Thank you. Your voice was heard in Malabo, it made a difference! On January 20, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, we launched the Do Agric, It Pays campaign. The campaign called on African governments to keep their promises to invest in agriculture and support smallholder farmers when they met at the African Union summit in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea.
Over the course of the campaign, you and over 2 million Africans rose to the occasion and joined us in sending this message to our leaders by signing the Do Agric petition. Your action made this the biggest mobilisation in ONE’s history! Wow, how historic! Armed with this mandate from you, we took your message to our leaders. On your behalf, we delivered the Do Agric petition signatures and policy recommendations to 4 Heads of State, a Vice President and 6 Ministers of Agriculture in a total of 10 countries!
Presidents Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania, Yayi Boni of Benin, John Mahama of Ghana and Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger all received the petition, and committed to take action at home and to take the message to their peers at the summit. We are excited to share with you that your voice was heard. In Malabo, African leaders re-affirmed their intention to devote 10% of their national budgets to drive agricultural transformation in your country. Better still, they committed to achieving targets such as doubling agricultural productivity, halving post-harvest loss, increasing youth participation in the agri-business by 30% and reducing stunting to 10% across Africa.
This is a massive victory for millions of Africa’s smallholder farmers and those whose lives depend on these commitments. And it wouldn’t have happened without you! While we celebrate the Malabo results today, we know the battle is not over until our leaders live up to their promises. As ONE, we call upon you to help us ensure your national government deliver these powerful promises into concrete programs.
Thank you for being the hero of the Do Agric campaign. Your contribution has planted the seed that is changing Africa’s future by making agriculture cool on the continent.
Sincerely,
Nachilala Nkombo
ONE Africa – Deputy Director
