ActionAid, African Union Commission and ONE Campaign held a high level panel discussion as part of the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). The event provided opportunity to review the contributions and potential of African farmers, especially smallholder farmers (women and youths) in confronting and overcoming hunger and poverty on the continent.
The panel discussion was part of the main AU summit agenda on Youth, Agriculture and Food Security for the Future aimed at reviewing current policy positions, challenges and opportunities for smallholder women and youth farmers in the continent.
The event began with a press briefing with the media on the theme ' celebrating the African farmer’ with Biranchi Upadhyaya ActionAid International Director of Programmes, Dr Moyo Director of ONE Africa and Dr Abebe, Director Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture. The AUC explained that indeed as we celebrate the African farmer, we do want to look into the past, present and look at the future with zeal and preparedness to do better for the continent. He further elaborated on the AU’s 2063 agenda which is to maximize the gains so far achieved in the past whilst paying attention to negatives so that we can build on them. He said key among them are Youth in agriculture, empowering women smallholder farmers not as labourers but as entrepreneurs with equal opportunity as their men counterparts. Dr. Moyo on her part also reiterated the same points echoed by Dr. Abebe but she however emphasized on the commitments of Maputo and need for our leaders to meet that expectation. She said it is sad that only a handful of countries (less than 10 out of 54) were able to the 10% budget allocation. On his part Biranchi, re-echoed similar sentiments quoting from the ActionAid’s fair share reports that, often times both donors and governments alike do not recognize farmers own investments, and he indicated that moving forward as recommended by our report we need to pay a particular attention around 10% commitment with timelines on when the government’s will achieve that , he also recommended that the African Union going into the year of food security and agriculture, the “Right to Food” should be adopted and CAADP should ensure that right to food forms the core of its deliverable, he also emphasized the participation of Non-State Actors (NSA) in the CAADP process especially women to ensure their issues are appropriately captured.
Mr. Biranchi Updhyaya, ActionAid International Programme Director said:
The ‘Fair Shares’ principles recognising smallholder farmers own investment in agriculture and food security promoting investments and policies that supports women and youths is key to tackling the challenges faced by smallholders in the agriculture value chain.