World
Biden Promotes Partnerships At African Leaders Summit
By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh
President Joe Biden has told 49 African leaders and heads of the African Union who assembled in Washington for the second US-Africa Leaders Summit that the United States is raising its relations and renewing a resonating commitment towards improving developments on the continent.
In his speech, Biden referred to the fact that the United States is a reliable partner and offered $55 billion in commitment for investments over the next three years and more than $15 billion for private trade and investment partnerships.
Biden said a new agreement with the African Continental Free Trade Area would give American companies access to 1.3 billion people and a market valued at $3.4 trillion. He listed companies that had made deals at the summit, including General Electric Co and Cisco Systems Inc.
Biden hailed projects from American companies, including a collaboration between Microsoft Corp. and Viasat Inc. to bring internet access to 5 million Africans. Microsoft aims to bring access to 100 million people across the continent by the end of 2025. Cisco is working with the Biden administration to train 3 million more technology workers in Africa over the next 10 years.
“The United States is all-in on Africa’s future,” Biden said on economic ties between the U.S. and Africa that included CEOs from more than 300 American and African companies.
Biden talked about new trade opportunities and investments in Africa – which is currently experiencing geopolitical rivalry and competition for political and economic influence. “When Africa succeeds, the United States succeeds. Quite frankly, the whole world succeeds as well,” the president said.
He said the United States would also invest in African infrastructure, citing what he called the first-ever regional transport compact from the Millennium Challenge Corporation, which would invest $500 million to build and maintain roads and implement policies to reduce transportation costs. Biden said he expected the MCC to commit an additional $2.5 billion in Africa over the next three years.
He announced a memorandum of understanding with Africa on free trade security in order to unlock new opportunities for trade, as well as investments in infrastructure to facilitate trade within Africa.
In addition, Biden announced that the U.S. would invest $350 million to facilitate Africa’s participation in the digital economy and the International Development Finance Corporation will invest nearly $370 million for new projects.
“Improving Africa’s infrastructure is essential to our vision of building a stronger global economy that can better withstand the kinds of shocks that we’ve seen the past few years,” he said.
Earlier during a dinner in honour of the African guests, Biden, in a toast, spoke about the need for African nations and the United States to work together to address global challenges.
“I’ve never been more optimistic about our shared future,” Biden said. “Together, we can deliver a world that is healthier and safer, more equal, juster, more prosperous and more filled with opportunity for everyone.”
Senegalese President Macky Sall, who is also chairman of the African Union, told Biden that “Africa wants to advance the common agenda with you and take the partnership to the next level in an inclusive approach, bringing together governments, the private sector, civil society and the African diaspora.”
Topping U.S. commitments, Biden pledged $55 billion in financial aid over the next three years. The money will go to “a wide range of sectors to tackle the core challenges of our time” and is being distributed in close partnership with Congress.
Here is what the White House has said so far about where the $55 billion will go: On Health, the Biden-Harris administration has invested and committed to providing nearly $20 billion in health programs in the African region, the White House said.
That includes $11.5 billion to address HIV/AIDS; more than $2 billion to combat malaria; more than $2 billion in support of family planning and reproductive health as well as maternal and child health; and more than $2 billion to address the health, humanitarian, and economic impacts of COVID-19.
The administration also plans to ask Congress for $4 billion for healthcare workers in Africa, investing $1.33 billion annually from 2022 to 2024.
Relating to Climate Change: Since January 2021, the administration has invested and plans to provide at least $1.1 billion to support African-led efforts to support conservation, climate adaptation, and energy transitions.
These funds include U.S. International Development Finance Corporation investments into Malawi’s Golomoti JCM Solar Corporation and a Climate Action Infrastructure Facility.
And on Trade: In another development, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai has signed a memorandum of understanding with the African Continental Free Trade Area aims at exploring work on the next phases of the U.S.-African trade relationship. United States sees enormous opportunities to improve the longstanding African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) system of trade preferences, which is due to expire in 2025.
“The world that we’re living in today certainly has been transformed by significant events that we have experienced since 2015, the last time the program was reauthorized,” Tai noted during a meeting of trade ministers from Sub-Saharan Africa to discuss AGOA as part of a U.S.-Africa summit in Washington. “We’ve consistently seen that there are opportunities for the program to be better; there could be much better uptake and utilization of the program.”
AGOA offered promise as a “stepping stone to address regional and global challenges,”, especially with Africa’s young and entrepreneurial population, she said. “The future is Africa, and engaging with this continent is the key to prosperity for all of us.”
During the summit, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. government is investing in infrastructure to foster African innovation to create a free flow of ideas, information, and investment for entrepreneurs. For instance, U.S. Development Finance Corporation is investing $300 million in building data centres across the continent.
Questions concerning Young entrepreneurs: the United States is investing in raising leaders through the Young African Leaders Initiative and Mandela Washington Fellows. In addition, last September 2022, the U.S. African Development Foundation partnered with the Tony Elumelu Foundation to create a new program to provide financing, technical assistance, and mentorship to emerging innovators in Africa.
Quite recently, America also launched an initiative to connect up-and-coming climate entrepreneurs with American companies and also to promote greater encouragement by American companies in Africa.
“U.S. private sector already invests more than $4 in Africa for every dollar our government allocates to the region in foreign assistance – and it wants to do more. That’s the objective of our Office of Global Partnerships, which will take a U.S. private sector delegation to Ghana in February,” added Blinken.
The summit was the largest international gathering in Washington since the coronavirus pandemic. The first U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit was held in 2014 during the time of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States, from 2009 to 2017.
By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh
For three working days, 9th –11th January 2025, in the Speke Resort Conference Centre in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, the African Union Commission (AUC) will host the Extraordinary Summit on the Post-Malabo Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP). This Summit is supported by the Government of Uganda.
The event is organized jointly by the African Union Commission, Department of Agriculture Rural Development Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment (DARBE) and African Union Development Agency- New Partnership African Development (AUDA-NEPAD).
Dignitaries will deliver statements on the consideration of the Kampala Declaration, the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Ten-Year Strategy and Action Plan (2026-2035); the draft Statute of Africa Food Safety Agency; and the report on selection of African Union Centres of Excellence for Research and Training in Fisheries, Aquaculture, Aquatic Biodiversity Conservation and Ecosystems Management.
The Objectives of the Summit:
The convening of the extraordinary session of the Assembly is specifically to:
Endorse the draft Kampala CAADP Declaration. The draft declaration provides a vision for transforming Africa’s Agrifood Systems for the period: 2026-2035.
Endorse Ten-Year CAADP Strategy and Action Plan: 2026-2035. This plan provides details on how to achieve the goals and targets in the draft Kampala CAADP Declaration.
Risk Management and Mitigation
The post-Malabo CAADP strategy will span ten years, from 2626 to 2035. Given the longtime horizon, many risks and uncertainties could affect the strategic positioning of the agri-food systems transformation agenda to deliver on its goals. There are external socioeconomic, environmental, and other shocks that might come up, which will demand that the strategy be agile enough to respond to such unforeseen developments. The strategy will therefore call for institutional adaptation to changes in a complex and rapidly changing context. Major risks and uncertainties will need to be identified and outlined together with their respective mitigation actions.
Key interventions to ensure better risk management include:
- Identify potential risks (e.g., political instability, climate change) and put in place mechanisms for dealing with or mitigating such risks
- Identify health crises, including pandemics or epidemics, early and develop mechanisms for minimizing negative impacts
- Identify and address gender inequalities or biases and restrictive social norms that may limit the access of women and youth to education, resources, and decision making processes thereby preventing them from fully participating in and benefiting from agricultural activities or initiatives
- Invest in durable peace because it is essential for building resilient agri-food systems (from the local to global levels) and affects agricultural production, food security, market access, investment, resilience, and social cohesion. Establishing and maintaining peace is critical for enabling long-lasting investment to unlock the full potential of Africa’s agri-food systems. The Kampala CAADP Declaration will need to emphasize establishing conflict-resolution mechanisms at the community level while strengthening local markets and value chains.
- Promote household insurance and other coping mechanisms that can help mitigate the impact of health shocks on livelihoods. These mechanisms will be key to enhancing the resilience of communities.
- Enhance public health surveillance systems to detect and respond to health threats, including of zoonotic origin. It will also be important to strengthen food safety measures to prevent health shocks related to foodborne diseases.
- Financial resources will be required to achieve the Kampala CAADP declaration’s resilience objectives. Specifically, households need access to credit, savings, and other financial instruments that help them weather economic shocks.
- Food price monitoring: It will be necessary to implement policies that stabilize food markets and prevent price volatility to ensure a steady supply of food and agricultural inputs.
- Capacities development of African governments to formulate resilience-focused policy measures is a critical step and a priority for the CAADP Strategy and Action Plan. Mainstreaming resilience-focused policies will trickle down to operational actions led by various stakeholders towards sustainable agri-food systems.
Background: The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) has been crucial in driving agricultural transformation across Africa since its inception in 2003. The program is aimed at increasing food security and nutrition, reducing rural poverty, creating employment, and contributing to economic development while safeguarding the environment. CAADP aims for a 6% annual growth rate in the agricultural sector, with African Union member states allocating at least 10% of their budgets to agriculture.
Building on the Maputo Declaration (2003-2013), the 2014 Malabo CAADP Declaration renewed commitment to CAADP and established ambitious goals for 2025, including eradicating hunger, reducing malnutrition, tripling intra-African trade, and building resilience of livelihoods and production systems. The Malabo Declaration underscored the importance of mutual accountability through agricultural biennial reviews and recognized the essential role of related sectors like infrastructure and rural development. During the Thirty-Seventh Ordinary Session of the African Union Assembly in February 2024, the Heads of State and Government expressed concern that the continent is not on track to meet the Malabo CAADP goals and targets by 2025. This has spurred a call for the development of a post-Malabo CAADP agenda to build resilient agri-food systems.
It is in this context that the An Extraordinary Summit of The African Union Assembly of Heads of States and Governments is scheduled for January 9th to 11th 2025 in Kampala, Uganda, to deliberate on the post-Malabo CAADP agenda to consider the draft Ten-Year CAADP Strategy and Action Plan with its associated draft Kampala Declaration on Advancing Africa’s Inclusive Agrifood Systems Transformation for Sustainable Economic Growth and Shared Prosperity.
Format and Structure of the Summit: The Extraordinary Summit will start with a one-day meeting of the Ministers responsible for Agriculture, Rural Development Water and Environment on the 9th of January 2025, to be followed by Joint Session of the Ministers of Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment together with the Ministers of Foreign Affairs on the 10th of January 2025.
The sessions will feature two presentations the: i) draft CAADP Ten-Year Strategy and Action Plan (2026-2035); ii) draft Kampala CAADP Declaration and both will be done in closed sessions. The Ministerial sessions will be structured to encourage inclusive and interactive conversations and dialogue among the Ministers, as well as between the Ministers and key strategic stakeholders. At the same time, it will enable the Ministers to review the strategic documents presented to them for their consideration and recommendations to the Assembly.
The Assembly of Heads of State and Government will convene on the 11th of January 2025 to endorse the: i) draft Ten-Year CAADP Strategy and Action Plan (2026-2035); ii) draft Kampala CAADP Declaration.
Participants: The Extraordinary Summit on the CAADP Agenda will be attended by Heads of States and Government of the African Union Member State, Ministers of Foreign Affairs, PRCs, Ministers and Experts in-Charge of Agriculture (forestry, fisheries, crops and livestock), Rural Development, Water and Environment, RECs, Youth, Women, Non-State Actors, Media, Academia and Development Partners
African Union: The AU is guided by its vision of “An Integrated, Prosperous and Peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the global arena.” The African Union (AU) is a continental body consisting of the 55 member states that make up the countries of the African Continent. To ensure the realisation of its objectives and the attainment of the Pan African Vision of an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, Agenda 2063 was developed as a strategic framework for Africa’s long term socio-economic and integrative transformation. Agenda 2063 calls for greater collaboration and support for African led initiatives to ensure the achievement of the aspirations of African people.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Global food commodity prices declined by 2.1 per cent in 2024 compared to the previous year, 2023, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said on Friday.
However, it warned they remain considerably higher than before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The UN FAO overall Food Price Index averaged 122.0 points — 2.6 points or 2.1 per cent lower than the average value in 2023Food prices increased over the course of the year, with the index climbing from 117.6 points in January to 127.0 in December.
The index rose 6.7 per cent from December 2023 to 2024, with meat, dairy and food oils accounting for the increase.
The UN’s food agency tracks monthly and global changes in the international prices of a set of globally traded commodities.
The disruption to global trade during the COVID-19 pandemic initially saw food prices dip but they later climbed higher amid the surge in inflation as the global economy rebounded.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 sent them spiking to records since both nations are major wheat exporters, but efforts to ensure shipments were not blocked led to prices easing lower until the beginning of 2024.
The dip in the average value for the index between 2023 and 2024 was mainly due to falls in cereals and sugar prices.
Cereals dropped 13.3 points compared to 2023 underpinned by lower wheat and coarse grain prices, marking a second annual decline from the 2022 record level.
The Sugar Price Index averaged 125.8 points, down 19.2 points (13.2 per cent) from 2023 mainly reflecting record-high exports from Brazil during the year and a positive global supply outlook for the 2024/25 season
The decreases were offset in part by a 9.4-per cent rise in the vegetable oil price index.
In 2024 as a whole, the FAO Dairy Price Index averaged 129.6 points, up 5.8 points (4.7 per cent) from 2023. This increase was mainly attributed to a sharp surge in butter prices, on the back of a high global demand and constrained exportable supplies, resulting from erratic weather patterns that negatively impacted production.
For meat prices, they averaged 117.2 points, up 3.1 points (2.7 per cent) from 2023. This was driven by robust import demand from key meat-importing countries, amid slower global production growth.
This sustained higher average prices for bovine (cattle), ovine (sheep), and poultry meats, while average pig meat prices declined, prompted by subdued import demand, particularly from China.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigeria has won a prolonged legal battle to recover over $6 million in arms funds that had been seized by the United States government since 2014.
The funds were seized about a decade ago from an arms broker, who was trying to supply military equipment from the US to Nigeria without having the necessary licence.
The US government said the arms broker’s active involvement in the sale, export, and supply of military products to Nigeria without authorisation was a violation of the Arms Export Control Act, leading to the seizure of the funds.
However, in a ruling on December 23, the US District Court for Eastern California ordered the release of the funds totalling about $6.02 million after confirming Nigeria’s interest in it.
Judge Jenniffer Thurston issued a permanent order of forfeiture of the money in favour of Nigeria, modifying the earlier January 2020 preliminary order forfeiting the assets to the US government.
The judge ordered the US government to release the money with the accrued interests to the Nigerian government within 60 days.
“Within sixty (60) days from entry of this Stipulation for Final Order of Forfeiture and Order Thereon, the US Customs and Border Protection shall return the above-listed assets to Petitioner, along with any interest earned by the United States while on deposit in an interest-bearing account,” a copy of the court order said.
For context, Nigeria had paid agents for the purchase of military equipment during the peak of the Boko Haram insurgency in 2014, but received neither the funds nor the equipment it intended to purchase.
The deal ran into a roadblock in August 2014 when the US government denied approval to purchase and export the arms to Nigeria because the agents were not approved to carry out the deal.
The US government seized the money, describing it as the proceeds of a violation of its Arms Export Control Act, on the grounds that the agency did not have the licence to engage in the sale, export, import and brokering of military products at the time.
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