Platform for African – European Partnership in Agricultural Research for Development

Monday, March 21, 2016

African Transformation Forum

14 - 16 March 2016. Kigali, Rwanda. Stakeholder consultation workshop on Africa's Agriculture Transformation.

The African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET), in partnership with the Government of Rwanda, convened the first African Transformation Forum (ATF).
  1. The first objective of the ATF was to facilitate knowledge sharing and peer learning across global and African luminaries from the public and private sectors. These participants contributed their rich insights, and uncover challenges and solutions for galvanizing economic transformation in Africa. The discussions fell into two categories: i) the coordinated development and implementation of national development plans; and ii) catalyzing transformation within critical sectors, notably: extractives; light manufacturing; agriculture; skills development; entrepreneurship; financial inclusion; infrastructure; and regional integration.
  2. The second objective of the ATF was to launch the Coalition for Transformation in Africa – a new leadership network organized in chapters, each addressing a specific thematic area. These chapters – and the policy makers, business leaders and development partners who constitute their membership – examined and developed implementable solutions for development. 
ACET wserved as the Secretariat for the Coalition, building consensus, coordinating activities and assisting the membership in securing funding to support their agreed initiatives. The chapters also report their progress at subsequent African Transformation Forums.

This part introduced perhaps the most critical component in the African economic transformative process – agriculture and the role it must play in delivering this. It argues that while raising the continent’s low productivity levels is essential, this is a more complex matter than has often been projected.

Issues:
  • How can communal land tenure systems be reformed?
  • How to incentivize educated youth to go into agriculture?
  • What roles should the state play?
  • What is the scope of public-private collaboration?
  • What should be the role of external actors, including donors?

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