Africa’ rural transformation demands deeper understanding-NEPAD

Chief executive officer for New Partnership for Africas’ Development (NEPAD) Ibrahim Mayaki said has said contributing to deeper understanding current status and trends in Africa’s rural transformation pathway is an important value which will help bring a development discourse in transforming African Union (AU) agenda 2063.

Speaking during the official opening on the 2nd Africa  Rural Development Forum Agenda currently being held in Cameroon, Younde, Mayaki further said advancing rural transformation, is not pity or
charity to the rural populations. It is critical and integral success factor for Africa’s sustainable economic growth and inclusive development agenda.

“Even with the general rapid urbanisation, the UN 2015 statistics, estimates over 60% of Africa’s 1.2 billion population leaving in rural areas with livelihoods based on what is largely subsistence farming.

“With weak and most time dysfunctional institutional capacity to offer desired social service delivery to their populations, the rural environment is marked by continuing stagnation in socio-economic
progression with populations increasingly vulnerable in the face of  social, economic and climate shocks,” he said.

Mayaki further said the program therefore, will provide  opportunity to organise and nurture local capacity to identify and communicate local development needs and priorities, on one hand, and on the other hand, mobilising and organising support capacity thereby bringing coherence and harmonised ability to response to community and country needs.

“This then will bring increased value to existing and new project and programmes to optimise delivery including enabling the synergies and complementarities across sectors and policies,” he added.

The rural development policy implementation is based on experiences acquired through the Rural Futures program launched by NEPAD whose objectives  is poverty reduction, inequality and building capacity amongst the youths which is Africas’ largest population.

The African heads of state during the January 2011 African Summit recognized the challenges faced by rural communities and called for an integrated development initiative to promote rural transformation as a pathway to improve rural employment and livelihood opportunities, facilitate national economic development and sustainability and ensure exchange of information on best practices on rural development from local to global scale.