ACHIEVING REGIONAL FOOD SECURITY IN AFRICA: AN ASSESSMENT OF THE COMPREHENSIVE AFRICA AGRICULTURE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME (CAADP), 2001 - 2023

Abstract

Food is considered as one of the fundamental human rights that should not be denied any human being; and food is also different from other commodities because of its inevitability for survival and existence. The importance of food is recognized by the United Nations Organization (UNO), and this accounts for the reason why one of the millennium development goals is to eradicate poverty and hunger in the world. Other regions and continents such as Europe, America, South East Asia, and others have consistently eradicated hunger and minimized poverty by making food available at all time and making it affordable to their people. However, Africa seems to be lagging behind in its quest to achieving food security for its people. The continental Africa had developed excellent programmes in the past on how to achieve food security in Africa through agricultural revolutionary methodology; yet, poverty and hunger pervert the continent. Having transformed the Organization for African Unity (OAU) to African Union (AU), the African leaders adopted the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) as their principal development framework for the continent; and the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), became an instrument under NEPAD for agricultural transformation, wealth creation and food security for the continent. The aim of this study is to investigate and evaluate the extent CAADP has gone in making Africa food sufficient 22 years after its emergence. Basically, the study is qualitative, utilizing mostly secondary source of data in its analysis. The findings of the study reveal that although CAADP has recorded appreciable presence in almost all African nations, it is far from realizing its potentials. The study, thus, concludes by recommending among other things that CAADP should avoid building parallel structures, rather, it should robustly work with other sub-regional and national agricultural based policy bodies by making sure that African countries key into CAADP’s vision through quality assurance monitoring.