Vision '' Prosperous and cohesive Eastern Africa farmers community” Mission

1. Vision ''Prosperous and cohesive Eastern Africa farmers community” Mission “Represent, lobby and advocate for farmers interests and build their capacities.” www.eaffu.org; info@eaffu.org; Nairobi, Kenya EASTERN AFRICA FARMERS FEDERATION (EAFF) Eastern Africa Farmers FederationBy Stephen MuchiriCEO-EAFFFARMER ORGS- experience with ReSAKSS Ethiopia23-24TH NOVEMBER 2009 The Voice of Farmers of Eastern Africa

2. Outline • EAFF • CAADP • ReSAKKS • Conference on CAADP • Opportunities for ReSAKKS • Conclusion

3. Who is EAFF? The Voice of Farmers of Eastern Africa • Vision • ''Prosperous and cohesive Eastern Africa farmers community” • Mission • “Represent, lobby and advocate for farmers interests and build their capacities.” • www.eaffu.org; • info@eaffu.org;

4. Who is EAFF? • Are a sub-Regional Farmer Organization based in Nairobi & Arusha • Are a Democratic organization; Have a strategic plan • Have voluntary membership - Our membership scope is the Eastern Africa – Membership scope in EAC; COMESA & IGAD;- National/Apex level of Farmer Orgs; Co-operatives; Commodity Associations; women and youth orgs in Agriculture (8 countries; 13 members) • Strive to promote the interests of farmers within the region on issues touching on markets; productivity; capacity; information & Regional Integration • Work with various partners

5. CAADP • CAADP is not a set of supranational programs to be implemented by individual countries. It is rather a common framework, reflected in a set of key principles and targets in order to: (i) guide country strategies and investment programs; ii) allow regional peer learning and review; iii) facilitate greater alignment and harmonization of development efforts …MUST be inclusive CAADP marks two key intermediate targets, namely: pursuit of a 6% average annual agricultural sector growth rate at the national level and allocation of 10% of national budgets to the agricultural sector;

6. ReSAKSS – Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System. During the 2nd CAADP Partnership Platform (PP) meeting of September 2007, it was agreed that there is - • Need for a common M&E Framework for CAADP implementation at the national, regional and continental levels • Identify benchmarks/indicators capable of measuring progress towards achieving CAADP goals and targets at all levels – and capture crosscutting issues such as gender, sustainability, HIV/AIDS and other critical factors • Common benchmarks, indicators, reporting formats, and timelines were to be established …etc

7. ReSAKSS – Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System. • We seat in the ReSAKSS steering committee for ECA • Have been involved in charting some of the work that ReSAKSS has been doing in this region • RECOGNIZE that CAADP is the main framework for agricultural development in Africa and declare our continued commitment to the CAADP initiative and call upon re-alignment of ALL National Agriculture policies to CAADP and support by ALL development partners to the process

8. ReSAKSS – Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System. • As FOs we also decided there is need to do a stock take of the CAADP round table process in our member countries being signatories to the regional compact • Held workshops in Ke, Rw, Bu, Tz, DRC & Ug with members and CAADP focal points and COMESA

9. The Domestication and engagements of Farmers Organizations in the CAADP Agenda • Held in Kigali; Rwanda – November 2008 (end) • Participants – FOs; COMESA; ASARECA; Private sector; Rwanda govt; Pillar II; donors…RFOs • Ethiopia and Malawi were doing well in achieving 6% Agric growth • Uganda; Kenya; Djibouti, Ethiopia; Burundi and sudan were said to be working on their stocktaking process…compacts • Rwanda had signed already signed • DRC & Eritrea hadn’t launched process

10. The Domestication …..Early Actions- regional level • Programs already underway- agro inputs and climate change program were in place. Livestock development program was ongoing • The Alliance for Commodity Trade in ES Africa (ACTESA) had beenlaunched and the Agricultural markets info program was operational • However; the need of enhanced engagement of farmers’ associations to drive the process faster, was still a gap, operationalization of CAADP trust fund at the world bank to support country planning and coordination and an increased mobilization of resources for compact investments was also a gap.

11. The Domestication …..Early Actions- regional level • The AU country high level missions needed to be strengthen their partnership and speed up both design and implementation of early action programs.

12. CAADP Implementation in EAFF Countries- FOs involvement • Farmers organizations had not so far been informed about the program- e.g. Tanzania where no engagement has been made so far and no focal point has not been selected. • In Rwanda, the FO were initially involved in the consultations but later gradually excluded from the process towards compact signing. • In Burundi, the government had not informed farmers about CAADP..focal point had been changed severally • DRC – FOs were pushing government to engage in the process

13. Concerns raised in the conference • The slow implementation of CAADP process at national level since its endorsement during the Maputo Declaration of 2003. • Insufficient knowledge; involvement and participation of farmers organizations in the CAADP process (including pillar elaboration) at all levels • Insufficient commitment by regional economic communities, including COMESA to ensure participation of farmers’ organizations in CAADP process.

14. Concerns raised in the conference • Currently (2008) only four (4) countries had lived up their commitment of allocating at least 10% of their annual national budget for agriculture. • Lack of evidence of direct involvement of regional farmer organizations on programs on short term early action areas despite formalized relationship between EAFF/SACAU and ROPPA with COMESA and ECOWAS respectively.

15. The Domestication …..Farmers need capacities to- • Collect information from the region about the CAADP processes at national /regional level and inform member organizations - Resakks • Facilitate sharing of experiences between member organizations on CAADP implementation • Sensitize member organizations about CAADP processes and pillar frameworks • Mobilize resources to strengthen FOs capacity to participate in /track CAADP processes…. • Assist member organization to analyze policies and public sector investment programs and to develop their own priorities and proposals/positions • Develop regional positions based on National positions

16. General recommendations from conference • Farmers Organizations shall engage in consultative and sensitization process on ALL aspects of the CAADP initiative with their members • The RECs i.e. COMESA and ECOWAS should put mechanisms in place to ensure farmers participation in the implementation / peer-reviews of the CAADP initiative. A horizontal and vertical communication channel between CAADP focal points and Farmer Organizations should be facilitated.

17. General recommendations from conference • Farmers organizations from SADC member states should be pro-active to demand their respective governments to implement CAADP with technical support with COMESA • The livestock and fisheries sub-pillar be given similar level of focus as other CAADP pillars • 20% of funds from the CAADP trust fund should be allocated to farmers’ organizations to strengthen their capacity to engage in the CAADP processes. • Farmers Organizations should seek support and solidarity from development partners and NGOs in the Domestication of the CAADP agenda.

18. Some specific recommendations from conference • Pillar 1: emerging issues e.g. foreign investments and their implication on land tenures; environment/cc. Build irrigation capacities… • Pillar 2: Infrastructure for Agriculture compared to rural development; need for promotion of regional markets and participation of farmers on all levels of value chain (Enterpren..) • Pillar 3: pro-poor risk management and mitigations strategies; role of women • Pillar 4: pro-poor technologies; practical & demand or evidence based-adaptive research & policy process respectively

19. Conclusion • Pro-activeness in information collected for use in investment planning esp at the regional level…how can we look at the bigger picture e.g. CM at EAC and food security in terms of collective investments vis a vis individual country investments….approach should be different • Partnership & linkages with the NFOs….National sakks- linkages are weak in budget processes; influencing National policies etc • Confusion and overlaps on information sources- there is need to have very clear boundaries and mandates e.g. Resakks/ asareca/ FARNPAN; Nasakks/ Govt systems etc

20. The End THANK YOU! MERCI!