November 2, 2022 (ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia): The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), with the support of AUC/AUDA-NPAD and Alliance for Food a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), organised a two-day Regional Dialogue event during 1st to 2nd November 2022, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The main objective of the Meeting was to disseminate the 3rd CAADP Biennial Report (BR report) among its Member States and to discuss and operationalise the recommendations contained in the report as well as explore gaps in preparation for the next BR report.
The Meeting was officially opened by Mr. Zena Habtewold, Director of the Resource Mobilisation Division and CAADP Focal Person at the Ministry of Agriculture of Ethiopia. Mr. Zena welcomed and requested participants for an open and candid discussion on the reasons for the slow progress towards achieving the benchmark scores of the BR and also requested countries to learn from each other on how to improve progress at the national level.
Representatives of IGAD, AUC, and Chair-country of IGAD (Sudan) also gave opening remarks.
“As the dialogue over the current BR report continues, the process of developing the 4th BR should start”, Mr. Daher Elmi, Director of Agriculture and Food Security at IGAD, indicated at the Meeting.
The AUC representative outlined the progress and challenges of the CAADP BR processes so far and the lessons learned for future processes.
Dr. Murtada Khalid, on behalf of the IGAD Chair, emphasized the need for more and active participation of the private sector at all stages of the BR process.
The progress, challenges, and recommendations of the 3rd BR at the regional and national levels were presented and thoroughly discussed. Most countries are below the average scores for most commitments, commonly identified weaknesses in the BR reports, including limited cooperation among different national institutions, insufficient data collection, and analysis resources, and the absence of a database system.
The Meeting, therefore, stressed the need for AU and RECs regional experts to support member states in going deep into the data collection and analysis process. The participants recommended that some countries just starting the CAADP BR process, such as South Sudan and Somalia, may require more support and attention. The Meeting also recommended establishing/strengthening CAADP clusters for each of the seven Malabo commitments.
For post 3rd BR report and in preparation for the 4th one, it was agreed that IGAD Secretariat coordinates its support to member states in capacity building, resource mobilisation, inclusive national dialogue, and coordination mechanism for quality data collection.
Participants also noted that livestock and fisheries are important resources for IGAD Member States and should be given increased attention.
The Meeting brought together participants from IGAD member states and other CAADP-related organisations such as the AUC, AGRA, FAO, EAC, and COMESA. IGAD is a Regional Economic Community, and the Member States are Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Sudan, and Uganda.
