The 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP27, is dubbed ‘African COP’ as the impact of climate change on African countries will be a key theme of discussions. Agriculture and food systems will also be a critical focus of COP27, with Saturday, 12 November, dedicated to both themes, in addition to adaptation. Also high on the climate agenda is the role of the youth, as 10 November is dedicated to their participation.

Ahead of COP27 and in line with their commitment to this youth agenda, the African Development Bank and the Global Center on Adaptation hosted a webinar to examine ways to make agriculture attractive to the youth.

The webinar titled, Are Climate-Smart and Digital Agriculture Solutions the Silver Bullet to Attract Youth, highlighted the potential of climate-smart and digital agriculture in attracting young people and thereby rejuvenating an aging global agricultural sector.

Dr. Kevin Kariuki, African Development Bank’s Vice President for Power Energy, Climate and Green Growth, pointed out the challenges the agriculture sector faces due to the changing climate change.

“Agriculture across most of sub-Saharan Africa is still predominantly rain-fed and therefore extremely vulnerable to both short-term fluctuations and long-term changes in climate conditions. It is the most exposed sector with estimates indicating that climate change will cause a decrease in yields of 8 – 22% for Africa’s rain-fed staple crops over the next 20 years,” Kariuki said.

Dr. Beth Dunford, African Development Bank’s Vice President for Agriculture, Human and Social Development, noted that while agriculture holds tremendous potential for job creation in Africa, its current traditional form is not attractive to young people for various reasons, including negative perceptions.

“Who wants to wear overalls, dig the field with a hoe or drive a tractor when we can do it in a suit and dust coat, right? However, technology makes agriculture cool enough to motivate them to use tech-enabled enterprises to be part of agricultural value chains,” Dunford said.

Prof. Anthony Nyong, Senior Director for Africa at the Global Centre on Adaptation, said: “There is a gap in the agriculture sector in Africa, and that is in the use of digital solutions.”

AAAP’s Climate Smart Digital Technologies for Agriculture and Food Security Pillar is scaling up access to digital technologies and associated data-driven agricultural and financial services for at least 30 million African farmers.

In the African Development Bank’s Program to Build Resilience for Food and Nutrition Security in the Horn of Africa (BREFONS), currently ongoing in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan, the AAAP is facilitating the integration of climate-smart digital technologies for adaptation and resilience.

“The project will increase the productivity of crops and livestock by 30%, reaching about 1.3 million farmers and pastoralists using climate services such as index insurance. About 55,000 additional jobs will be created for youth and women,” said Oluyede Ajayi, Africa Program Lead, Food Security and Rural Well Being, Global Centre on Adaptation.

Panelists said the youth must utilize their digital skills to accelerate the transformation of the agricultural sector, which forms the central pillar of Africa’s economy. They urged participants to contribute to solutions that enhance market linkages to promote agribusiness.

“Africa’s significant youth population faces rising unemployment with myriad negative consequences. These challenges are further exacerbated by climate shocks, skill gaps & limited preparedness to address the effects of climate change,” said Andre-Marie Taptue, Principal Economist at the African Development Bank’s Jobs for Youth program.

AAAP’s YouthAdapt program promotes sustainable job creation through entrepreneurship in climate adaptation and resilience in Africa by unlocking $3 billion in credit for adaptation action.

Last year, the first set of ten young African entrepreneurs and Micro, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises offering innovative solutions and business ideas that can drive climate change adaptation and resilience were awarded at COP26 in Glasgow. This year the Africa Youth Adaptation Competition 20 enterprises across Africa will each receive up to $100,000 in addition to mentorship and coaching to support their climate change adaptation innovation.

Panelists included Claude Migisha from the African Development Bank, Dr. Fleur Wouterse, and Aramide Abe from the Global Center of Adaptation. They shared their views on how AAAP was shaping and adding value to the Bank Digital Agriculture Flagship program, ways to accelerate investor engagement in agriculture adaptation, and how the YouthADAPT was moving the needle on entrepreneurship, unlocking finance and job creation.

Gislaine Matiedje Nkenmayi from Mumita Holdings, a recipient of the 2021 YouthADAPT Challenge award, shared her experience on how the $100,000 grant transformed her enterprise.

“With the grant, we were able to reach out to more than 10 cooperatives with a total of 257 smallholder farmers, to whom we offer free advisory services, low-cost greenhouses and solar-powered irrigation systems. We have been able to expand production from 100kg to 1000kg of fresh vegetables weekly,” Nkenmayi said.

In her concluding remarks, Edith Ofwona Adera, Principal Regional Climate Change Officer and AAAP coordinator at the Bank stressed the need to strengthen adaptation and resilience measures and expedite mainstreaming climate adaptation for transformation at scale. She called for the engagement of the private sector, given the role they can play in adapting to climate change, financing adaptation, and supporting others through products and services for resilience.
Source African Development Bank Group

Nigeria on Monday began its long journey to end hunger and achieve food security by launching the Special Agro-industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ), a programme initiated by the African Development Bank.

According to the President of the African Development Bank, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina “the Special Agro-industrial Processing Zones are new economic zones, located in rural areas, to be fully supported by infrastructure (power, water, roads, digital infrastructure, and logistics) that will allow food and agribusiness companies to locate within such zones. This will put them close to farmers in production catchment areas, provide market offtakes for farmers, support processing and value addition, reduce food losses, and allow the emergence of highly competitive food and agricultural value chains.”

The launch ceremony in the capital Abuja, kick-starts the implementation of phase one of the SAPZ program in eight states across the country. The African Development Bank is providing funding of $210 million, with the Islamic Development Bank and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) jointly providing $310 million. The Nigerian government is contributing $18.05 million.

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari, in remarks delivered by Vice President Professor Yemi Osinbajo, praised the initiative and said, “if the Special Agro-industrial Processing Zones program delivers on its objectives, and we have no doubt that it will, then we would in less than a decade have dealt a fatal blow to food insecurity, create millions of good paying agro-industrial jobs and opportunities and radically improve export earnings from agriculture.”

Adesina, a former minister of agriculture of Nigeria and a World Food Prize Winner, said: “Hunger in Nigeria cannot be justified. Nigeria has the land, with 34 million hectares of arable land with rich and diverse agroecology. It has the water. It has the labor. It has great sunshine. Nigeria must achieve zero hunger. There is no reason for anyone to go hungry in Nigeria.”

To help Africa prevent a food crisis from the Russia-Ukraine war, the African Development Bank launched a $1.5 billion African Emergency Food Production Facility to support 20 million farmers to access climate resilient agricultural technologies and produce 38 million metric tons of food valued at $12 billion.

“The African Emergency Food Production Facility provided $134 million to Nigeria, one of the highest levels of support across African countries. I would like to thank the Japanese International Development Agency (JICA) for co-financing this with an additional $110 million. That means we collectively made available $244 million for emergency food production in Nigeria,” the bank group head said.

Noting that the latest Global Hunger Index (2022) ranks Nigeria 103rd among 121 countries facing hunger crisis in the world, Adesina called for “greater action, responsiveness, and delivery to avert a food crisis in Nigeria”.

“Nigeria must decisively tackle insecurity challenges that prevent farmers from going to the farms. Food security needs national security,” said Adesina.

According to the President of the Islamic Development Bank, Dr. Muhammad Al Jasser, “with the disruption of supplies arising from the war, Africa now faces a shortage of at least 30 million metric tons of food imports from Russia and Ukraine, especially for wheat, maize, and soybeans. Urgent actions are needed to prevent a food crisis in Africa.”

He expressed confidence Nigeria will efficiently implement the SAPZ program which will boost food production, reduce food price inflation, and transform the agriculture sector while assuring food security and creating jobs.

The Associate Vice President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development Ms. Katherine Meighan, said her organization is determined to contribute to the overall goal of the SAPZ programme by empowering 100,000 direct beneficiaries including smallholders, small processors, traders and service providers in Ogun and Kano State, with a strong focus on youth and women.

“Our empowerment strategy aims to equip farmers and smallholders to take advantage of the markets created by the SAPZ to sustainably enhance their income through income-generating activities, household food security and nutrition, and resilience to climate change,” said Meighan.

The Special Agro-industrial Processing Zones will develop value chains for selected strategic crops in Nigeria, including maize, cassava, rice, soybean, cocoa, poultry, and livestock products. They will also create millions of quality jobs, especially for youth and women.

Speaking on behalf of the phase one participating states and the Federal Capital Territory, the Governor of Cross River State, Ben Ayade praised the innovativeness of the program and said “the SAPZ program will help Nigeria develop an economy independent of oil. The program is a classical departure from other projects we know.”

The first phase of the program will include seven States: Cross River, Imo, Kaduna, Kano, Kwara, Ogun, Oyo, and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The SAPZ program has already garnered huge momentum as an additional 19 State governments have expressed strong interest to participate in the program.

Ministers and other senior federal officials, state governors, private sector and members of the diplomatic corps attended the launch ceremony. During the event, Vice President Osinbajo launched a set of commemorative stamps for the Special Agro-industrial Processing Zones. The stamps were designed by Nigerian postal service in conjunction with a local NGO, FLEESD.

In a rallying call around the SAPZ program, Adesina said: “The Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZs) will help feed Nigeria, transform rural economies, expand fiscal space, fully unlock Nigeria’s agricultural potential, and create millions of jobs.”

“I am delighted that the SAPZs have finally come to pass in Nigeria and across Africa,” said Adesina.

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Source African Development Bank Group

Ahead of the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP27, in Egypt in November, the African Development Bank and the Global Center on Adaptation participated in a series of events at the Africa Climate Week to build consensus among African countries and stakeholders.  COP27 is described as Africa’s COP and will significantly shape the future. To deliver on adaptation, a transformative adaptation agenda is needed now.

Titled ‘Adaptation Dialogue: Implementing the Vision,’ the session called for strengthening collaboration on adaptation across the continent. The speakers highlighted the progress made by the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAAP) so far, notably its contribution to narrowing the adaptation gap and accelerating the implementation of the Africa Adaptation Initiative (AAI). The AAI represents Africa’s bold and innovative step to galvanize the support needed to significantly scale up adaptation across the continent.

Speaking on behalf of Dr. Kevin Kariuki, Vice President, Power, Energy, Climate Change and Green Growth, Al-Hamndou Dorsouma, Acting Director of Climate Change & Green Growth Department at the African Development Bank, underscored the urgent need for accelerated adaptation action.

Dorsouma called for accelerated action against climate change while making rapid, deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions to avoid a mounting loss of life, biodiversity, and infrastructure. He noted that progress on adaptation has been uneven so far, with increasing gaps between action taken and what is needed to deal with the increasing risks.

Prof. Anthony Nyong, Senior Director and Africa Regional Director at the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA), highlighted the need to improve climate resilience and adaptation in Africa. He estimated the cost of climate change at $579 billion by 2030, with global finance skewed towards mitigation. Only 7.2% of global finance goes to climate adaptation.

Tanguy Gahouma-Bekale, Special Advisor to the President of the Gabonese Republic and the Permanent Secretary of the National Climate Council, endorsed the AAAP as a primary vehicle for implementing the Africa Adaptation Initiative’s mandate.  The program seeks to mobilize $25 billion to accelerate climate change adaptation actions across Africa.

The AAAP is an Africa-owned and Africa-led response to the continent’s expressed needs and priorities to reduce its vulnerabilities to climate change and harness the opportunities that result from climate change. Since its launch in April 2021, the AAAP upstream financing facility, managed by GCA, has enabled mainstreaming adaptation into investments worth over $3 billion.
Source African Development Bank Group

WHAT:     First Continental Policy Conference on the theme “Promoting the Peace, Security, and Development Nexus: The Promise of Regional Integration.”

WHO:      The African Union in partnership with the African Development Bank, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Afrexim Bank and the Africa Capacity Building Foundation

WHEN:    25-27 October 2022

The African Union in partnership with the above named institutions will organize the first Continental Policy Conference under the theme “Promoting the Peace, Security, and Development Nexus: The Promise of Regional Integration.”

The conference will take place from 25th to 27th October 2022 in Tangier, Morocco. The conference will provide an opportunity for the AU, its partners and the Regional Economic Communities/Regional Mechanisms to reflect on measures and strategies in the promotion of development, regional integration, and peace and security.

The three-day policy conference offers a unique opportunity for participants to exchange views on the practical implementation measures and to launch new initiatives that seek to foster the effective delivery of regional integration, peace and security. The conference will also be an occasion to reaffirm the relevance and critical role of investment and development finance in supporting Africa’s peace and security efforts.

At the end of the conference a final declaration – The Tangier Declaration – will outline the key outcomes of the three-day discussions.

The conference will bring together representatives from the AU, the RECs/RMs, governments, academia, defense and finance, private sector, civil society and development partners.
Source African Development Bank Group