The meeting of the African Union Development Agency (AUDA NEPAD) in collaboration with SADC and the World Food Program (WFP) resulted in a two-day retreat in Magaliesburg, South Africa. The objective of this retreat was to operationalize the implementation of the Kinshasa Declaration on Rural Transformation in Southern Africa.
This initiative follows the recent Quadripartite Summit in Angola, which emphasized the urgency of providing essential services and food aid to affected populations in eastern DRC.
The retreat, led by Ms. Estherine Lisinge Fotabong from AUDA NEPAD, Mr. Menghestab Haile from WFP and SADC, aims to translate into concrete terms the decisions taken at the quadripartite summit.
It should be recalled that the third African Rural Development Forum was held in January 2022 in Kinshasa, DRC. This high-level forum, sponsored by President Félix Tshisekedi, underscored the importance of rural development as an essential pathway for sustainable economic development in Africa, given that the majority of the population resides in rural areas.
The forum created a platform for consensus building, policy ownership and knowledge exchange to promote rural transformation, territorial development and planning.
This desire to promote rural development in Southern Africa is also supported by the World Food Program (WFP), which is committed to tackling the root causes of food insecurity in the region.
These initiatives aim to bring about concrete changes to improve the living conditions of rural populations in Southern Africa, with a focus on agriculture, food security and environmental sustainability