Rwanda has been the only country on-track with the implementation of the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), as well as the commitments of the Malabo declaration that come to an end in 2025. The Malabo declaration was adopted in June 2014 by African Union (AU) heads of state and government in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, with the aim to accelerate agriculture transformation and ensure food security on the continent. In adopting the declaration, the African leaders committed to achieving seven targets including enhancing investment finance in agriculture, with governments expected to allocate 10 per cent of their national budgets to agriculture each year from 2015 to 2025. Countries also committed to ending hunger on the continent by 2025, boosting intra-African trade in agricultural commodities and services, and a recommitment to CAADP principles and values, among others. ALSO READ: How Africa can build resilient food systems The Malabo declaration came as a reinforcement to the broader CAADP framework, which was adopted in 2003 by AU heads of state in Maputo, Mozambique. Though signed by 51 AU member states, reports have shown that the continent remains largely off-track to achieve the Malabo targets by 2025. Implementation process According to Chantal Ingabire, the Director General of Planning in the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI), Rwanda's implementation strategy started with domestication of the continental goals. “Rwanda was the first country to sign the CAADP initiative in March 2007. This was followed by the integration of CAADP principles in the national agricultural policy framework that was itself guided by Rwanda’s Vision 2020 at the time,” Ingabire told The New Times. “At the sector level, the Ministry of Agriculture developed Strategic Plans for Agriculture Transformation (PSTAs), which are considered the investment plans of the national policies on agriculture and incorporated the CAADP priority areas,” she added. After the integration of the targets in the national policy framework, implementation then began at central and decentralised levels, with the government collaborating with non-governmental organisations and other development partners. Tracking Progress In order to track progress, the AU heads of state established the CAADP Biennial Review, (BR) as a mechanism to track, measure, and report on the progress of member states in implementing the Malabo declaration. The inaugural Biennial Report was launched in 2018, with subsequent ones in 2020, 2022 and the latest in March 2024. According to Ingabire, Rwanda has been the best performing country in all four consecutive reviews. In all the four consecutive CAADP BR, Rwanda has been the best performing country in implementing the seven commitments of the Malabo declaration. The country had the highest scores in various benchmarks, marking 6.1 out of 10 in 2018, 7.24 in 2020, 7.43 in 2022 and 8.07 in 2024. ALSO READ: Rwanda makes progress on continental agric plan Ingabire highlighted that Rwanda has been the only country on-track in the first three reviews and received a golden award for her efforts. However, in the fourth CAADP Biennial Report, no country, including Rwanda, was found on-track, but the country still remained the best performer. The criteria to be considered on-track has progressively become stricter over the years, perhaps indicating that expectations for agricultural development have increased. In the fourth review, the country had to score a minimum of 9.29 to be considered on track, and none of the countries achieved it. Recommendations to Rwanda from the CAADP reviews include intensifying efforts to address malnutrition and stunting, increasing the percentage of agriculture value added per arable land, increasing the total agriculture spending as a share of GDP, and increasing agriculture financing. Challenges The implementation of the Malabo commitments has not been without challenges. For Rwanda, climate change has been a major hindrance to the country's progress. According to Ingabire, one major challenge has been the consequences of climate change that affected productivity and food production. “COVID-19 also had an effect on agricultural trade and investments which negatively affected the performance of countries in implementing CAADP in general,” she noted. ALSO READ: Inside Rwanda’s Rwf7tn agriculture strategic plan It is barely one year away before AU members can decide to review and set new targets. According to Bongiwe Njobe, Board Chairperson of the Forum for Agriculture Research in Africa (FARA), the lack of implementation seen across AU member states was due to poor policy frameworks. “One of the limitations we found in the implementation of CAADP was the lack of the right policy frameworks as well as policy clarity, she said. Njobe indicated that many countries were also limited in their capacity to domesticate the continental targets, leading to the lack of implementation. With the Malabo declaration coming to an end in 2025, the AU has embarked on the development of the Post Malabo CAADP Agenda, which is expected to retain the key principles of CAADP, while adapting to challenges such as climate change.
