The meeting, held in Accra, last week, was attended by high-level representatives from all regions of the continent and of development partner organisations, representatives of regional farmer organisations, as well as African and international agribusiness leaders.

The Executive Head of NEPAD’s secretariat, Prof Wiseman Nkuhlu says the meeting stressed the need for speedy implementation of the Maputo commitment by African Heads of State and Governments to allocate 10 percent of national budgets to the agricultural sector.

“The meeting commended the regional economic communities, the African Union (AU) and NEPAD Secretariat for the decision to immediately start establishing the required mechanisms for effective coordination and monitoring of the implementation of early actions and future programmes.”

Nkuhlu says the meeting saluted the commitment of development partners to support the CAADP priority action plans and early actions and use them as a framework for future support to the agricultural sector in Africa.

“This framework will allow development partners to achieve greater impact and contribute more effectively to country efforts to spur agricultural growth and enable African countries to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

“The meeting also noted the strong participation of the international agribusiness community and their commitment to forge effective partnerships and alliances with local farming and agribusiness communities,” he said “with the objective of participating in the implementation of the early actions and the broader CAADP agenda.

“The commitment of the African civil society organisations, particularly farmer organisations, non governmental organisations and agribusiness companies to work together with the regional economic communities, national governments, development partners and the international agribusiness community to ensure the success of the CAADP agenda, is heartening.

“We urge the regional economic communities, their member states, and the AU and the /NEPAD Secretariat to build on these commitments and utilise the readiness of farmer organisations and the agribusiness community to forge the required partnerships to speed up the implementation of the early actions before the end of 2005.”

The meeting recommended to the Heads of State and Governments that the AU and the NEPAD Secretariat be strengthened in the areas where it adds values to the implementation process.

This applies, in particular, to steering and monitoring the process, facilitating coordination and exchanging experiences across regions and agricultural policy dialogue with national governments.

It also recommended that the capacities of the regional economic communities be strengthened to establish decentralised and participatory mechanisms to effectively coordinate the implementation process.

“By adopting the NEPAD initiative, African Heads of State and Governments have recognised the critical role of agriculture in promoting broad-based development and speeding up the process of integrating African economies.

They have also committed to mobilising national resources and to developing new models of partnership with other countries and organisations to advance the development agenda in Africa,” says Nkuhlu.