AU-EU Investing in a Food Secure Future

10th June 2016
by secretary

Paepard

6-8 June 2016. Noordwijk, the Netherlands. The Government of the Netherlands, the African Union Commission and the European Commission organised the conference: AU-EU Investing in a Food Secure Future.

The conference had a two-day Experts’ segment followed by a High Level Ministerial segment on the third day, to give political orientations to improve AU-EU agricultural cooperation and build on previous international efforts and existing structures.

It focused on the following five themes:

Climate-Smart Agriculture;
Reducing Food Losses and Waste;
Improving Market Access, regionally and internationally;
Increasing Responsible Private Investment in Sustainable Agriculture;
Science & Innovation for Development.

Pillar 5: Science and Innovation for Development: Institution building, capacity building and access to research and innovation determine the success of increasing agricultural productivity in a sustainable way. Enhanced instructional cooperation between universities and research centers in both regions can lay a firm foundation for sustainable growth, and attract the interest of youth to work in the agricultural sector, as young entrepreneurs, the future farmers. The EU-Africa Research and Innovation Partnership on Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture, adopted on 4 April 2016 will inform the discussions.

Extract:

Funding agricultural investment in Africa

80. Stresses the need to ensure the transparency of all funding granted to private -sector companies, and that such funding must be made public;

81. Calls on donors to align Official Development Assistance (ODA) with the development effectiveness principles, to focus on results with a view to poverty eradication, and to promote inclusive partnerships, transparency and accountability;

82. Calls on donors to channel their support for developing agriculture primarily through national development funds which grant subsidies and loans to smallholders and family farming;

83. Urges donors to support education, training and technical counselling for farmers;

84. Calls on donors to promote the forming of farmers’ organisations of a professional and economic nature, and to support the establishment of farmers’ cooperatives which enable the delivery of affordable means of production and help farmers process and market their products in a way that safeguards the profitability of their production;

85. Believes that the funding provided by G8 member states to NAFSN contravenes the objective of supporting domestic local companies which cannot compete with multinationals that already benefit from a dominant market position and are often granted business, tariff and tax privileges;

86. Recalls that the purpose of development aid is to reduce, and ultimately to eradicate, poverty; believes that ODA should focus on direct support to small-scale farming;

87. Stresses the need to revitalise public investment in African agriculture, while providing support for private investment, and to prioritise investment in agro-ecology, so as to sustainably increase food security and reduce poverty and hunger while conserving biodiversity and respecting indigenous knowledge and innovation;

88. Stresses that G7 member states should guarantee African countries the right to protect their agricultural sectors through tariff and tax regimes that favour family and smallholder farming;

Source: PAEPARD FEED

AU-EU Investing in a Food Secure Future

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