House of Commons - European Scrutiny

Select Committee on European Scrutiny Thirty-Fourth Report

15 ADVANCING AFRICAN AGRICULTURE

(28841)
12190/07
COM(07) 440

Commission Communication: Proposal for continental and regional level cooperation on agricultural development in Africa

Legal base —

Document originated 24 July 2007

Deposited in Parliament 30 July 2007

Department International Development

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

Committee's decision Cleared; relevant to any debate on EU-Africa development cooperation

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.

"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:

"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



© Parliamentary copyright 2007	Prepared 12 October 2007