Kampala 2025: a new opportunity to meet Africa’s agricultural commitments
In January 2025, the African Union adopted the Kampala Declaration, which sets the course for the continent’s agricultural transformation for the period 2026–2035 within the renewed CAADP framework. This new continental roadmap reaffirms a central political commitment: to allocate at least 10 % of national budgets to the agricultural sector, in line with the commitments made in Maputo in 2003 and reiterated in Malabo in 2014.
Twenty years after Maputo, this target remains largely unmet. In most African countries, agricultural investment ranges between 4% and 7% of public budgets. This delay is not simply a technical failure; it reflects a structural fragility in agricultural budget governance and, above all, the still insufficient involvement of those most concerned: farmers’ organizations (FOs).
It is in this context that I had the honour of participating, alongside my colleague Vanessa Tchinde, in a strategic workshop organized in Yaoundé from 2 to 4 July 2025, bringing together the PAFO, AUDA-NEPAD and the African Union Commission (AUC-ARBE). This dialogue laid the foundations for the effective domestication of the Kampala Declaration, focusing on the full recognition of the structuring role of FOs.
FOs: the overlooked pillars of food sovereignty
Across the continent, FOs organize producers, structure value chains, disseminate agroecological innovations, defend land rights, participate in marketing and, in some cases, already support the monitoring of public policies. They are, in fact, the linchpins of African food sovereignty.
But in the reality of agricultural policies, their place remains peripheral. More often than not, they are consulted on an ad hoc basis, with no real decision-making power, no explicit mandate and no structured access to budgetary information. This disconnect between their economic role and their political power largely explains the persistent disconnect between producers’ needs and the budgets voted on.
What should governments and regional institutions do?
One of the key lessons from the Yaoundé workshop is that the 10 % must now be more than a political target: it must become a legal, budgetary and institutional norm. This calls for several changes:
First, governments must incorporate this commitment into multi-year finance laws, with structured and transparent budgetary progress plans. Next, they must co-construct national agricultural investment programmes (NAIPs) with farmers’ organizations, through clear memoranda of understanding defining roles, responsibilities and accountability mechanisms.
Budgetary governance must also be opened up: intersectoral committees bringing together technical ministries and FOs must steer agricultural policies on an ongoing basis, with real monitoring and arbitration capacities.
At the level of the Regional Economic Communities, harmonised frameworks for FO participation must be established, accompanied by regional financing windows to support farmers’ initiatives.
Finally, at the African Union level, the PAFO must have a permanent and decision-making seat in all CAADP governance bodies, and a continental scorecard of agricultural expenditure, disaggregated by beneficiary, must be established to ensure transparency and accountability.
Farmers’ organizations face their own challenges
Workshop participants also emphasized that the evolution of FOs’ role in agricultural governance also depends on their own capacity to strengthen themselves from within.
Firstly, this involves professionalizing internal governance: training leaders in budget advocacy, public policy analysis and monitoring and evaluation; establishing accountability rules; and improving internal communication.
Second, FOs must produce independent data. Using simple digital tools, they can monitor the execution of agricultural spending in the field and publish annual citizen counter-reports, which enrich and balance the public debate.
FOs must also innovate in the financial sphere: the creation of cooperative funds, mutual guarantee mechanisms or adapted credit facilities will demonstrate that autonomous solutions are possible, viable and scalable.
At the same time, they must consolidate strategic alliances with youth and women’s movements and agroecological networks in order to bring joint proposals to regional and continental arenas.
Finally, FOs have a decisive role to play in mobilising citizens. This involves disseminating the Kampala Declaration in local languages and raising awareness among rural communities through community radio, village meetings and marketplaces. Shared governance always begins with a well-informed social base.
A clear course for 2026–2028: political will and co-construction
The message from Yaoundé is unambiguous: the domestication of Kampala cannot be a top-down technocratic process. It must become a dynamic of political, economic and civic co-responsibility.
This requires governments to publish clear and monitored agricultural budget plans, regional institutions to harmonise the rules of the game, and POs to become operational partners at all stages: design, budgeting, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
In the next two to three years, concrete actions must be implemented: auditing past agricultural spending, enshrining the 10% threshold in finance laws, creating public registers of funded agricultural projects, launching a citizen observatory on agricultural financing, and publishing joint reports by FOs, states and the AU on the actual implementation of commitments.
Conclusion – From promises to results, through collective intelligence
What Africa needs today is no longer declarations of intent. It needs concrete, transparent and sustainable mechanisms to make agriculture a real pillar of its development and sovereignty. And this cannot be achieved without farmers’ organisations.
When farmers participate in resource allocation, agriculture ceases to be an expense. It becomes a political project.
By participating, alongside my colleague Vanessa Tchinde, in this strategic dialogue with PAFO, AUDA-NEPAD and the African Union Commission, I was able to see how much the keys are now in the hands of African actors themselves. Kampala must not be the last chapter in a cycle of broken promises. It can be the first act of a new agricultural governance centred on producers and social justice.
Franck Essi
Senior Consultant – STRATEGIES!
