In June / July 2009, the AU Heads of State Summit will be held in Tripoli, Libya with a focus on agriculture on the theme ‘Investing in Agriculture for Economic Growth and Food Security’. The following sub themes where position papers are being prepared will also be discussed;

1.  Climate Change: Opportunities for enhanced investments and growth of African Agriculture
2. Regional Agriculture trade and market systems: Issues and challenges for stimulating economic transformation and growth in Africa
3. Investment Financing: Making African Agriculture a viable investment option Stimulating   participation of the ultra-poor in rural economic activities.

NEPAD sees this year’s Summit as yet another milestone in the advancement of the CAADP agenda, coming as it does after the agreed deadline of 10% budgetary allocations to agriculture by 2008, and more broadly African Agriculture. This is seen as the most important Summit in redefining the future of African agriculture after the Maputo Summit of 2003. 

The Summit is being convened six years after the endorsement of CAADP by the African Heads of State and Government. The Summit is also being convened against the back drop of global consensus in getting agriculture back on top of the development agenda - by development partners, including bilateral and multilateral agencies as well as foundations. 

The Summit is also being convened against a climate of global financial crisis and high food prices, which are threatening the economic and political gains that Africa has achieved over the past decade. Indeed the full impact of the current global financial crisis and the high food prices on investments in Africa and more specifically agricultural investments are yet to be discerned. However, there are concerns that exports of key commodities into western markets, remittances by Africans in the Diaspora (some of which go into agriculture) will decline. 

The importance of economic integration should not be underestimated, given the opportunity it provides for intra- and inter-regional trade, development of local markets that can stimulate and foster industrialization and economies of scale that large markets can offer. Regional integration also offers Africa the opportunity to concentrate and capitalize on the areas and products where each region and/or country has a comparative advantage and can benefit from its competitive edge. This has also got the potential to enable Africa to scale-up its infrastructural development thereby improving the environment for trade. 

In the wake of the global financial crisis the Summit, should also serve as a platform in calling upon the global community which has already pledged financing into African agriculture not to relent on its commitments to increase financing to investments in African agriculture. 

The Summit will also provide an opportunity for both the African political leadership, leaders of farmers’ organizations and the private sector as well as development partners to review the findings of a CAADP Review that has been commissioned by NEPAD. The review which is currently in progress, will not only reflect on progress on the implementation of CAADP, but more importantly, it will chart new pathways in the implementation of CAADP in the next 5 to 10 years, including the identification of new CAADP milestones/targets as well as critical political commitments that will accelerate agricultural growth and food security across the span of countries on the continent. 

Given the global support that has been associated with the CAADP process, including the active participation of the Global Donor Platform for Rural Development, and the action and endorsement of CAADP by development partners as an entry point in enhancing coordinated support to African agriculture, the input of all development partners into the processes leading towards the convening of this Summit is critical.