Advancing Country-led Accountability for Performance in the Ag Sector: Africa’s CAADP Biennial Review

Event Information
Addressing Africa’s agricultural challenges has the potential to unlock inclusive economic growth, benefit smallholder farmers, boost food production and end hunger. It is for this reason that African heads of state and governments signed a declaration on Agriculture and Food Security in Maputo, Mozambique in July 2003, creating the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) to increase public investment in agriculture by a minimum of 10 percent of national budgets, and to raise agricultural productivity by at least 6 percent.
In 2014, as part of the Malabo Declaration, African Union Member States committed to report biennially on implementation of CAADP through the Africa Agriculture Transformation Scorecard (AATS) which lays out 47 indicators.
The inaugural 2017 Biennial Review (BR) Report and AATS, the first of its kind in Africa, was launched and endorsed by the AU General Assembly in January 2018. The second BR report was presented at the AU General Assembly in February of this year.
This webinar will explore the BR as a tool for direction, tracking performance and learning to achieve better results in improving livelihoods and creating shared prosperity. We will explore findings from the most recent 2019 Biennial Review and seek to understand experiences at the country and regional levels as well as that of non-state actors in the BR process.
The 90-minute conversation, Advancing Country-led Accountability for Performance in the Ag Sector: Africa’s CAADP Biennial Review, will feature a presentation by Dr. Godfrey Bahiigwa of the African Union Commission on CAADP’s Biennial Review, including the newly released 2019 country data on country progress toward meeting the goals of Africa’s agricultural transformation as set out in the Malabo Declaration. The presentation will be followed by a panel discussion with regional and country representatives to share their perspectives on the process, its value-add in improving performance and the road ahead.
Featuring
- Godfrey Bahiigwa, Director of Rural Economy and Agriculture, African Union Commission
Dr. Bahiigwa will deliver a presentation on the CAADP Biennial Review process and the recently released country results of the 2019 Biennial Review. He will also share the African Union Commission's plans for the process going forward.
- Constance Okeke, International Project Manager, Public Finance for Agriculture, ActionAid International
Ms. Okeke will participate in the panel discussion to share the non-state actor (NSA) perspective on the Biennial Review process and the role of non-state actors as well as thoughts on the NSA Value-Added BR Toolkit.
- Angela Mercy Dannson, Director, Policy Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Directorate, Ghana Ministry of Food and Agriculture
Ms. Dannson will participate in the panel discussion to share her perspective on the Biennial Review process and how Ghana was able to significantly improve performance compared to the 2017 Biennial Review.
- Josephine Quagraine, Deputy Director & Head of Policy Planning & Analysis Division at the Policy Planning, Monitoring & Evaluation Directorate, Ghana Ministry of Food and Agriculture
Ms. Quagraine will participate in the panel discussion to share her experience in the 2017 Biennial Review and leading much of the work for the 2019 Biennial Review.
- Moneim Elhoweris, Agriculture Programme Manager Food Security & CAADP Focal Person in the Agriculture and Environment Division of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development
Mr. Elhoweris will participate in the panel discussion to share experience from the regional perspective, including how they have been able to engage and utilize the BR tool.
Speakers
James Oehmke

Senior Food Security and Nutrition Policy Adviser
USAID Bureau for Resilience and Food Security
James F. Oehmke is a Senior Food Security and Nutrition Policy Adviser at the U.S. Agency for International Development and an Adjunct Professor at Northwestern University. He conducts research on and designs policy systems programming for constructing and implementing complex, multi-stakeholder solutions to development problems. His current research focuses on the economic effects of marginalization, inclusion, cooperation and accountability in development processes. Previously James served as CEO of the George Morris Centre in Guelph, Ontario, Canada; and as a Professor of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics at Michigan State University. He has a B.A. in Mathematics and Economics from Yale University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago.
Godfrey Bahiigwa

Director of the Department for Rural Economy (DREA)
African Union Commission
Dr. Godfrey Bahiigwa is the Director of the Department for Rural Economy (DREA) of the African Union Commission based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. DREA works with AU Member States, Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and other partners to boost rural economic development and agricultural sector developemt by supporting the adoption of strategies, policies and programmes on agriculture.
Prior to joining the African Union, Dr. Bahiigwa was the Head for IFPRI’s Eastern and Southern Africa Office (ESAO) based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Before that, he spent 15 years working with national and international research and policy organizations as a researcher and a practitioner.
He has extensive experience working with the Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System (ReSAKSS) and the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) at all levels. He was the founding coordinator of ReSAKSS Eastern and Central Africa (while based at ILRI) and later as the ReSAKSS Africawide Coordinator at IFPRI. Prior to joining IFPRI he was the director of Uganda’s Plan for Modernization of Agriculture (PMA) and was the CAADP focal person. He also supported the CAADP process in many countries in Africa.
Dr. Bahiigwa holds a PhD in Agricultural Economics from the University of Missouri-Columbia; a Master’s degree in Agricultural and Applied Economics from the University of Minnesota; and Bachelors degree in Agriculture from Makerere University.
Abdel Moneim Suliman Elhoweris

Regional Ag. Program Manager for Food Security
Intergovernmental Authority on Development
Elhoweris is an Agricultural economist through education and experience, policy researcher and analyst by profession, having over thirty years’ experience with public, private, non-governmental and international organizations, worked extensively in the field of economic development generally and in rural development in particular, with wealth of experience on food security and nutrition.
Member to the Africa Union (AU) Experts Group Team responsible of finalizing the continental Biennial Review (BR) Reporting Mechanism, and Taskforce Member to the Africa Union General assembly of January 2018, 2020 and beyond. Lead facilitator towards the implementation of the Biennial Reporting mechanism exercise for Eastern and Africa Region.
Currently working as Regional Ag. Programme Manager Food Security and Focal Person to the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) at the Agriculture and Environment Division of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development [AED/IGAD] based in Djibouti.
Josephine Quagrainie

Deputy Director, Head of Policy Planning and Analysis Division
Ministry of Food And Agriculture Ghana
Related Resources
Webinar Recording
Presentation Audio
Webinar Presentation Slides
Presentation Audio Transcript
Presentation Chat Transcript