Development partners to commit $30bln to boost food production in Africa: Dakar 2 Summit

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The second Africa food summit in Senegal ended with development partners agreeing to commit $30bn to back the continent’s resolve to boost agricultural productivity and become a breadbasket for the world.

Among the development, partners are the African Development Bank which plans to contribute $10bn over five years, and the Islamic Development Bank, which intends to provide $5bn.

The Dakar 2 Summit—under the theme ‘Feed Africa: food sovereignty and resilience’—adopted a Declaration on the implementation of the Summit’s resolution, to be submitted to the African Union, including 34 heads of state and government, 70 government ministers, and development partners, to work tirelessly on compacts that would transform agriculture across Africa.

African Development Bank Group President Akinwumi Adesina said the continent and its partners are determined to see results and that implementation is critical to boosting food production and feeding Africa.

“The message was clear: we will work together to strongly support the implementation of the Food and Agriculture Delivery Compacts at country levels,” Adesina said.

He said the heads of state and government committed to setting up presidential high-level advisory councils to oversee the implementation of the Compacts, to be chaired by the presidents themselves in their respective countries.

Adesina commended the high turnout at the event. “We came in response to a clarion call out of Africa that it is time for Africa to feed Africa. The clarion call was that the time is right, and the time is now for Africa to feed itself. We came from Africa. We came from around the world.”

In the Dakar Declaration, the leaders agreed to allocate at least 10% of public expenditure to increase funding for agriculture. They also resolved to deploy robust production packages to boost productivity and increase resilience to achieve food security and self-sufficiency.