Dr Manyewu Mutamba at CAADP workshop in Windhoek

Speech by Manyewu Mutamba at the consultative continental technical workshop on the CAADP Kampala results framework.  Windhoek, Namibia, 24–27 March 2026.

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On behalf of the chief executive officer of the African Union Development Agency–New Partnership for Africa’s Development, Nardos Bekele-Thomas, I am truly honoured to welcome you to this consultative workshop on the CAADP Kampala results framework.

This is a key step in our readiness for the implementation of the CAADP Kampala strategy over the next 10 years.

As many of you know, the new CAADP Kampala strategy entered the implementation phase in January 2026 and will run for the next 10 years.

Defining how our various contributions will lead to the intended objectives is critical guidance on how we move forward, how we track progress and how we learn and share knowledge from implementation.

We have a very clear set of targets that have been defined by our heads of state. We need to constantly measure our progress against these important markers through the established biennial review mechanism.

In the last year, the African Union Development Agency–New Partnership for Africa’s Development, working with the African Union Commission, regional economic communities and our partners, focused on supporting the readiness of member states, farmer organisations and all other stakeholders for domestication of CAADP Kampala.

A key result of this process is the CAADP Kampala implementation guidelines that have now been endorsed by member states to guide domestication of CAADP Kampala at national, regional and continental levels.

The Kampala implementation guidelines provide the overarching vehicle for domestication of CAADP Kampala and all African Union agrifood sector-related decisions across various thematic areas.

The consultative workshop this week will tackle the final step in the readiness process, as we move with speed to focus on implementation.

We have learnt many important lessons from the biennial review process, including critical feedback from regional economic communities and member states.

The consultations this week will reflect on many of those lessons and inputs that will help us to design a robust and yet pragmatic framework for tracking progress in the implementation of CAADP Kampala.

The conversation this week should also highlight the importance of supporting member states to strengthen their own national systems for monitoring and reporting and aligning the continental biennial review framework with these national systems to enable a seamless process of continental reporting.

We need a smarter way of monitoring and reporting our progress. We have access to cutting-edge tools that we should urgently deploy to facilitate this exercise so that we focus on the business of implementation.

Our member states have clearly instructed that CAADP Kampala is about implementation and acceleration.

This is where most of our time and resources should be focused.

We now know what works and the most promising pathways for transforming our food systems.

The focus should now be on enabling system-level changes and scaling proven approaches, practices, technologies and partnerships for investment.

We all know that the global development financing landscape is rapidly shifting, signalling that the era of development assistance is fast coming to an end.

Africa needs to evolve. Our models for transforming our agrifood systems must evolve to more sustainable pathways for driving our transformation agenda.

Key among these is creating the enabling conditions for functional value chains that enable farmers and agribusinesses to thrive.

We know that where value chains work, food systems and lives are transformed.

Addressing key bottlenecks to functional value chains is a key priority for the work of the African Union Development Agency–New Partnership for Africa’s Development in the next 10 years as we domesticate CAADP Kampala.

Key areas of focus for the African Union Development Agency–New Partnership for Africa’s Development include:

Supporting member states and regional economic communities to strengthen their national agrifood systems investment plans.

At the end of last year, we visited Namibia for such support missions, and it was inspiring to see the progress this country has already achieved with the launch of its strategy for the transformation of the agrifood sector, including defining modalities for the governance and coordination of the agrifood sector.

Namibia is now one of the leading countries on the continent in aligning its planning frameworks with CAADP Kampala.

The multi-stakeholder, consultative effort, and outstanding leadership and ownership of this process, all the way to the office of the president of Namibia, was truly exemplary.

One of the reasons we are here today is to recognise and encourage this progress.

I am sure we will continue to come back to learn many lessons.

We look forward to supporting Namibia and all our member states on this journey over the next 10 years of CAADP Kampala.

In our support to member states, the African Union Development Agency–New Partnership for Africa’s Development will equally prioritise policy reform to enhance the quality of public expenditure and better align with the objectives of CAADP Kampala.

We will also support inclusive partnerships between governments, farmers, agribusiness and other partners in value chains that are built on transparency, honesty and shared values.

Lastly, the African Union Development Agency–New Partnership for Africa’s Development will significantly elevate its work to mobilise specialised technical support for member states in building bankable investment pipelines and mobilising financing for strategic, catalytic investments that support transformative, inclusive and resilient value chain development, in line with their national agricultural investment plans.

I want to end by thanking the government of Namibia for hosting us this week.

As always, we are inspired each time we visit this beautiful country.

The progress we see all around, the peace and tranquillity, and the hospitality of the Namibian people are a mark of the true African spirit.

We look forward to the next few days in Windhoek.

Thank you, and I wish you fruitful deliberations this week.

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