High-level consultations on increased cooperation between the African Development Bank and the International Fund for Agricultural Development closed in Tunis Friday.
The two-day talks examined ways the two institutions can improve cooperation to ensure that their agricultural projects in Africa are more effective.
The two sides during their "retreat" laid the ground for the development of joint programmes over the next two years. They also produced joint strategies and work plans.
Speaking at the opening session, AfDB Vice President in charge of Sectoral Operations, Zeinab El Bakri, urged the two institutions to cooperate in the transformation of African agriculture to ensure it can meet the continent's food requirements.
"This partnership is becoming even more important today with the soaring world food prices which have adversely affected poor and fragile countries across the world, but more seriously those in Africa," she said.
Key to the transformation of African agriculture, Ms. El Bakri said, was the supply of critical inputs to African farmers.
"We need to address the issues of fertilizer, seeds and other key inputs to boost productivity and production in the shortest possible time," she said. "We have to transform African agriculture if it is to provide food security for the increasing population, especially in urban areas."
She said the challenges created by the global food crisis, the energy crisis and accelerating climate change could be transformed into real opportunities for African farmers, if they are given the necessary support.
Ms. El Bakri, who was co-chair of the meeting, said such support should enable them to make the shift from merely scraping for livelihoods to creating sustainable agricultural businesses.
She said the AfDB was also keen to help African member countries deal with issues of economic vulnerability by providing budget and balance of payments support, especially to fragile states. The AfDB had created a multidisciplinary task force to deal to work on various aspects of the issue.
Mr. Kevin Cleaver, IFAD's Assistant President for Programme Management and the meeting's co-chair, said the partnership between the two institutions had great potential, adding: "My expectations are great."
He urged the two institutions to consider adjusting some of their "operational modalities" to ensure effective cooperation and that African countries truly benefited from this cooperation.
Africa remains one of the hardest hit regions by the current food crisis, with some 150 million people at risk. Increases in food prices have sparked protests in some African countries and if the situation is not dealt with adequately, it could negatively affect development gains of the last decade.
Addressing the global food crisis during the opening session of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group's 2008 Annual Meetings in Maputo, Mozambique, Bank Group President, Donald Kaberuka, commended the response by the international community, calling for long term solutions to the issue.
"The world has the means to prevent starvation in the 21st Century. The most vulnerable categories are known, they include the urban poor, rural families who purchase food and people in fragile states where markets do not function well," he said.
"We are not dealing with a short term problem; the long term solution can only mean a different way of managing our agriculture," he added.
