…as it fails to meet its Malabo Declaration Promises
Nghiinomenwa-vali Erastus
Since 2019, the Namibian government has failed to stick to its agricultural expenditure
commitment and has struggled to boost agriculture's annual contribution to GDP.
The country has only managed to record positive progress on one indicator of the
Malabo Commitments Items out of the 7, scoring 4.08/10 which is below the minimum
benchmark of 7.28 that is required for a country to be on track.
In 2019 Namibia scored 3.38 out of 10.
This is contained in the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme
(CAADP) Country Biennial Review for 2021.
The main Malabo commitment items that are assessed are Investment Finance into
Agriculture, Ending Hunger, Eradicating Poverty Through Agriculture, Intra-Africa
trade in Agriculture, Resilience to Climate Variability and Mutual accountability for
Actions and Results.
Namibia only excelled in resilience to climate change variability, the country performed
poorly in the other commitment items.
The results of the review were presented at the National Workshop On Monitoring of
Malabo Commitment and Knowledge Management that was held in Windhoek recently.
The country review shows the last time the Namibia had fulfilled its expenditure
commitment to agriculture was in 2015 after which expenditure has been slowing.
Namibia, as a member of the African Union, adopted the 2003 Maputo Declaration on
Agriculture and Food Security in Africa, committing itself to allocate at least 10% of
public expenditures to the agricultural sector to achieve 6% annual growth in
agricultural GDP and attain food security.
This commitment was reaffirmed in 2014 through the Malabo Declaration during which
Heads of State and Governments adopted concrete agriculture goals to be attained by
2025.
The implementation of CAADP and Malabo commitments is being tracked through
Biennial Review reports and presented to the AU summit of Heads of State and
Governments.
The member countries, including Namibia, have committed to enhancing investment in
agriculture to reach 10% of public expenditure.
However, since 2016, the budgetary allocation has not even reached 3%, the review
indicated.
The review found that the 1,4% budgetary share allocated to the agricultural sector is
relatively small, thus affecting productivity-enhancing technology and institutional
development needed to furnish a needed resilient food production.
It stated "there is a need to increase the public allocation to agriculture to boost
agricultural growth and transformation."
Namibia has also committed to creating and enhancing necessary appropriate policy
and institutional conditions and support systems for the facilitation of private
investment in agriculture, agri-business, and agro-industries, by giving priority to local
investors.
Urthermore, the country has committed to halving poverty by the year 2025, through
inclusive agricultural growth and transformation.
This is by sustaining an annual agricultural GDP growth of at least 6%; creating job
opportunities for at least 30% of the youth in the agricultural value chains.
The country's national account has revealed that the livestock and crop sectors displayed
mixed performance of negative growth and some windfalls in some years.
In terms of real value added the livestock sector dominates in contribution, also this
growth is skewed toward a few commercial farmers.
As a recommendation, the country has to ensure that, by 2025, at least 30% of
households are resilient to climate and weather-related risks.
The country review has also found that the growth rate proportion of women that meets
the minimum dietary diversity score and the proportion of the total population that is
food secure is very low at 7.5% and 13.9%, respectively.
The CAADP review has revealed that the low achievement" has huge implications on
women and maternal health as well as on the overall health and productivity of the
population".
They reiterate the need for the government to promote policies and reforms to address
food and nutrition insecurity in the country. Email: erastus@thevillager.com.na
