Tanzania is Chiefly on the Path to carrying out its obligations under the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP)… Malabo Goals

By Abdul Rahman Bangura-

Photo Credit: Great Transition Initiative

NEW AFRICA BUSINESS NEWS (NABN) Freetown, Sierra Leone– The Eastern African nation of Tanzania achieved enormous significance than its members in the bloc in the criterion of its obligation to reduce by half the share of its population that is needy.

“Tanzania and Rwanda stayed on track,” said Furaha Marwa, the Principal Agricultural Economist with the East African Community (EAC)”.

He revealed this when he tabled a report on the performance of the sevennation bloc on the Malabo commitments aimed to enhance agricultural production.

The assurances encompassed, among others enhancing finance in agriculture, ending hunger by 2025, and halving poverty also by 2025.

The others are boosting intra-African trade, resilience to climate risks, mutual accountability, and re-commitment to CAADP itself.

CAADP has inceptions in 2003 during the African Union (AU) summit in Maputo and was enhanced by the Malabo summit in 2014 with enactment commencing in 2015.

“Tanzania moved from not being on track during the second Biennial Review (BR2) in 2019 to being on track in 2021,” he said.

The nation, he quoted from the report, recorded “higher scores of performance” on the trade commitment in 2021 than in 2019.

The presentation of the EAC performance on CAADP was chaired by the East and Southern Africa Small Scale Farmers Forum (ESAFF), a Morogoro-based regional body.

The report obtained by The Citizen showed that Tanzania arose first along with the rest of the EAC states on the 2021 review of the intra-African trade.

Tanzania scored 9.3 percent against Rwanda’s 9.8 percent.

Tanzania also trailed Rwanda in a commitment to dissect poverty through agriculture by 2025 as envisaged in the Malabo Declaration.

However, it arose first – alongside Rwanda – with 10% points in its general recommitment to the CAADP process, the report asserted.

Farming is a key sector in EAC economies, reckoning for 25 to 44% of the partner states’ Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 80% of employment.

While more than 70% in the region is agro-based, agrarian products constitute 65% of the volume of intra-regional trade.

The foremost AU Malabo Biennial of View Report for 2017 was published in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on January 30th, 2018 during the Heads of States Summit.

The report insists the EAC partner states can achieve the critical goals of the Malabo Declaration through increased investments in agriculture.

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