ECCAS have had a joint summit to tackle mutual concerns. The first time was in June 2013 when the two regions met over maritime insecurity. In 2015, the two regions would meet to discuss Boko Haram.

5.                   NORTH AFRICA:

The Libyan peace drive has received renewed support with the decision by the African Union to appoint a new task force comprising five heads of State, which sole objective will be to push the political process and the formation of a Government of National Accord.

The just-ended AU Summit ended with a call by the continental organisation saying it was deeply concerned that Islamic State was gaining ground in two-State Libya.  While the heads of State in the new Libya Task Force remain unnamed, the AU has appointed a new special envoy to Libya in the name of former Tanzanian president Jakaya Kikwete. He replaces Djibouti premier Dileita Mohamed Dileita.

Libya has been on the back-burner of international peace and security efforts for a one-State Libya for a while. The former President of Tanzania’s appointment could just give the peace process the visibility it so urgently needs.

Let’s take a quick look at who this new AU Envoy is. Kikwete was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1995 to 2005 under his predecessor Benjamin Mkapa. He also served as Chairperson of the African Union in 2008-2009 and Chairman of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Troika on Peace, Defence and Security in 2012-2013.

As of 4 April 2013, Kikwete was the sixth most followed African leader on Twitter with 57, 626 followers. As of today, he has 386K followers.

ENDs

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COMING UP!>>32nd Edition: Africa’s Agriculture: the Compelling Impetus of CAADP for Africa’s Integration

32^nd Edition:  

Africa’s Agriculture: the Compelling Impetus of CAADP for Africa’s Integration

We want to use the thirty-second edition of the Africa in Focus show to reprise the very critical discussion of Africa’s agriculture.

Our earlier discussions last year had centred on the role of organisations like AgriPro, which are doing great things around the youth and agric. This year, the focus is necessarily continental, with a focus on what synergies can be created between the AU’s Continental CAADP Programme and the CAADP Country Teams, which are critical in the implementation of CAADP – especially at a time when CAADP has entered the next stage of Implementation and Strategy with a view to a 2025 goal.

From 2013 through to mid-2014, all AU Member States were involved in ministerial meetings, including being involved in eighteen months of consultations at the national, regional, and continental level, to draw up the AU Heads of State and Government Malabo Declaration on Accelerated Agricultural Growth and Transformation for Shared Prosperity and Improved Livelihoods. The Declaration made no less than seven specific commitments to achieve agricultural growth and transformation for shared prosperity and improved livelihoods, including: upholding 10% public spending target; and sustaining annual agricultural GDP at least 6%.

Even more remarkable, however, is how commitments such as the operationalisation of the African Investment Bank; and fast-tracking of the Continental Free Trade Area (by 2017) find themselves as part of the targets. This makes for interesting conversations around how agriculture can continue to cross-cut through African integration dynamics and become a fully-fledged compelling impetus for Africa’s transformative growth.

These dynamics are part of what will animate discussions around Africa’s agriculture for which reason we are happy to speak to two members of Ghana’s CAADP Country Team; an official of the technical arm of the AU Commission; and finally, a technical expert of the West Africa Agricultural Productivity Programme (WAAPP), which is the closest we have come to speaking to the issue of agriculture/CAADP at the regional level. Our efforts to grant an interview to the DG of the Agriculture and Food Agency in Lome, Mr.Salifou, proved futile.

Remarkably, all the organisations we are speaking to on 17 February have one thing in common: they are all linked to CAADP’s Pillar IV.

Now while “Pillar IV” sounds like part of a typical address in Ghana, when located in the context of Africa’s agriculture, it means a whole lot as it refers to agricultural research and technological dissemination and adoption of CAADP.

Join us if you can at 1pm on 17 February, 2015.

Guiding questions

• Why are CAADP Country Teams critical in the implementation of CAADP?
• FARA has been around for 12 years in Ghana. Why has it found it difficult resonating with the Ghanaian public around agriculture?
• How consistent with CAADP implementation is the FARA Strategic Plan 2014-2018?
• What are the synergies between CAADP and WAAPP?

Guests in the studio:

Ø  Kingsley Ofei-Nkansah, Secretary-General, General Agricultural Worker’s Union(GAWU)

Ø  Marjorie Abdin, CAADP Country Team Member

Ø  Mr.Demby, Communications Officer/CAADP Rep, Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa(FARA)

On the line:

·        Dr.Alphonse Belane , West Africa Agricultural Productivity Programme(WAAPP) @13h20