Uganda: Kampala CAADP aims to turn Africa's food vulnerability into an investment opportunity

The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), launched in 2003 in Maputo and later renewed in Malabo in 2014, is back on the continental agenda with a new cycle discussed in Kampala. For two decades, this pan-African framework has aimed to shape national agricultural policies and reduce the continent's reliance on food imports. In an op-ed, Nardos Bekele-Thomas, CEO of the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD), asserts that the Kampala agenda "must be read not as another continental declaration, but as an investment proposition: a chance to turn Africa's food vulnerability into an agro-industrial powerhouse, agricultural industrialization, regional trade, and shared prosperity." The challenge is clear: shifting from rhetoric—often criticized for lacking tangible results since Maputo and Malabo—to a focus on markets, financing, and operational execution. For African states, agri-entrepreneurs, and savers, this requires concrete financial instruments and measurable implementation, details of which the source does not yet provide. Analysis: the recurrence of CAADP cycles raises questions about the ability of continental institutions to translate political commitments into real investment flows toward agro-industry, as the continent remains vulnerable to climate shocks and global price fluctuations.