AFRICA AGRICULTURE STATUS REPORT 2016

• How many African centers of knowledge have
recognizably and substantively contributed to any major
CAADP technical documents and reports?
• Have any African centers of knowledge been given the
space and opportunity to grow and emerge as leaders in
any technical area of CAADP?
An important principle in the enhancement of technical and
institutional capacities is to adhere to the subsidiarity principle
and focus on fostering the required capacities at every level
that is political leadership, advocacy, mobilization of technical
and financial capacities at continental level, coordination
capacities at the regional level, and planning and execution
capacities at the country level. If properly established and
governed, the technical networks would be well positioned to
bring together global and local expertise to play the necessary
catalytic role.
Strengthening Participation of Non-state actors
Significant progress has been achieved in the area of nonstate
actor participation in CAADP at large. AUC, NPCA,
RECs and countries have now solidly embraced the value
of inclusiveness. The non-state actor community also has
to be commended for its perseverance and capacity to
mobilize and engage. The focus of all parties now should be
on finding space to strengthen the capacities of non-state
actors to effectively participate and to further empower the
CNC and its member organizations. For instance, CNC and
its members, including farmer organizations, could play
a more substantive role in the MA area by going beyond
simple participation to co-ownership of the review and
dialogue processes.
As leaders of a continental steering committee set up to
oversee ReSAKSS and the production of its ATOR, AUC and
NPCA have made plans to give civil society organizations
a leading role in the review of the CAADP implementation
progress and performance. The idea was for civil society
organizations to organize broad discussion among all key
stakeholders at the continental, regional, and country levels
around the main M&E findings presented in the ATOR and
draw lessons to improve implementation. CNC should now
take the lead in implementing the plan, which should be
adapted to the current modalities of policy and program
review and dialogue. For instance, CNC and its members
are participants in the JSR, but their contribution could be
expanded by defining and supporting a more prominent
role for them in the review and dialogue processes. One
possibility is for CNC to lead an annual, continental level
review process to assess the findings of each ATOR.
This could build on the recently signed Memorandum
of Understanding between ReSAKSS and CNC. At the
regional and country level, CNC and its members should
be empowered to undertake their own assessments to
make a more substantive contribution to review processes.
The growing number of countries with regular JSRs, the
initiation of regional level JSRs led by ECOWAS, and
the upcoming biennial review all provide opportunities for
increased leadership and more substantive participation of
non-state actors in the CAADP agenda.
Strengthening Mutual Accountability Mechanisms
MA is central to the promotion of evidence-based policy
planning and implementation, a key feature of the CAADP
agenda. Tremendous progress has been achieved
here, from the creation of an entire infrastructure, as in
the case of ReSAKSS, dedicated to facilitating review,
benchmarking, and peer learning, the establishment of
the CAADP PP as a platform for dialogue, the systematic
practice of submitting country investment plans to review
by independent experts, to the mainstreaming of JSRs at
the country and now regional levels.
A few areas need improvement. This includes further
mainstreaming of review and dialogue instruments such as
the JSRs to reach all countries and improve their practice
to make them more technically robust, comprehensive
in coverage and inclusive of all major non-state actors.
The quality of JSRs can be strengthened by setting up
independent teams to provide independent analysis of
progress and carry out field visits to verify implementation
progress. JSRs would also need to adjust the nearly
exclusive focus on country programs and effectively address
issues related to improving and modernizing private sector
activities and practices in general and not just focusing on
investment commitments on a self-reporting basis. Similarly,
programs by development partners need to be covered more
systematically by ensuring their alignment and consistency
with country programs and by improving the quality of
coordination among development partner agencies.
Experience on the ground also shows that good mutual
accountability requires clear modalities for the elaboration
and implementation of action plans, which is not always
the case. If these modalities are not in place, returns to the
investment in review and dialogue processes in terms of
improved policies and programs and better development
outcomes can be undermined. Appropriate articulation
between country JSR and the biennial review will provide
an opportunity to strengthen the reporting and to follow
modalities of country processes by incorporating feedback
loops into the sequencing of regular reviews.
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