Last week, a number of African leaders were meeting in Kigali, for the Africa Green Revolution Forumb (AGRF) and to discuss how to use agriculture as a way to transform African economies faster. This year the big question was: Will this forum be different from others or will it turn out to be just another talk show?

Yet there is always a frisson of excitement when leaders meet; a sense of opportunity hangs in the air that makes us want to believe that this could be the start of real change. Agricultural transformation by definition is all about change, but whether it is going to happen, particularly in Africa, rests in the hands of leaders who must paint the vision, and then make that vision reality. It is vital that agriculture is seen as an instrument to help leaders achieve their political ambitions and to drive economic goals. If not, agricultural-led economic transformation will remain a pipedream.

Only a few African countries have been successful in making agriculture a platform for creating jobs and guaranteeing food security. Yet, twice every year, African leaders get together and make the same hollow promises to transform their countries’ agriculture sectors and in turn impact the livelihoods of large sectors of their populations.

Citizens wait with baited breath to hear their leaders’ latest resolutions and commitments made at each African Union summit, but are becoming increasingly sceptical that these may ever bear fruit. Despite this, there is evidence that a number of countries are making real progress and seeing the difference that honouring these commitments can make.

The recently released Africa Agricultural Status Report (2018) explores the centrality of governments and the capacity of the state to set, lead and implement their national visions to accelerate the pace of a green revolution in Africa. The report clearly documents the kind of leadership required to translate vision into action, and clarifies that entrenched leadership and the mindset of a country’s elite class is key in map-ping out the vision in the right context and to chart a path for its implementation.

This must include systems for its delivery and built-in accountability. The kind of pro-gress we are seeing in countries like Rwanda, under the leadership of President Kagame, and in Ethiopia where it started with the late Meles Zenawi and was subsequently adopted by his successors Hailemariam and Abiy Ahmed, the current prime minister, shows what is attainable under inspired and compassionate leadership. It is true to say that the main barriers countries face in implementing policy are rooted in their leader’s commitment to set and implement their visions and strategies.

To this end, the recently formulated Africa Agricultural Transformation Scorecard (AATS) was created to communicate and monitor the necessary peer review processes entrenched in the original New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) goals.

The AATS was presented by the African Un-ion for the first time in January 2018, and provides the status of agricultural transformation in African countries.

The scorecard revealed that only 20 of the 47 Africa countries that reported are on track to-wards achieving the heads of state agreements made in Equatorial Guinea in 2014. But looking at the numbers again, the progress areas are not the transformative ones. For example, the score-card shows that almost all countries are com-mitted to inclusive and evidence based policy systems, and yet in the same countries, the same policies are only on paper and never implemented to cause change.

Changing attitudes

As experts note, it is only when the average African realises that digging dirt is an honourable job, and develops the desire to be actively involved in it because of the financial liberation it comes with, that the continent will begin to achieve its economic development goals. Opinion leaders on the continent, such as Aliko Dangote, Akin Adesina and Strive Masiyiwa, are helping fellow Africans to champion the scorecard and African Union goals. But we need to do more. For example with over seven months passed since its introduction, it has not created the necessary buzz among leaders and citizens to make change reality.

What is now needed is for key institutions like the African Union to look at ways to use the scorecard as an instrument to trigger the pressure needed to drive the transformation.

The lessons and outcomes of CAADP’s implementation and its AATS are revealing, and demonstrate what is required of the state and its capacity to drive agricultural transformation. Government ownership must be unambiguous and steadfast, not just at ministerial level, but at the very top. Heads of state must take seriously the principle of ownership and lead their agriculture sector vision and policy agenda.

During the 2014 Malabo Summit a few heads of state challenged the principle of allocating 10% public expenditure to agriculture, even though their own ministers had approved and endorsed this same idea at a preceding ministerial conference. It can be tempting to choose politically attractive actions that raise their popularity, while ignoring truly transformational policies that may take time to reach fruition, and so any meaningful change and transformation fails to take root.

The writer is head of policy and advocacy at the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). This piece was initially run in the African Business Magazine