EAC Rice Development Strategy (ERDS), September 2022
CARD Working Week 3 for validating draft East African Community (EAC) Rice Development Strategy (ERDS) on 26th -28th September 2022
Rice is the second most important staple food in East African Community (EAC) region. Consumption of rice in the region has reached 1.8 million MT per year with the trend expected to continue expanding each year to the foreseeable future. In addition, rice is becoming a large part of EAC food imports that are highly contributing to the region’s economy as well as its political stability. To meet rice demand from local production that competes commercially with imported rice, local rice yields must be increased, and efficient value chains established. In efforts to increase domestic rice production and efficient value chain at the country level, all EAC partner states except South Sudan formulated their respective National Rice Development Strategy (NRDS).
Recently, EAC set up an EAC Rice platform (ERP) to improve the consolidation of rice sector development efforts of partner states in the region. In partnership with the EAC secretariat and Kilimo Trust, CARD Secretariat supported ERP to establish a framework for formulating EAC Rice Development Strategy (ERDS) through a working week organized in May 2022. To elaborate on the ERDS framework and identify key regional interventions, indicators, and institutional setup for implementation, a second working week was held in June 2022. Furthermore, a regional validation workshop was organized by EAC Secretariat in September 2022 through technical and financial support from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and CARD Secretariat. The primary aim of the validation workshop was to facilitate broader multi-stakeholder engagement and ownership in the finalization of draft ERDS before its adoption in the EAC policy organs. This report outlines a summary of ERDS validation workshop outputs.
CARD activity and the results
The ERDS validation workshop was held at Julius Nyerere International Convention Centre (JNICC) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania from 26th to 28th September 2022. The workshop was physically attended by delegates from the Ministries of Agriculture, Trade and East African Community Affairs, National Research Institutions, NRDS focal persons in each of 7 EAC partner states (Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of Congo) and Southern Africa Development Community (SADC).
Key Development and Technical Partners (DPs) including the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and World Food Programme (WFP) participated on the last day (28th September) of the ERDS validation workshop. The Development Partners were invited to familiarize themselves with ERDS and explore future support for its implementation. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) joined virtually.
Following the opening remarks from the Chairperson of the EAC Rice Platform (ERP), CARD Secretariat highlighted the EAC-CARD collaborations by showing the chorology of the ERDS formulation process up to date.
The draft ERDS was extensively presented by the CARD regional consultant to refresh and familiarize the stakeholders with key components of the ERDS. The historical background of rice production in the EAC region was outlined with low production and poor quality depicted as the core concerns affecting the EAC’s rice sector. The consultant emphasized that the regional strategy would be imperative to mitigate the challenge of growing import dependence and facilitate intra-regional trade, therefore achieving self-sufficiency in the EAC region. Furthermore, the consultant outlined outcomes of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT analysis) of the EAC’s Rice sector which informed the strategy design of the ERDS. The ERDS strategic objectives, priority areas, key performance indicators, implementation mechanism, monitoring and evaluation framework, and implementation structure were also extensively highlighted.
To facilitate validation of the draft ERDS, the participants were segregated into three groups, with each group having at least two representatives from the 7 partner states. Each group was assigned various chapters for identifying the gaps and provide suggestions to improve them. In the plenary, each group presented and peer-reviewed the outputs.
Some of the suggestions from Development Partners include: 1) it would be essential to consider the regional self-sufficiency through enhanced intra-regional trade, 2) CGIAR centers should be involved more in the implementation of ERDS, 3) more emphasis should be put on issues of post-harvest losses, biotic and abiotic stresses, engagement of youth, mechanisms to harness comparative advantages of the Partner States, 4) targeted advocacy at the level of policymakers should be considered to attract funding from the government for ERDS implementation, 5) An enabling environment for the private sector should be fostered to invest more in the rice sector through appropriate business models and, 6) it would be imperative to contemplate and explore Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) models to finance ERDS implementation.
Way Forward
Upon validation of the Draft ERDS by the stakeholders at the regional level, the ERDS will be presented for official approval by the planned EAC’s Sectoral Council on Agriculture and Food Security in November 2022. Also, the stakeholders discussed the possibility of holding another workshop to prepare an action plan for this strategy as the next activity, preferably in February 2023.
