" [1]Kinshasa, 17 March 2010 -The African Union Commission (AUC) has signed a Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Program (CAADP) country compact agreement with the DRC. The event took place on Thursday, 17 March 2011, in Kinshasa, in the presence of Mrs. Rhoda Peace Tumusiime, AUC Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture; Mr. Simon Bulupiy, Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Posts and Telecommunications of the DRC, Mr. Stephen Karangizi, Assistant Secretary General of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), as well as representatives of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), international organizations and private sector.
During the compact signing event, which was preceded by a daylong roundtablediscussion, the AUC was one among other key signatories that included COMESA, development partners, representatives of civil society, and the private sector.
The preceding roundtable discussion focused on how to take the CAADP principles forward. In line with that the government of the DRC is expected to meet the renewal of commitment by the AU heads of state and government and mainly the Maputo Declaration calling for allocation of at least 10% of national budgets to agriculture for accelerating growth to a minimum of 6% per year, which is sufficient for effective poverty reduction.
“Experiences in the countries that have signed compacts and those still involved in country roundtables have shown that CAADP has come as a political and a social movement, because CAADP requires the collective engagement and advocacy of all of us who have the development of Africa’s agriculture at heart. Equally importantly, CAADP is also a technical movement, where the best evidence available to the country is utilized intelligently to inform agricultural and food security programming in ways that are both broad-based and equitable in their impact and growth propelling in orientation”, said Mrs. Tumusiime in her statement.
She also added that an important product of the social, political and technical engagement with CAADP is the compact signing, which is an expression of commitment to see through the refinement and implementation of priority areas identified as part of the various technical and analytical activities done. (the complete speech of the Commissioner is available on: www.africa-union.org [2]).
President Joseph Kabila Kabange, President of the DRC in his statement read out by Mr. Bulupiy, mentioned the objectives of the roundtable discussions such as; clarifyingthe parameters of a long-term public, private and partnership in the rural agriculture sector; specifying the main commitments from the government and development partners; and clarifying the expected contribution coming from the other sectors to ensure a better implementation of the CAADP agenda.
According to Mr. Bulupiy, the long term vision and commitment of the government of DRC, which is stated on the growth and poverty reduction strategic document, is to bring the country into the intermediate level and achieve the objective of the MillenniumDevelopment Goals (MDGs).
The Assistant Secretary General of COMESA said “the success of CAADP relies upon our leaders to sustain their individual and joint responsibilities and to provide the necessary direction required to accelerate implementation. He recalled that the last COMESA joint Meeting of Ministers on Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment, which took place in Lusaka on 15thJuly 2010 was an occasion at which the Ministers recommended the need to ensure that all COMESA countries enhance CAADP implementation at country level.
In this regard, Mr. Karangizi reported that COMESA has taken firm steps in the recent past in speeding up the process in order to ensure that all member countries, at least, sign their compacts and finalize their National Agriculture Investment Plans (PNIA) before the end of 2011.
Initiated by the AUC-NEPAD, CAADP was put in place during the Maputo Summit in 2003, with the vision of redefining the future of African Agriculture by accelerating economic growth, minimizing poverty, and enhancing food security.
