Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07NAIROBI1709
2007-04-18 11:12:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Nairobi
Cable title:  

CAADP MEETING, KIGALI, RWANDA MARCH 29-31, 2007

Tags:  RW 
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P 181112Z APR 07
FM AMEMBASSY NAIROBI
TO RUEHLGB/AMEMBASSY KIGALI PRIORITY 4790
RUEHLS/AMEMBASSY LUSAKA 4112
RUEHLG/AMEMBASSY LILONGWE 2320
RUEHDR/AMEMBASSY DAR ES SALAAM 5231
RUEHKM/AMEMBASSY KAMPALA 2000
RUEHJB/AMEMBASSY BUJUMBURA 0099
RUEHDS/AMEMBASSY ADDIS ABABA 9254
RUEHDJ/AMEMBASSY DJIBOUTI 4662
RUEHOR/AMEMBASSY GABORONE 0849
RUEHAR/AMEMBASSY ACCRA 0898
INFO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9094
UNCLAS NAIROBI 001709 

SIPDIS

AID/AFR/EA/JESCALONA
JEFFREY BORNS, AFR/SD
THOMAS HOBGOOD, AFR/SD/EGEA
SUSAN THOMPSON AND JOHN R THOMAS EGAT/AG/ARPG
POLLY BYERS, F/AF/EA
WILLIAM HAMMINK, DCHA/FFP
SUSAN BRADLEY, DCHA/PPM
JERRY BROWN, RCSA/RPIO
ERNA KERST, RCSA/DIR
ROBERT KAGBO, WA/ANRO
ADDIS PLEASE PASS TO USAU

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: RW
SUBJECT: CAADP MEETING, KIGALI, RWANDA MARCH 29-31, 2007


Rwanda is the first country in the COMESA region to
launch a country Compact for the Comprehensive African
Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP).

UNCLAS NAIROBI 001709

SIPDIS

AID/AFR/EA/JESCALONA
JEFFREY BORNS, AFR/SD
THOMAS HOBGOOD, AFR/SD/EGEA
SUSAN THOMPSON AND JOHN R THOMAS EGAT/AG/ARPG
POLLY BYERS, F/AF/EA
WILLIAM HAMMINK, DCHA/FFP
SUSAN BRADLEY, DCHA/PPM
JERRY BROWN, RCSA/RPIO
ERNA KERST, RCSA/DIR
ROBERT KAGBO, WA/ANRO
ADDIS PLEASE PASS TO USAU

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: RW
SUBJECT: CAADP MEETING, KIGALI, RWANDA MARCH 29-31, 2007


Rwanda is the first country in the COMESA region to
launch a country Compact for the Comprehensive African
Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP).


1. Summary

March 29-31 in Kigali, the Government of Rwanda and
COMESA hosted a regional partners? meeting and a country
round-table meeting on the Comprehensive African
Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP). On March 31,
a CAADP Country Compact was signed by the Rwandan
Government, the African Union, the NEPAD Secretariat,
COMESA, and development agencies represented by the
World Bank. This document commits the government and the
development partners to expeditiously modify the
Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy
(EDPRS),and to align it and related programs in
agriculture with the CAADP objectives. The Compact
reaffirms the commitment to allocate 10% of the national
budget to agriculture, as well as to improve donor
coordination and predictable financing in support of the
program. It proposes to establish joint review
processes involving the government the private sector,
civil society, and development agencies. Implementation
will be overseen by the government and the development
partners, with a strong reliance on private sector
capacity. A Sector Wide Assistance Program (SWAP) will
be established to facilitate implementation.

Steps are underway in Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Zambia,
and Malawi to establish country implementation platforms
for CAADP. Representatives of most of these countries
participated in the meeting to coordinate their
respective plans with each other and with the regional
platform, which is being coordinated by the COMESA
Secretariat. Steps are also underway to establish a

SIPDIS
regional CAADP Compact, which is expected to be
completed by the end of 2007. USAID is committed to
support and align its efforts with CAADP at the
bilateral and regional levels.


2. Objectives of the CAADP Round Table Process

The CAADP round table process provides an African led
forum, common framework and a commitment to evidence
based planning for countries to review and improve the
efficiency of their ongoing and future agricultural

development efforts aimed at stimulating economic growth
and reducing poverty. Preparation for the roundtable
involves:
a) An inventory and review of current policies,
programs, investments and sector governance and
coordination mechanisms;
b) Analysis to determine whether the current efforts
(programs and investments levels) are adequate to
achieve the CAADP objectives of six percent
agricultural growth and meet MDG NO.1 - to cut hunger
and poverty in half;
c) Analysis to determine the areas of potential
investment with the highest potential for achieving
the growth and poverty reduction objectives, and the
levels of investment that will be required;
d) Analysis first to benchmark the current levels of
government and donor funding and then to project the
future financing from all sources that will needed to
meet the objectives;
e) A review to determine if sufficient and appropriate
institutional capacity and skills exist to deliver on
the agenda.

The roundtables bring key stakeholders and development
partners together to review this information, to
identify changes that will be needed among government,
donors, private sector and civil society to achieve the
CAADP objectives, and to chart a way forward.


3. Summary of the CAADP Roundtable process in Rwanda

Rwanda is the first country in Africa to complete the
CAADP round table process. The process was clearly
owned and led by Rwandan Government leaders. They used
the opportunity to inform their ongoing national
planning process for their Economic Development and
Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS),and the Strategic
Plan for Agricultural Transformation (PSTA) which is a
multi-year set of operational programs that guide the
implementation of specific programs. Through CAADP,
IFPRI provided analytical support, modeling the impact
on growth and poverty of different investment choices.
The round table process in Rwanda has set a high
standard for serious analysis and high quality debate,
and stimulated valuable discussion among the
representatives of other countries.

The analysis of types and levels of investment being
made projected that with the current portfolio, growth
will slow down, and that the government?s existing plans
would reduce poverty by at most 20 percent by 2020.
Continuing current plans and programs (business as
usual) would mean that Rwanda could not meet the CAADP
objectives and the related MDG goal for poverty. To
meet the MDG, significantly higher investments will be
needed, along with a portfolio that balances sub-sectors
to stimulate growth among lower income strata, as well as
promoting export commodities that may have higher rates
of return but which involve only relatively few farmers.

Rwanda has proposed to organize its future programs into
four pillars that are responsive to but different from
those in the CAADP framework. Within each, plans for
specific sub-programs and indicative targets were
developed, and then budgeted according to different
assumptions about the financial resources expected to
become available. These templates provide a flexible
framework within which specific programs can be further
developed.

a) The intensification and development of sustainable
production systems, including soil conservation,
intensification of marshlands, expansion of
irrigation, increased supply of seed, fertilizer, and
other inputs, improved animal production systems, and
improved access to food and better management of
supplies available to vulnerable groups
b) Support to professionalization of producers,
including the strengthening of farmers?
organizations, restructured extension services,
research for development, and credit
c) Promotion of commodity chains and development of
agribusiness, including export promotion and business
development, promotion of specialty crops, agro-
processing and improved competitiveness, and rural
infrastructure
d) Institutional development, including increased
staffing and training for key institutions, improved
agricultural statistics, and comprehensive monitoring
and evaluation
One very valuable output of the Rwanda CAADP Roundtable
Process has been the publication of clear, concise
briefs that explain the process, which will facilitate
coordination and clarity among the partners involved.


4. Meeting Participation

A total of nearly three hundred people attended the
country-round table. The following COMESA member states
were represented, several at the Ministerial level as
well as by country CAADP focal person and other
stakeholders: Burundi, Djibouti, Egypt, Kenya, Malawi,
Uganda, and Zambia. The Rwandan delegation was led by
the Ministers of Agriculture and Finance, both of whom
participated actively, and included representatives of
Ministries, government institutions, NGOs and civil
society, and the private sector.

The following international organizations were
represented, some by staff from headquarters and others
by representatives in Rwanda: the African Union, COMESA,
the NEPAD Secretariat, the FAO, FARA, ASARECA, FANRPAN,
the World Bank, BMZ, the Global Donor Platform for
Agriculture and Rural Development, SIDA, IFAD, the WWF,
the EU, JICA, Belgian Cooperation, the African
Development Bank, the Micronutrient Initiative, IFPRI,
Michigan State University, NR International (U.K.),The
U.S. Corporate Council on Africa, and The African
Organic Food and Fiber Initiative (USA).

USAID was represented by Kevin Mullally, Rwanda Mission
Director; Ryan Washburn, Head of the Economic
Opportunities office in the Rwanda Mission; Jeff Hill
from AFR/SD in Washington; Peter Ewell and Walter
Knausenberger of the Regional Economic Growth and
Integration office at USAID/East Africa; and David Rinck
of the regional office of Food for Peace.


5. The Rwanda CAADP Compact

The Rwanda CAADP Compact was signed on March 31, 2007 on
behalf of the Government of Rwanda by the Minister of
Finance and Economic Planning, James Musoni and by the
Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Anastase
Murekezi. It was signed on behalf of donors by Victoria
Kwakwa, the World Bank Country Manager and co-chair of
the Rwanda donor platform; by Sindiso Ngwenya, COMESA
Assistant Secretary General, on behalf of COMESA, and by
AU Commissioner of Rural Economy and Agriculture, Ms
Rosebud Kurwijila, on behalf of AU and NEPAD. It was
also signed by representatives of the private sector and
of civil society in Rwanda.
The Compact reaffirms the joint commitment to increase
investments in the agricultural sector to achieve an
annual growth rate of at least six percent, and the
Maputo decision to allocate at least 10 percent of the
national budget to the sector. Specifically, the
government is committed to private sector led growth
underpinned by public sector investments. Market-
oriented agriculture is central to the strategy, leading
to transformation and modernization of the sector, with
a target growth rates by 2011 of 7% for agricultural
GDP, segmented into 6% for food crops production, 8% for
animal production and for export crops.
Through the Compact, the Government of Rwanda commits
itself to strengthen and add value to the national
Strategic Plan for the Transformation of Agriculture
(PSTA),under the ongoing Economic Development and
Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS),as identified its
Vision 2020 document. It will work through existing
mechanisms to ensure maximum, efficiency and
effectiveness in the utilization of resources, and
recommits to ongoing dialogue, coordination, mutual;
review, and accountability mechanisms.
The development partners reaffirmed a joint donors?
statement made at a meeting in November, 2006. They
commit collectively to align assistance to the sector to
the programs and priorities identified in the EDPRS/PSTA
agenda, and to scale up assistance over the next five
years to help meet the investment costs of the programs
defined under that agenda. They agree to provide
indications of future aid on a multi-year basis to
improve predictability to improve planning budgeting,
and implementation. Starting immediately, the GOR and
the development partners will consult through the
existing Rural Sector Cluster and Development Partners
Coordination Group to commit funding through a sector-
wide approach.

The African Union and COMESA commit to support Rwanda?s
national strategies as defined in the EDPRS and PSTA by
mobilizing political, financial, and technical support.
The private sector and civil society collectively pledge
their support to realizing the aspirations of the Compact


6. Highlights and Observations

COMESA is leading the development of a regional CAADP
strategy and Compact. Further analysis and strategic
planning leading to a CAADP regional Compact will be
completed before the end of 2007.

The inventory of ongoing programs and coordination
processes in Rwanda revealed that valuable processes
have been developed to facilitate coordination and
dialogue, involving government, development agencies,
private sector and civil society.

As noted earlier, the available evidence indicates that
the continuation of current efforts and plans cannot
enable Rwanda to meet the CAADP objectives or the MDGs.
Adjustments are needed to improve the efficiency of how
existing development resources are used, and to focus
future plans and necessary levels of investment. Working
groups were set up to discuss the proposed activities
and relative levels of effort. Many good point were
made that will need attention as Rwanda moves to
implementation. The Rwandan team has organized fora at
which these will be discussed further.

The differences between the pillars of the Rwandan EDRPS
and the pillars of CAADP pillars may cause confusion or
complicate regional monitoring efforts. Further
discussion is needed on how align the categories. In
Rwanda as the pathfinder, this was complicated by the
fact that specific guidance on programmatic issues is
still to be developed by AUC and NEPAD. .

It was notable that the Rwanda analysis and proposed set
of programs did not have a clearly defined agenda for
CAADP Pillar III concerns related to food security and
vulnerability. This shortcoming will need to be
addressed in other country analyses and round table
processes, as well as the regional CAADP portfolio.

USAID/Food for Peace/East Africa is concerned that a
food security strategy that under-emphasizes access and
utilization issues will not sufficiently address the
full range of causes of food insecurity in the region,
which may thereby limit the usefulness of CAADP in
reducing poverty in line with the Millennium Development
Goals. Addressing policies and uses of food aid, a major
tool for addressing food insecurity, would be a useful
additional component in future national compacts.


7. The role of COMESA and upcoming actions

The COMESA Secretariat played a key role in coordinating
the support provided by development partners to help
Rwanda organize its CAADP Roundtable. COMESA has been
assigned the task by AUC and NEPAD of coordinating
assistance to its member countries in getting the
roundtables organized, and for developing a regional
platform to implement CAADP. COMESA continues to be
short of staff, and urgently needs to bring on board
additional support staff that has been planned through
various mechanisms, to assist with the development of
Compacts in the remaining first-stage countries and at
the regional level.

At the regional level, COMESA needs to build upon the
good work that has been done to date in laying the
foundation for CAADP implementation. Specifically, by
the end of the year, a concise regional strategy for
CAADP as a whole in the COMESA regions should be
developed. This will help to clearly identify and align
ongoing activities that are in support of CAADP, and set
clear criteria and standards for the selection of new
activities. The Re-SAKKS node should play an important
role in this effort to assist COMESA to establish an
evidence-based investment portfolio for stimulating
agricultural growth in the region.


8. Summary of the current status of the CAADP round
table process

Six COMESA member countries were chosen in 2006 to
?fast-track? the round table process and develop country
Compacts. Rwanda has passed that milestone and five
additional countries have initiated the process, and
expect to develop Compacts between now and August.


1. Zambia:
Indicative date for round table: June.
Focal person: Mr. E.C. Kalaba, Deputy Director, Policy,
Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives,
eckalaba@maff.gov.zm


2. Uganda:
Indicative date for round table: June.
Focal person: Mr. Keizire Boaz Blackie, Principal
Economist, Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and
Fisheries keizire.Boaz@apdmaaif.or.ug;
blakiesq@yahoo.com


3. Malawi:
Indicative date for round table: June.
Focal person: Ms. Fiskan Nkana, Planning Department
Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security
fiskaninkana@yahoo.co.uk.


4. Kenya:
Indicative date for round table: August
Focal person: Mr. John Mungai, Director for Policy,
Ministry of Agriculture, : jkmungaike@yahoo.com


5. Ethiopia: Indicative date for round table: August


Focal person: Mr. Lema Gebeyehu, Head, Crop Protection
Department, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural
Development, lemag@msn.com

Two additional countries have now decided to push ahead,
to take advantage of the synergies of the ongoing
process, and organize round tables and Compacts this year:

6: Burundi:
Indicative date for round table: August
Focal person: Mme Evelyne Nduwimana, Conseiller au
Cabinet du Ministre de l'Agriculture et de l'Elevage
ndevelyne@yahoo.fr


7. Djibouti:
Indicative date for round table: August
Focal person: M. Ahmed Darar Djibril, Conseiller
Technique du Ministre de l?Agriculture, de l?Elevage et
de la Mer djidarar@hotmail.com


9. USAID?s support for and commitment to CAADP

The G-8 countries and major OECD partners committed
themselves to support the implementation of CAADP at
their meetings at Sea Island, Gleneagles, and St.
Petersburg. Specifically, the US is committed to
program an estimated $200 million per year to support
CAADP implementation, and to align the US Presidential
Initiative to End Hunger in Africa (IEHA) with the CAADP
process and strategic priorities. In each of the
focus countries and regional portfolios that are
implementing IEHA, it is anticipated that the local
USAID missions will provide local country and regional
assistance to the roundtable processes, and that they
will actively contribute to joint consultations with
governments and development partners to shape the CAADP
Compacts.


RANNEBERGER