Accra, Ghana, March 20th 2019: The Continental Training Workshop of the Malabo Declaration Biennial Review Reporting tools, within the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Framework, opened on Monday. The five day training is meant to train AU Member States on the new CAADP Biennial Review Technical Guidelines; on the new online Data Entry Tool of the “e-BR” and to agree on the Coordination Mechanism and Continental Roadmap for submitting the second Biennial Report to the AU Assembly in January 2020.

The AU 2014 Malabo Declaration and recommitment to the principles of CAADP by African Heads of State and Government heightened the importance of the agriculture sector as a driver towards shared prosperity and improved livelihoods. They committed to ‘Mutual Accountability to Results and Action,’ and innovatively agreed to a biennial review of agricultural progress made against the Malabo Declaration. The Inaugural Biennial Review (BR) Report and Africa Agriculture Transformation Scorecard adopted by the January 2018 AU Heads of State and Government Summit now offers a unique tool for peer learning in order to accelerate agriculture transformation on the continent.

Opening the training on behalf of Ghana’s Minister of Food and Agriculture, Chief Director at the Ministry, Mr. Robert Ankobiah said the inaugural BR report was a wake-up call for the continent and in particular Ghana; and reiterated Ghana’s commitment to the second BR. “Mutual accountability, peer review and learning are key to achieving the Malabo goals,” he said.

The Biennial Review has demonstrated the importance of CAADP as a continental framework that provides benchmarks for member states to drive their Agriculture Transformation agenda
“While we continue to celebrate this big achievement as a continent, we are aware of the need to invest in data systems through a well-designed, transparent mechanism which will in turn, trigger evidence based planning and implementation at all appropriate levels and deliver the results in support of smallholders, youth and women and achieve the expected agricultural growth and transformation in Africa,” said Ernest Ruzindaza, AUC’s CAADP Team Leader.

The Malabo Declaration on Accelerated Agricultural Growth and Transformation for Shared Prosperity and Improved Livelihoods was adopted by African Union Heads of State and Government in June 2014 at the 23rd Ordinary Session of the AU Assembly. It commits AU leaders to a set of actions that will accelerate agricultural growth and transformation across Africa.

To ensure mutual accountability and to institutionalize a system for peer review that encourages good performance on achievement of progress made in implementing the provisions of the Declaration, the AUC was tasked to conduct a review on a biennial basis, the progress achieved by its member states in securing their CAADP and Malabo Declaration commitments. A country led inclusive data collection, data analysis, and reporting process built on 43 indicators of the 7 Malabo thematic areas together with the instruments was conducted, 51 Member states participated in the regional training while 47 submitted their report compiled in the Inaugural CAADP Biennial Review Report.

During the five days training, the participants will undergo a thorough review of the performance indicators captured under the various Performance Themes captured in the Technical Guidelines for reporting. The workshop will further provide the participants a first-hand experience with the e-BR, which aims to support the BR process through an online platform to streamline the reporting by the AU member states. It builds on the existing reporting architecture of the BR including three tiers of reporting from countries, RECs and the AUC.
For more information contact:

Mr. Maurice Lorka
Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture
N’Guessanp@africa-union.org

Communications Contact:
Ms. Carol Jilombo
Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture
Jilomboc@africa-union.org