15 ADVANCING AFRICAN AGRICULTURE
(28841)
12190/07
COM(07) 440
| Commission Communication: Proposal for continental and regional level cooperation on agricultural development in Africa
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Legal base |
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Document originated | 24 July 2007
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Deposited in Parliament |
30 July 2007 |
Department | International Development
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Basis of consideration |
EM of 13 August 2007 |
Previous Committee Report |
None |
To be discussed in Council
| To be determined |
Committee's assessment | Politically important
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Committee's decision | Cleared; relevant to any debate on EU-Africa development cooperation
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Background
15.1 This is a Proposal from the European Commission, for approval
by the Council and the European Parliament, on continental and
regional-level cooperation on agricultural development in Africa.
It builds on the European Consensus and the EU Strategy for Africa,
both of which state that agriculture and rural development is
crucial for reducing poverty and stimulating growth.
15.2 It is helpfully summarised in the 13 August
2007 Explanatory Memorandum from the Parliamentary Under-Secretary
at the Department for International Development (Mr Gareth Thomas).
The Commission Communication
15.3 The Minister says that the paper outlines the
principles and key areas for European Union (EU) and African Union
(AU) cooperation, focusing on the regional and continental levels,
and sets out to provide a long-term framework for assistance and
create a better environment for the development of agriculture,
working primarily through African institutions. EU cooperation
will, he says, be closely aligned with Africa's agricultural agenda,
and will aim to stimulate progress towards the Millennium Development
Goals.[68]
15.4 The main partners will be the AUC (African Union
Commission),[69] NEPAD
(New Partnership for Africa's Development)[70]
and RECs (Regional Economic Communities).[71]
Cooperation will support their policy analysis, monitoring, peer
review and advocacy, as well as their roles in building the capacity
of national organisations. Regional farming organisations will
form another group of partners.
15.5 Cooperation will be based on the following principles:
commitment
to the Millennium Development Goals, with specific reference to
the 1st (eradicating extreme poverty and hunger) and 7th (ensuring
environmental sustainability) MDG;
alignment with African priorities, based
on the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme
(CAADP)[72] process principles
and targets;
donor harmonisation and alignment, following
the principles of the Paris Declaration;[73]
building on other AU-EU Partnerships
and Facilities, complementing EU initiatives which support rural
development in Africa, and using existing Africa-Europe partnerships;
drawing lessons from relevant EU experiences
and good practice;
application of subsidiarity, supporting
only those regional and continental functions that add value to
national-level interventions; and
policy coherence, between the EU's development
policies and its agriculture, fisheries, trade, consumer and energy
policies.
15.6 The Minister says that EU-AU cooperation will
"focus on seven areas, based on the main challenges to agriculture
in Africa, and African priorities reflected in the CAADP"
and "foster a more strategic and effective role for the state
in agriculture. The priority areas are:
Agriculture
in Development Strategies,
addressing the need for agriculture as a sector that is
vital for economic growth and poverty reduction to be
an integral and strategic part of development;
Sector Governance, where improved
governance in the agriculture sector is expected to contribute
to a smoother transition of smallholder farming towards commercially
viable and sustainable family-based agriculture;
Research, Knowledge Systems and Dissemination,
to increase the impact of agricultural research and knowledge
systems on rural productivity, poverty reduction, food security
and sustainable management of natural resources, taking into account
challenges posed by climate change;
Trade facilitation, emphasising Quality
Assurance and Improvement, to strengthen Africa's ability
to make markets work for poverty reduction, focusing on regional
markets for agricultural produce;
Natural Resource Management: Land,
Fisheries and Forestry, for improvements in governance and
in management regimes for the use of sustainable natural resources;
Livestock Development and Disease
Control, with an emphasis on strengthening knowledge and systems
for the control of animal diseases; and
Risk Management, for reducing
risk related to climate change, natural disasters and price shocks."
15.7 He goes on to explain that coordination of the
EU-Africa agricultural development cooperation will have three
dimensions: with African institutions; with other donor coordination;
and intra-EU.
"Coordination with African institutions
will use the CAADP framework under the leadership of continental
and regional organisations, with a central role for AUC/NEPAD.
The CAADP initiative contains a set of principles and targets
in order to (i) guide country strategies, (ii) enable regional
peer learning and review, and (iii) facilitate greater alignment
and harmonisation of development partners.
"The CAADP Partnership Platform is the core
mechanism for coordinating the involvement of all development
partners at the continental level. Donor alignment around CAADP
will be enhanced by the Global Donor Platform for Rural Development
(GDPRD),[74]
of which the EU and various Member States are members. The GDPRD
will act as donor focal point for CAADP, and will assist in organising
the CAADP Partnership Platform Meetings.
"Coordination within the EU will be reinforced
through a proposed EU working group on African agriculture reporting
to the Development Cooperation Working Group, technically supported
by the Centre for the Development of Agriculture (CTA).
"Progress in implementing CAADP and in cooperation
on agricultural development will be monitored predominantly at
the CAADP Partnership Platform and the African Partnership Platform
(APF)."
The Government's view
15.8 The Minister says that the Government "recognise
the need for and are supportive of" an EU strategy on African
agriculture that "strengthens Europe's coordination on agricultural
development in Africa and enhances internal coordination within
the Commission", and that "a better aligned and harmonised
response will help Africa to achieve its goal of agriculture-led
growth, poverty reduction and a more predictable response to dealing
with chronic hunger".
15.9 He welcomes "the fact that the Proposal
is positioned to directly support the CAADP, a programme that
receives existing UK support of £5,000,000 through DFID",
who, he says, "are working with the EU to enhance the support
of development partners for this Africa-led initiative".
He also notes that the Proposal "is consistent with DFID's
policy papers on Agriculture and Land". He continues as follows:
"DFID provides funding (£210,000) to
the GDPRD. One of our objectives for this support is to increase
donor alignment with the CAADP Partnership Platform. We therefore
welcome commitment to greater alignment with African priorities
as one of the principles which will inform cooperation.
"The Proposal would be strengthened by proving
more detail on how Regional Farming Organisations in Africa and
Europe are to be involved as key partners in this process. DFID
will pursue this in collaboration with the EU and African partners."
15.10 The Minister explains that there are no direct
financial implications; the Commission will encourage Member States
to support this Proposal financially and to align their bilateral
programmes accordingly.
15.11 Finally, he says that detailed discussions
by officials on the Communication are to take place in September,
and that he expects ministers to discuss it during the autumn.
Conclusions
15.12 Recent tragedies in Africa have illustrated
the importance of food security. We therefore join the Government
in welcoming this strategy.
15.13 Elsewhere in this Report we consider the
draft EU Strategic Partnership with Africa. There we note, and
note here also, the relevance of infrastructure development and
trading arrangements particularly the Doha Development
Round to Africa's development, which applies especially
to her agricultural and rural development.
15.14 We have recommended that the draft Strategic
Partnership be debated in the European Standing Committee ahead
of its adoption at this December's EU-Africa Summit. We consider
this Commission Proposal relevant to that debate, which will provide
the Minister with an opportunity to report on the outcome of Ministerial
discussions thereon.
15.15 In the meantime, we now clear the document.
68 The eight UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
are those that, in 2000, the UN set itself to achieve, most by
2015: eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; achieve universal
primary education; promote gender equality; reduce child mortality;
improve maternal health; combat HIV/Aids, malaria and other diseases;
ensure environmental sustainability; and develop a partnership
for development - each with associated targets and benchmarks
to measure progress. Back
69
The Commission of the African Union acts as the executive/administrative
branch or secretariat of the AU (and is somewhat analogous to
the European Commission). It consists of a number of Commissioners
dealing with different areas of policy. The Commission is headquartered
in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Back
70
NEPAD is a merger, in 2001, of the Millennium Partnership for
the African Recovery Programme (MAP), led by South Africa, Nigeria
and Algeria, and the OMEGA Plan for Africa developed by Senegal.
NEPAD is now a programme of the AU, but with its own secretariat
based in South Africa to coordinate and implement its programmes.
NEPAD's four primary objectives are to eradicate poverty, promote
sustainable growth, integrate Africa in the world economy and
accelerate the empowerment of women. Back
71
Regional Economic Communities, such as the Economic Community
of West African States (ECOWAS); see http://www.dfa.gov.za/au.nepad/recs.htm
for full details of the RECs. Back
72
Originally prepared by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation
(FAO) in co-operation with the NEPAD Steering Committee and reviewed
in June 2002 by African Ministers of Agriculture under the auspices
of the FAO Regional Conference for Africa. See http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/y6831e/y6831e00.htm
for full details. Back
73
The Paris Declaration, endorsed on 2 March 2005, is
an international agreement to which over one hundred Ministers,
Heads of Agencies and other Senior Officials adhered and
committed their countries and organisations to continue to
increase efforts in harmonisation, alignment and managing aid
for results with a set of monitorable actions and indicators.
See http://www.oecd.org/document/18/0,3343,en_2649_37463_35401554_1_1_1_37463,00.html
for full details. Back
74
The Global Donor Platform for Rural Development is "an initiative
of leading international development agencies
engaged in
a concerted drive to reduce poverty in the rural areas of the
developing world
committed to donor harmonisation and alignment,
as defined by the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness of March
2005 [whose] aim is to improve the coordination of our institutional
policies and procedures and to jointly support the development
programmes of our partner country governments". See http://www.donorplatform.org/
for full details. Back
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