Africa must move beyond political declarations and turn food-system commitments into practical action, the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) has said, as conflict, climate pressures and energy disruptions continue to put food systems under strain.
Speaking at the AGRA High-Level Ministerial Roundtable on Transforming Food Systems in the Context of Global Conflict and the Energy Crisis, AUDA-NEPAD Chief Executive Officer H.E. Mrs. Nardos Bekele-Thomas said Africa’s food future would depend on what governments actually implement and finance.
She said the pressures facing food systems have made resilience more than an agricultural concern, linking it directly to food sovereignty, national security and economic stability.
Why the emphasis on delivery?
AUDA-NEPAD’s position comes against the backdrop of years of continental agricultural commitments.
African leaders adopted the Maputo Declaration in 2003, committing governments to allocate at least 10 per cent of national budgets to agriculture. The commitment was later reinforced through the Malabo Declaration in 2014, which set further targets for transforming Africa’s agriculture and food systems.
But the history of these commitments has also exposed a familiar problem: the gap between what African governments agree to and what is eventually implemented and financed.
That history is particularly relevant as African countries face another wave of food-system pressures, including climate shocks, conflict, volatile energy costs and disruptions to trade and agricultural inputs.
For farmers and consumers, those pressures do not remain at the policy level. They can translate into higher production costs, disrupted supplies and rising food prices.
From Kampala commitments to government action
Bekele-Thomas said the commitments made under the Kampala process must now become part of the machinery of government.
That means incorporating them into national development plans, budgets, investment strategies, data systems and accountability mechanisms, rather than leaving them as commitments made at continental meetings.
“Africa’s food future will not be secured by declarations alone. It will be secured by delivery,” Bekele-Thomas said.
She added that the real measure of the Kampala commitments would not be how many countries endorsed them, but what gets implemented, what gets financed and what changes in people’s lives.
Fewer programmes, stronger results
AUDA-NEPAD is also pushing governments to concentrate resources on a smaller number of programmes that are capable of attracting financing and producing measurable results.
The agency said such programmes should target agricultural productivity, nutrition, resilience, value addition, jobs and trade.
The approach reflects a broader concern that spreading limited resources across too many programmes can make it harder to achieve meaningful results.
Putting African institutions at the centre
AUDA-NEPAD also wants national institutions to play a greater role in delivering food-system reforms.
The agency highlighted the importance of universities, research organisations, farmer groups and the private sector in building stronger national capacity.
It also said international partnerships should support country-owned priorities rather than create parallel systems that operate outside national structures.
For Africa, the challenge now is familiar but increasingly urgent: turning another set of continental food commitments into programmes that are funded, implemented and felt by farmers, businesses and households.
The next test, therefore, will not be another declaration. It will be delivery.
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