Multilateral agencies, comprising ActionAid International, OXFAM, TrustAfrica, Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Non-State Actors Coalition (CNC) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have facilitated an interactive session with the ECOWAS Parliament in Abuja, Nigeria.

The interactive session, which held on December 13, 2018, was part of the engagement activities during the 1st ECOWAS People’s Agriculture Budget Summit 2018. The theme of the summit was “The State of Public Financing of Agriculture in ECOWAS Member States: Sustaining the CAADP Commitment”.

The interactive session engaged the lawmakers on the current research findings on the performance of ECOWAS Member States on the commitment to the Malabo Declaration on allocation of minimum of 10 per cent of annual budgets to agriculture.

The report was presented by the Consultant, Dr Olawale Olayide, of the Centre for Sustainable Development, University of Ibadan. The results indicated that only three Members States (Burkina Faso, Mali, and Senegal) out of the 15 countries in West Africa, have fulfilled the commitment which was adopted by Members States June 2014.

The report recommended increase in the quantity (minimum of 10% annual budgetary allocation) and quality (timely and total release) of agriculture budgets with a view to improving overall performance in the agricultural sector, accelerate growth and transformation for shared prosperity and improved livelihoods with special focus on smallholder farmers and women.

The Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, Hon Moustapha Cissé Lo, on behalf of the parliamentarians, pledged to encourage the Member States through their oversight functions and legislative duties to remain committed to the Malabo Declaration on allocation of minimum of 10 per cent of annual budgets to agriculture.

The participants at the interactive session were members of the ECOWAS Parliament, members of the agriculture, budget and finance, and legal and judiciary and other Parliamentarians, representatives from the Federal Ministries of Agriculture, Budget & National Planning and Finance, Senate and House Committees on Agriculture & Rural Development, Appropriation, State Ministries of Agriculture in Nigeria, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), women farmers and farmers organisations, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), media practitioners, the academia, and development partners.

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