The Pan-African Farmers Organization (PAFO) and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) this Wednesday signed a cooperation and partnership agreement to strengthen the capacities of African farmers’ organizations to ensure that they provide effective services to smallholder farmers, especially women and youth.
Concluded at the PAFO headquarters in Kigali between Elizabeth Nsimadala, President of PAFO and Dr. Agnès Kalibata, President of AGRA, the agreement will support farmers’ organizations to drive policy advocacy around common areas of interest.
The support includes bringing together continental, regional and national level issues connected to goals outlined in the Africa Agriculture Transformation Scorecard (1) and the Malabo Declaration (2) to advocate for specific policy and other investments required to drive inclusive agricultural transformation in Africa.
The partnership will also support programs that ensure that women and young farmers have access to productive resources and structured markets, and address gender and socio-cultural norms.
“I applaud the new partnership between AGRA and PAFO that brings the two institutions together to support smallholder farmers and other producers and help contribute to building back better across the continent in the wake of COVID-19. The partnership marks a major step forward towards building an inclusive, more resilient, and sustainable food system for African smallholder farmers, especially women and youth.” Dr. Kalibata noted.
On her part, Nsimadala underlined that this partnership comes when PAFO is launching its new strategic plan for 2021/2025. “We view this partnership as a strong one which will allow PAFO to implement its new strategy for the next five years.”
She added, “It is the right time to build an ecosystem where different players in the agriculture sector need to move together because our aim in general is to empower our farmers economically, to make sure we end hunger, poverty, to create gender equality and to work around food transformation.”
