AU Summit discusses agriculture as Mauritania assumes AU chair January 30th 2014 President Yoweri Museveni has attended the opening ceremony of the 22nd Ordinary Summit of the AU that took place today in the Ethiopian Capital Addis Ababa under the theme, “2014 Year of Agriculture and Food Security, Marking 10th Anniversary of the Adoption of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP)” The ceremony has been attended by several presidents from across Africa. In July 2012, the African Union (AU) Assembly of Heads of State and Government, declared the year 2014 to be the Year of Agriculture and Food Security in Africa, marking the 10th Anniversary of the adoption of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP). The 10th Anniversary of CAADP is an important milestone and an opportunity to continue to prioritize agriculture and food security in policy and implementation to generate concrete results and impacts. It intends to consolidate active commitments towards new priorities, strategies and targets for achieving results and impacts with special focus on sustained, all Africa agriculture led growth, propelled by a stronger private sector investments and public-private partnerships. The conference focused on a number of issues including among others agriculture, climate change ,peace and security in the region among others. The summit also witnessed the chairmanship of the Union passing on from Ethiopia to Mauritania’s. In his speech, the outgoing Chairman Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn of Ethiopia said that during his tenure a lot of progress was made in areas of the development Agenda. “Unfortunately the eruption of conflicts in CAR, Eastern DRC, South Sudan was a huge set back,” he said. He commended Member States and Individuals who are making positive interventions towards resolving these conflicts. He also commended Mali and Madagascar for resolving their conflicts and returning to constitutional order and he urged Guinea Bissau to do the same. The incoming Chairman of AU, President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz of Mauritania, in his acceptance remarks saluted his counter parts for the trust they put in him and expressed concern over the plight of African migrants in his country to Europe and proposed for a summit to address the matter as soon as possible. The chairperson of the Commission H.E Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma noted, among other things, that AU is going to appoint a Special Envoy for Women and Children in conflict affected areas. The Prime Minister of Haiti Laurent Lamothe, a Guest at the Summit, emphasized that the geographical distance shouldn’t deter the black people in the diaspora from working with Africa to secure a common destiny. Haiti was the first black country to attain independence. The summit also saw the new president of Madagascar President Hery Rajaonarimampianina attending the Summit for the first time. Madagascar was suspended from the Union for 5 years. The summit also recognized several countries for their efforts in fighting malaria in the ‘Roll Back Malaria initiative’ and they are ;Madagascar, Cape Verde Sau Tome and Principe, Swaziland ,Malawi and Rwanda. The Kwame Nkruma Scientific awards were also awarded at the summit.
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 06:57:02 +0000
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