The 15th Continental Steering Committee (CSC) meeting of the African Union (AU) led Ecological Organic Agriculture Initiative (EOA-I) was held virtually on four days on 11th ,12th,14th and 15th June 2021 under the chair of Dr. Simplice Nouala Fonkou, the Head of Agriculture and Food Security Division at the Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment (DARBE) of the African Union.
In his opening remarks, Dr. Nouala noted that a lot of work has been done and continues to be done in Africa on Ecological Organic Agriculture and Agroecology. However, this work is not being publicized enough. At the level of the African Union, the principals need to know more about what is taking place at the Organic front in Africa. He noted that there is still a lot to be done and therefore urged all CSC members and their organizations to share interesting and new developments in ecological organic agriculture with the EOA-Initiative Continental Secretariat. This would support the Secretariat as they share quarterly reports on the progress and implementation of EOA on the continent. These reports are compiled and further shared with the Specialized Technical Committee (STC) on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment.
Dr. Nouala applauded the Secretariat for the excellent work done on development of EOA indicators for inclusion into the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Biennial Review (BR) process. The EOA indicators will be piloted in selected African countries to ascertain whether the tools for data collection are effective and the data to collect is available at the country-level. The pilot process means that the CAADP BR team will not be able to include Ecological Organic Agriculture scorecard into the 2021 Biennial Review Report as anticipated. However, if the pilot goes well and the tools for data gathering are effective and data is available, it is highly anticipated that it will be possible to report on Ecological Organic Agriculture in the Biennial Review Report for 2023.
The CSC Chair informed the committee that AUC-DARBE had received no financial support for EOA activities in 2021. However, he indicated that the European Union (EU) has promised to support EOA activities in 2022. The AU intends to use this support for the implementation of the EOA Strategy through its EOA-I Continental Secretariat hosted at Biovision Africa Trust (BvAT). The Chair emphasized that the signing of the MoU between the AUC and BvAT will be fast tracked to enhance better collaboration between the two organizations and enhance joint resource mobilization. Dr. David Amudavi, the Executive Director of BvAT emphasized that the EOA-I will take advantage of the branding process being undertaken by the Secretariat to come up with a strong concept note for a Bio-Trade brand for Africa. Dr. Amudavi added that a meeting planned by the Secretariat and the African Organization for Standardization (ARSO) to bring onboard the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat of the African Union on the Bio-Trade concept will further strengthen the EOA brand. The EOA-I is partnering with ARSO and other stakeholders in harmonizing EOA standards for Africa.
The meeting further noted that the Regional Economic Committees (RECs) are cardinal in cascading the strategy for EOA from continental to regional and eventually the national level. Once again, the committee expressed its gratitude to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for its clear support to the EOA-I West Africa Cluster. The Chair applauded the willingness by the Economic Community of Central Africa States (ECCAS) for appointing an EOA-I focal person to support the launch of a Central African EOA-I Cluster. Dr. Nouala urged the Secretariat to engage the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) to support their respective regional EOA-I clusters to ensure uniformity and a balanced development of EOA on the continent. He further urged the Secretariat to finalize the process of getting a consultant to start the rapid assessment on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on food systems-a comparative study on the resilience of farmers under the EOA and conventional food systems across Africa.
The CSC recommended that all EOA programme and project designs should be packaged to present EOA as a viable agricultural system able to enhance livelihoods, boost incomes, environmental benefits and solutions, assure safety, nutrition and food sovereignty to farmers.
The committee further recommended that the value chains approach in particular be adopted. Dr. Nouala underscored the need to have Member States and governments involved in the designing and planning of EOA initiatives for ownership and more efforts put in ensuring that aspects of EOA are integrated into National Agriculture Investment Plans (NAIPs). A meeting is being planned with all RECs on the 21st July 2021 to give them updates on the progress of the EOA implementation and urge them to support the Initiative.
The 16th CSC meeting is scheduled to take place in December 2021 to further provide guidance and oversight on the implementation of the EOA-Initiative in Africa.
Compiled by:
Alex Mutungi
AU-EOA-I Africa Secretariat Coordinator