NEPAD and the Rising Africa

Formally established in 2001, NEPAD is the vehicle for driving a vision and programme of action for the development of the African continent conceived and developed by Africans themselves. Key objectives of the NEPAD initiative include poverty eradication, promotion of sustainable growth and development, as well as the acceleration of women’s empowerment. NEPAD’s strategy involves carrying out key programmes with very important partners in different sectors.
One of the focal points of NEPAD programmes is the empowerment of rural women and youths through agriculture. Some of NEPAD programmes that capture this focal area include the Fertilizer Support Programme, the CAADP, TerrAfrica, Fisheries, African Biosciences initiative, Rural Futures, Climate Change, Food and Nutrition security and many other programmes. The need to focus on rural empowerment stems from the fact that poverty is usually endemic in such areas due largely as a result of urban bias in development.  In the same vein, the focus on Youth and Women is as a result of the vulnerability of this segment of society which makes them bear much of the rural poverty burden. Agriculture becomes a veritable tool for rural empowerment because much of the rural populace are engaged in agriculture, albeit in a crude form. NEPAD’s agricultural programmes are therefore tactical in the sense that they teach rural farmers modern methods and practices in agriculture (which they only have a basic knowledge of) in order to improve their productivity, their incomes and standard of living. It is imperative to empower Africa’s rural women and youth so that in the future, the continent will not pay a ‘price’ of insecurity (which is antithetical to development) usually associated with such levels of poverty and deprivation as is the case in many parts of Africa today.
In Nigeria, one of the ways NEPAD’s agricultural programmes is implemented is through the collaboration between the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization(FAO) at the country level towards the implementation of NEPAD CAADP and other related programmes, including the Pan African Cassava initiative. In Rivers State, Nigeria, the NEPAD’s agriculture initiative, the NEPAD’s Integrated Farms Initiative, the Youth Development and Rehabilitation Initiative, the Enterprises/ Human Capacity Development initiative, the NEPAD Green initiatives and the NEPAD Agro-connect are laudable programmes that are directly and indirectly aimed at the empowerment of rural Women and Youth. However, the major lesson to be learnt from the Rivers state case study is the need for increased funding and more robust public-private partnership to widen the scope and coverage of the programmes.
In 2000, the Economist published an article ‘Africa: a Hopeless Continent.’ In 2013, the magazine reversed herself by publishing another article ‘Africa: a Hopeful Continent.’ This new view of Africa is an eloquent testimony of the progress that has been made in repositioning Africa through the NEPAD initiative. With the empowerment of Africa’s rural women and youth, Africans can be more assured of a more hopeful and secured future for our dear continent.