New expert panel will join efforts to accelerate agricultural growth and cut hunger in Africa

April 26, 2017. Leading agriculture and food security experts from Africa and Europe have come together to support efforts by African countries to sustain and accelerate the current pace of growth in order to achieve the goals set by the African Union of sharply reducing poverty and ending hunger within the next decade. 

The new Malabo Montpellier Panel will promote the use of high quality analysis and evidence coupled with exchange and dialogue among leading decision makers to inform and guide good policy choices. The Panel will have its inaugural meeting and also take an active role in the G20 ‘ONE WORLD, No Hunger’ conference in Berlin on April 27-28. 

The Malabo Montpellier Panel will stimulate and share ideas to boost productivity and drive growth and employment. High-quality research compiled by the Panel will equip decision makers to design and implement policies and programmes that benefit smallholder farmers.

More than 232.5 million people in Africa are undernourished. Good agricultural policy and practice lies at the heart of addressing food and nutritional security, and boosting development. The Panel aims to ensure Africa is better able to address shared challenges and spread innovations.

Malabo Montpellier Panel Co-Chair, Dr Ousmane Badiane said: “With the drought in East Africa and local famines, the work of the Malabo Montpellier Panel has become even more urgent. Unique factors combine to affect food security in each country but we must do what we can to boost agricultural productivity and ensure everyone has access to sustaining food and sustainable livelihoods.”

The Malabo Declaration, supported by the Panel, was adopted by fifty-four African governments in 2014. It commits signatory countries to halve the number of people in poverty by 2025 through inclusive agricultural growth that creates job opportunities for young people and women.

The Panel’s other Co-Chair, Professor Joachim von Braun said: “Agriculture has an enormous potential to drive development and transform rural areas in Africa. Jobs are urgently needed for rural youth in particular. Young entrepreneurs and women, including the next generation of farmers, must be supported with better education and vocational training.”

The Panel will convene senior decision makers at an annual Malabo Montpellier Forum to assess strategies for meeting global agriculture and food security goals. Dialogue between the Panel, key stakeholders, NGOs and the private sector will promote the sharing of research across borders.

The Panel is hosted by the West and Central African Office of the International Food Policy Research Institute and headquartered in Senegal. It is supported by the Center for Development Research of University of Bonn and Imperial College London and works closely with the Regional Strategic Analysis of Knowledge Support Systems (ReSAKSS), the main review and learning platform set up under the African Union’s Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP).

The Panel’s first technical report will be presented in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire at the African Green Revolution Forum from 4-8 September 2017.

For more information and to arrange interviews contact:

Hawa Diop, +221 77 515 08 12, <link _blank>H.Diop@cgiar.org

or Katie Ward, 07900 241608, <link _blank>katie@digacommunications.com

Members:

The members of the Malabo Montpellier Panel are detailed below and you can find more information about them and resources on the website <link http: www.mamopanel.org _blank>www.mamopanel.org  

 ●      Dr Ousmane Badiane, Co-Chair, Africa Director, International Food Policy Research Institute

●      Professor Joachim von Braun, Co-Chair, Director, The Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn

●      Dr Adebisi Araba, Regional Director for Africa, Centre for Tropical Agriculture

●      Tom Arnold, Director General, Institute for International and European Affairs

●      Professor Noble Banadda, Chair, Department of Agricultural and Bio Systems Engineering, Makerere University

●      Dr Patrick Caron, Chair of the United Nations, High-Level Panel of Experts on Food Security

●      Sir Gordon Conway, Professor of International Development, Imperial College London

●      Professor Gebisa Ejeta, Professor of Plant Breeding & Genetics and International Agriculture, Purdue University

●      Dr Karim El Aynaoui, Managing Director, OCP Policy Center

●      Professor Lisa Sennerby Forsse, President, Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry

●      Professor Sheryl Hendriks, Director, Institute for Food Nutrition and Well-being, University of Pretoria

●      Professor Muhammadou Kah, Professor of Information Technology and Communications, ADA University Baku

●      Dr Agnes Kalibata, President, The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa

●      Dr Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg, Director, African Women in Agricultural Research and Development

●      Nachilala Nkombo, Interim Africa Executive Director, ONE Campaign

●      Ishmael Sunga, CEO, Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions

●      H.E. Tumusiime Rhoda Peace, Former Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, African Union Commission