A
Blueprint to implement rural development policies in Africa has been endorsed at
the 2nd Africa Rural Development Forum (ARDF) in Yaoundé, Cameroon.
The
document serves as a vehicle for advancing rural transformation across the
content and to accelerate the pace towards the visions of the African Union’s Agenda
2063 – a strategy to optimize use of Africa’s resources for the benefit of all
Africans.
The
Blueprint, under the “Yaoundé Declaration and Plan of Action”, will support member
states and regional players towards an integrated, cross-sectorial, and coherent
set of actions based on local realities, priorities and a shared African vision
and narrative.
The
Second Edition of the Atlas was also launched under the theme “A new Emerging Rural
World: An Overview of rural Change in Africa” providing information and analysis
on cross-sectorial factors and dynamics to inform public policy debates and decisions
on rural transformation.
According
to Dr Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, CEO of the NEPAD Agency, “It is increasingly clear
that advancing rural transformation is not pity or charity to the rural
populations. It is critical and integral success factor for Africa’s
sustainable economic growth and inclusive development agenda”.
He
added that attaining Arica’s aspirations and goals, to a large extent depends
on the change in Africa’s rural areas – both in location and people terms.
The
2nd ARDF was organized by the NEPAD Agency under the theme “Transforming
Africa’s Rural Areas through Skills Development, Job Creation and Youth
Economic Empowerment”.
Among
the key thematic issues the Forum highlighted include: Youth Economic Empowerment
and skills Development; Rural Development – Policies and Institutions; Rural Infrastructure
and ICT; and Green Economy and job creation in advancing Rural Development in Africa.
The
Forum also adopted the overarching strategy for rural transformation.
Amongst
them is that rural transformation has to be driven by the whole economy as overarching
approach to graduating from the structural limits of dualism; Growing the domestic
market base through land and agrarian reforms and agriculture-led rural industrialization;
and the crucial role of the State, especially in policy reforms and legislation
that reforms the public expenditure architecture towards rural transformation investment
priorities.
The
Plan of Action will operationalise the Blueprint including adoption by Heads of
State and implementation by member states; Establishing a support network for expanded
use of the Atlas across all regions; and examine and consider support to strengthen
local capacity for generating quality data on rural development.
An
implementation and performance management framework will also be developed for the
Yaounde Declaration and Plan of Action, and generate evidence-based indicators of
the envisioned rural transformation based on mapping and scenario planning based
on of Agenda 2063.
The
Forum was attended by Ministers of states, experts, civil society including youth
and private sector, development partners and local authorities.
No comments:
Post a Comment