The 2014 Malabo Declaration on Accelerated Agricultural Growth and Transformation for Shared Prosperity and Improved Livelihoods expresses firm recommitment toward attaining an agriculture revolution in Africa. This recommitment arose as a result of the progress made and lessons learnt in the implementation of earlier AU Decisions and Declarations, most notably the 2013 Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security in Africa.
Based on this realisation, the African Leaders, meeting in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea on 26-27June 2014, made a special commitment to “Mutual Accountability, Actions and Result” (Commitment VII). Worthy of noting under this special commitment, is the focus on: biennial reviews of progress through the processes of tracking, monitoring and reporting; multi-sectorial coordination of peer reviews, mutual learning and mutual accountability processes; and strengthening institutional capacity and data generation for evidence-based planning, implementation and monitoring. This commitment is what has necessitated the African Union Commission and the NEPAD Planning and Coordination Agency to develop an implementation strategy and roadmap that facilitates translation of the Malabo Commitments on agriculture into concrete results and impacts.
The AU Commission and NEPAD are, therefore, pleased that the Implementation Strategy and Roadmap (IS&R) is now in our hands. This document has come as a result of extensive consultations with key relevant stakeholders including the Validation Workshop with Member States and other stakeholders in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia held in November 2014. We want to thank all those who have contributed to the development of this document .
Needless to mention, the IS&R is intended to be a working document to guide in developing action plans along the outlined Strategic Areas. It is, therefore, our exigent wish that in the same spirit that our Heads of State and Government have expressed urgency in producing results and impact, through a ‘revolutionised’ African agriculture, this document should NOT be taken as ‘another document’, but ‘the document’ we need to help us implement the necessary actions, produce results and impact, as well as ‘mutually account’ for our different committed actions.