Ugandan elected as the Chair of African Union’s 5th Session of the Specialized Technical Committee (STC) on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment (ARDWE)

By Abdul Rahman Bangura-

Great Africa
Photo Credit: AU

NEW AFRICA BUSINESS NEWS (NABN) Freetown, Sierra Leone- Tumwebaze Uganda’s Minister of Agriculture was elected as the new STC Chair. And has formerly presumed his role as the Chair on November 17th, 2023.

Tumwebaze will retain this status for the following two years, with one of the critical assignments appointed to him being drafting and presenting to the AU summit a successor Continental Agriculture
Development Program to the MALABO Declaration (CAADP 3) by 2025.

Tumwebaze let out in his speech, that there is a necessity to formulate the post Malabo agenda pretty soon enough and requested that Uganda host the summit that will approve the post-Malabo CAADP
agenda.

“We need to ensure that the post-Malabo agenda (2026-2035) is developed and adopted before the expiry of the Malabo CAADP declaration. With the agreement of the Member States, I would like to propose that the host that will endorse to host Malabo CAADP agenda be held in Kampala, Uganda,” he noted.

The Minister likewise implored to the instituted 5th Session to focus on areas that will direct to resilient and sustainable food systems, and economies and create an impact on Africa’s population.

“I would appeal to the 5th Session to concentrate on core areas that will lead to resilient and sustainable food systems and economies and create impact on the African population he told.

He lamented that, this could be attained by boosting agricultural productivity, adding value to produce, integrating food markets, undertaking policy reforms and reviewing implementation methods.

STC on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water, and Environment emphasizes reviewing strategic goals and identifying synergies and linkages, as well as the importance of fulfilling the overarching goals of the Malabo Declaration on Accelerated Agricultural Growth and Transformation for Shared Prosperity and
Improved Livelihoods amongst other roles.

For New Africa Business News (NABN) Abdul Rahman Bangura Reports,  Africa Correspondent