CAADP lessons learned

Here are a couple more pictures from Nairobi, where I spent the majority of my time sitting in these conference rooms. But it was a productive time. The first picture is from a discussion of the role the different actors play in the implementation of these programs around food security. I found it interesting to listen to the discourse and word choice. "Development partners" is the preferred term, rather than donors. Although when we talking about roles, someone said, "well, the role of donors is to donate." And "sensitization" was another common phrase. "We need to sensitize people about gender (or nutrition or whatever other aspect)." And we kept talking about building capacity. I wish it was as simple as the construction work I used to do. Or that the results of building capacity would be as concrete and obvious as building a house. Alas.



The second picture here is of Jacqueline, who is the executive director of an apex organization for Tanzanian horticulture, and I was quite impressed to see her leadership skills and vision for sustainably developing horticulture in the country, with an emphasis on including the small holders.

I was impressed by another woman from the Tanzanian delegation from the Ministry of Agriculture, who emphasized on the third day that the workshop would have been even more comprehensive if we had systematically looked at the environmental aspects to these agricultural value chains.

An overall takeaway from this conference is that there seems to be a new paradigm emerging with renewed focus on agriculture and a firm commitment to leading at the country level in a consultative way. On the flip side, I still see opportunities to strengthen the regional integration/coordination, but in general I left the workshop hopeful.