The Malabo Montpellier Panel at AKADEMIYA2063 concluded the ninth edition of the biannual Malabo Montpellier Forum to offer a roadmap of policy innovations for food systems transformation, building resilience and adapting to climate change
The meeting set out to promote stakeholder dialogue against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and increasingly frequent and extreme climate change related weather events across the continent. Following the UN food systems summit and the recently concluded COP26, the virtual forum unveiled recipes for success: policy innovations to transform Africa’s food systems and build resilience, a report summarising seven of the panel’s reports and more than 50 country analysis published between 2017 and 2020, with renewed stakeholder appetite to absorb and implement the evidence-based guide for sustainable food systems transformation.
AKADEMIYA2063 executive chairperson and Malabo Montpellier Panel co-chair, Dr Ousmane Badiane said, “There is no greater urgency right now than to redouble efforts to implement the Malabo agenda and accelerate progress towards successful transformation of our food systems. Significant advances have been achieved over the last couple of decades, yet, there is worrying evidence that the pace of progress had reduced significantly, even prior to the pandemic: slowing economic and agricultural growth rates, stagnating shares of public expenditure in agriculture, increasing rates of poverty and hunger after two decades of steady decline. To reverse course and return to a trajectory of faster growth and improving living conditions requires continuity of effort and consistency of action across a number of policy areas. This current report provides a practical, evidence-based guide to do just that, drawing from proven lessons on the ground from best performing African countries in terms of progress towards ending hunger and transforming food systems.”
The ninth Malabo Montpellier Forum attracted 120 attendees from more than 50 organisations, including senior government representatives from nine African countries and featuring more than 22 high-level speakers, seven fireside chats and one high-level policy roundtable discussion.