Senior African Policy Makers and Stakeholders Urge African Governments to Scale-Up the Purchase for Progress Model of Pro-Smallholder Market Development in Africa

At the conference on, “Scaling-Up the Purchase for Progress (P4P) Model of Pro-Smallholder Market Development in Africa: The Vital Role and Impact of the Public Sector,” hosted by the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Nairobi, Kenya on 10-11 April, 2017, senior African policy makers and key stakeholders from the private sector, civil society, and wider development community adopted this declaration as an affirmation of their strong commitment to scaling up the demand-led model of support to smallholder farmers piloted in 15 African countries under the Purchase for Progress (P4P) initiative.

Declaration, Nairobi, April 11, 2017

We African senior policy makers and stakeholders at the conference on Scaling-Up the Purchase for Progress (P4P) Model of Pro-Smallholder Market Development in Africa: The Vital Role and Impact of the Public Sector, Acknowledging the desire set out in Africa’s Agenda 2063 for shared prosperity and well-being, for unity and integration, for a continent of free citizens and expanded horizons, where the full potential of women, youth, differently-abled persons, boys and girls are realized, and with freedom from fear, disease and want;

Embracing the vision articulated in the Malabo Declaration on Accelerated Agricultural Growth and Transformation for Shared Prosperity and Improved Livelihoods of a modern and productive agricultural sector in Africa driven by science, technology, innovation and indigenous knowledge;

Affirming the goal of a world free of hunger set out in Sustainable Development Goal 2 to End Hunger, Achieve Food Security and Improved Nutrition, and Promote Sustainable Agriculture;

Appreciating the African Development Bank’s Feed Africa Strategy and in particular the clear intention to build on existing successful efforts, bringing them to scale, while enhancing the capacity of key public and private actors;

Noting that recent rapid growth in many parts of Africa has not been sufficiently inclusive, with many people – especially women and youth – at risk of being left behind;

Recognizing that because agriculture will continue to underpin a majority of African livelihoods in the coming decades, inclusive growth in Africa cannot be achieved without a fundamental transformation of African agriculture – a transformation that must itself be inclusive;

Further recognizing that because smallholder farmers will continue to dominate African agriculture long into the future, a central challenge facing policy makers in Africa today is how to promote inclusive and self-sustaining processes of growth fueled by technological advances in smallholder agricultural production and trade;

Comprehending the large body of evidence generated by researchers in Africa and beyond showing that deeper market participation and engagement by smallholders are vital to agricultural transformation, but that such participation and engagement are constrained by a range of structural factors inherent to smallholder systems – e.g., the wide spatial dispersion of farms, lack of on-farm storage capacity, high risk, and thin and unstable input and output markets;

Noting that policy environments can combine with these structural conditions to generate behavior by smallholders that while economically rational, militates against deep and productive market engagement;

Recognizing that numerous promising initiatives in market-based smallholder-led agricultural development have been implemented across the continent, but few have been scaled-up;

Confirming the demand-led P4P approach as one such promising initiative that has been embraced by several governments across the continent;

Further confirming the relevance and effectiveness of the four components that underpin the P4P approach: (1) consistent demand for quality food (where quality relates mainly to food safety but can also include nutrition considerations); (2) targeted capacity strengthening of smallholders, typically through farmer organizations; (3) coordination and linkage support for providers of key supply chain services such as input, finance, and aggregation; and (4) an enabling policy and institutional environment;

Endorsing the gender transformative dimensions of the P4P approach that have delivered significant gains for hundreds of thousands of women farmers;

Acknowledging the rapidly expanding opportunities to use digital platforms to spur inclusive innovation across agricultural value chains, especially by spreading knowledge, boosting skills, improving monitoring and evaluation, and enhancing access to credit and financial services at scale;

Recognizing that strong Government ownership and engagement are critical to the success of the P4P approach, and that recent estimates suggest large and growing demand for quality food by a range of public programmes across Africa including schools, hospitals, prisons, and militaries; and

Appreciating the commitment in the Declaration by Senior Policy Makers at the AERC Senior Policy Seminar held in Maputo, Mozambique on 26-27 March, 2015 to undertake consultations within our own Governments to explore scope for employing pro-smallholder demand-led approaches within public food procurement programs, thereby promoting inclusive and sustainable growth and broader transformation;

1. Affirm that smallholders lie not only at the centre of Africa’s agricultural transformation agenda, but also at the core of the continent’s inclusive social and economic transformation agenda;

2. Commend the efforts of the 15 African governments that facilitated, supported, and successfully implemented P4P-inspired programmes and integrated them into national agricultural development strategies and food reserve systems;

3. Encourage these 15 governments to deepen and scale up these efforts;

4. Applaud the critical role of the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) and its partner institutions, in capacity building for promoting evidence based policies and generating the knowledge basis for decision making to promote inclusive and sustainable agricultural transformation and broader social and economic transformation;

5. Appeal to African governments to boost investment in African institutions devoted to knowledge generation, capacity building, and policy dialogue to support scaling up of the P4P model of smallholder development and support;

6. Urge the World Food Programme to continue to support design and implementation of the P4P model in Africa, based on rigorous technical guidance material, emphasizing scaled-up efforts that adhere to the principles and priorities identified in this conference, including leveraged public sector procurement; and 7. Collectively commit to undertake consultations and planning within our own Governments and organizations to translate the Scaling-up Roadmaps developed at this conference into concrete Action Plans with the elements agreed, including, where appropriate, employing pro-smallholder demand-led approaches within public food procurement programs, thereby promoting inclusive and sustainable growth and broader transformation.

African countries represented at the meeting included: Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.
Other countries represented at the meeting included: Belgium, Canada, China, France, and Russian Federation.
Organizations represented at the meeting included: ACDI/VOCA, African Development Bank, African Economic Research Consortium, African Center for Technology Policy Studies, Bank of Uganda, Bank of Ghana, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Central Bank of Kenya, Citibank, HarvestPlus, International Center for Biosaline Agriculture, International Center for Tropical Agriculture, International Fund for Agricultural Development, Kenya Institute of Public Policy Research and Analysis, Mfarm, UN Food and Agriculture Organization, UN World Food Programme, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Syngenta, University of Cape Town, University of Malawi.