Tanzania makes substantial progress towards meeting CAADP commitments
The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) is an initiative of the African Union (AU) within the context of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). The CAADP provides a framework for African countries to achieve economic growth and food security through the transformation of the agricultural sector. It reflects the commitment of African leaders to a broad-based agricultural development by directing the necessary resources to the sector and involving a wide range of stakeholders, but with a strong African leadership.
CAADP was endorsed by the heads of state and government of the AU in the Maputo Declaration of July 2003. One of the major resolutions taken by the heads of state and government was to effect policy changes that would improve agricultural and rural development in Africa. These included African governments’ commitment in the allocation of at least 10 percent of national budgetary resources for agriculture and rural development. Since the endorsement of CAADP, various African countries have been attempting to align their programmes and implement targets set under the CAADP framework.
CAADP has increasingly recognised the importance of commercialisation alongside concerns about food security. This underscores the need for research to identify the opportunities and challenges that different pathways of agricultural commercialisation offer for poverty reduction, empowerment and improved food and nutrition security in different contexts.
APRA involvement
The relevance of APRA programme to CAADP is in providing research-based evidence to fill information gaps for CAADP’s monitoring framework. APRA is undertaking in-depth research on the impact of ongoing and emerging processes of commercialisation in African agriculture.
Ntengua Mdoe, on behalf of the APRA-Tanzania research team, visited the National CAADP Secretariat in Dodoma on 11th February 2020. The purpose of the visit was to create additional awareness of the APRA programme, and specifically, to brief the Secretariat on APRA research activities in Tanzania. Ntengua held talks with the leader of the Secretariat, Mrs Daines Phillip Mtei and shared APRA brochures (English and Swahili versions), and planned to share more information concerning research findings and policy briefs.
Following the briefing about the APRA programme research activities in Tanzania, Daines promised to collaborate with APRA researchers in the future, such as by inviting them to meetings to share their research findings with various stakeholders.
Tanzania Food Security Investment Plan (TAFSIP)
Daines emphasised that Tanzania has made efforts to comply with CAADP commitments since the signing of the CAADP Compact in July 2010. Subsequently, the TAFSIP was developed and launched in July 2011. The TAFSIP was designed to enhance the implementation of CAADP, mobilise financial resources and allocate them to different activities in the agricultural sector. The implementation of the CAADP process and framework in Tanzania is coordinated by a secretariat of four people in the ministry responsible for agriculture. They are supported by 20 individuals from ministries responsible for livestock, land issues, health, investment and representatives of non-state actors lead by the Agricultural Non-State Actors Forum (ANSAF) in Tanzania with working groups around investment areas in agriculture.
CAADP country reports
A country’s compliance with the CAADP commitments is assessed biannually, said Daines, using a report prepared by the country in question. The report covers seven themes with a total of 47 indicators. The themes are linked to the extent of the country’s commitment to the CAADP process including; investment finance in agriculture, access to agricultural inputs and technology, eradication of poverty through agriculture, intra-African trade in agriculture, resilience to climate change and mutual accountability for actions and results.
Tanzania’s progress
According to Daines, Tanzania has made substantial progress towards meeting her CAADP commitments. The country’s performance in achieving the required CAADP milestones has improved from 3.1 out of 10 points in 2017 to 5.2 out of 10 points in 2019. Despite the improvement, the score is below the benchmark of 6.66 which is the minimum score for a country to be on track. Only four (4) countries were above the benchmark during the 2019 assessment.
Written by Ntengua Mdoe, PRA-Tanzania
Cover image: Tractor in Tanzania, from Flickr. Credit: Ed Hawkesworth/DFID