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MICHAEL BRÜNTRUP
German Development Institute, Competitiveness and Social Development, Germany
The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) has become the major economic initiative of the African Union (AU) and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) to combat poverty. It is the organisational implementation of the Maputo declaration by African Heads of States and Government in 2003 to devote 10% of government budgets for agriculture. It has developed principles, instruments and processes to implement CAADP at the national and regional level. While CAADP has seen a very slow and difficult start, since 2009 it has gain tremendous impetus, particularly since the decision of the United States and some other donor countries to de facto link its support to African agriculture to the existence of country-owned, CAADP approved national programmes.
This presentation tries to find answers to the question whether CAADP can live up to the expectations it has raised. It does so by analysing its (still emerging) institutional set-up, the capacities of the actors involved, but also by understanding their expectations and interests. It is based on two studies. One analysed during 2007-2009 the implementation of the CAADP in selected countries (Kenya, Ghana, Uganda) and compared it with autochthonous national agricultural policy cycles. The other is ongoing and is based on document analysis and in"=depth interviews with stakeholders and observers of CAADP at the trans"=national level.
The studies finds huge differences between rhetoric and implementation, between aspiration and capacities, and between the expectations of different stakeholders. However, it also concedes that there is now a strong learning process in place, that capacities may accelerate with the implementation of the CAADP Multi-Donor Trust Fund if wisely applied, and that CAADP has a window of opportunity to make the difference in improving African agricultural policy processes and outcomes.
Keywords: Africa, agricultural policy, CAADP, political economy
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