CELEP participation in 3rd AU–EU Agriculture Ministerial Conference in Rome

CELEP joined the Third African Union-European Union Agriculture Ministerial Conference in Rome on 21 June 2019. As mentioned on the meeting website, the aim was “to further unlock the potential for a positive rural transformation and an inclusive and sustainable agriculture and agri-food sector in Africa”. The meeting focused mainly on the report of the Taskforce Rural Africa, mandated to set out priorities for future collaboration between the AU and the EU – and their respective Member States – in the field of agriculture. CELEP was asked by the European Commission (DEVCO) to suggest a speaker to represent Eastern African farmers and pastoralists. Ms Sadia Ahmed – the country representative in Somaliland for CELEP member PENHA (Pastoral and Environmental Network in the Horn of Africa) – joined this important meeting to advocate for pastoralism. She highlighted the importance of pastoralism in several sessions and also made sure that pastoralism was well included in a statement made by AU and EU civil society organisations (CSOs) that joined the meeting. This final statement can be found here. Sadia also made a write-up of her impressions of the meeting, with some interesting perspectives on how to continue lobbying for pastoralism in future AU–EU collaboration (see her write-up here). The final political declaration of the meeting as well as the action agenda can be found here. It will be important to follow up on this in future CELEP lobbying activities and also use this as an indicator for future budget allocation of the EU in terms of development aid.

Posted on 18 July 2019 in CELEP Documents, News