With 20% of the world population and a dynamic demographic growth, the African continent faces major challenges in terms of food and nutrition security, and livelihoods, in a context where climate change, biodiversity loss and soil degradation are already affecting adversely agricultural production and yields. These challenges are expected to grow over the next decades, if not adequately addressed.
Following the launch of the Great Green Wall Accelerator in January 2021 in the context of the One Planet Summit, European and African partners have met in Brussels at the occasion of the EU-AU Summit to scale up efforts and to accelerate the transformation of African food systems towards sustainable models, in the context of national pathways developed following the United Nations Food Systems Summit and in full coherence with the African Union’s strategy, fully recognizing that the AU has chosen nutrition as its theme of the Year 2022.
In this context, the development of protein crops in Africa with partner countries of the Great Green Wall and beyond represents a major opportunity. Technical assessments demonstrate their valuable contribution to the objectives of food and nutrition security, preservation of natural areas and fight against desertification, and socio-economic development of the region, building on agro-ecological approaches for diversified and integrated farming and livestock systems.
Today at the EU-AU Summit, an EU-AU initiative was launched to develop plant-protein crops in Africa, including among others pulses, beans, oil legumes, trees and shrubs legumes, for human consumption and animal feed to contribute to enhanced food and nutrition security in Africa and a sustainable economic and human development path with smallholder farmers at its core. This initiative will build on a collective action plan for the development of plant-based protein crops open to all African countries and led jointly with the support of international financing partners and African regional organizations.
Benin, Chad, Ivory Coast, Senegal are willing to champion this effort. Other interested countries are encouraged to join.
To kick start this ambition, a regional platform is being designed with the aim of supporting beneficiaries. This platform will enhance synergies, dialogue and coordination between technical and financial partners, including IFAD, UNCCD, the World Bank, the African Development Bank and the European Investment Bank and relevant African regional organizations, namely ECOWAS, WAEMU and the Great Green Wall Panafrican Agency, on technical assistance and plant protein projects in Great Green Wall member countries and beyond. The work to foster the private sector’s engagement will be important, among others through the Team Europe approach “Investing in Young Businesses in Africa” or the Alliance for entrepreneurship in Africa led by IFC.
Through these actions, this initiative aims to scale up plant protein sustainable value chains fully aligned with local needs and strengths, and based on innovative approaches to address economic, social and environmental challenges. Through an end-to-end approach, it will provide key enablers that will improve Africa’s self-sufficiency for these crops and transformed products based on these crops, including support from research, breeding, access to local and context-adapted plant variety, financing, technical assistance and support to transformation and commercialization for agro-entrepreneurs and family farmers in the context of the African Continental Free Trade Area.
The upcoming COP 15 UNCCD under Ivory Coast’s presidency will be an opportunity for a first assessment of the progress made.
