FAO statement at the High-Level Policy Dialogue of the 2023 Africa Dialogue Series

High-Level Policy Dialogue of the 2023 Africa Dialogue Series
"Growing Middle Class and Continental Import Substitution:  Connecting the Dots to Unlock Made in Africa"

As prepared for delivery

Excellences, Distinguished Participants, Protocols Duly Observed,

My intervention will focus on how FAO is supporting African countries to promote food security and the growing Agri-business sector and supporting the implementation of the AfCFTA in trade facilitation and strengthening investment in the agricultural sector to promote continental import substitution.

SDG 2 on ending hunger and promoting food security across the world, including in Africa, is central for FAO.

The FAO’s Strategic Framework supports the 2030 Agenda through the transformation to more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable, agri-food systems for better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life, leaving no one behind.

Let me give you some examples of our recent work in support of food security, agribusiness, enhancing trade facilitation and investment in the AfCFTA implementation in Africa

FAO maintains the largest open source database of agriculture in the world, which is helping countries conduct analysis, understand best practices from other countries and develop programmes and policies, including trade policies.

FAO supported the AUC to launch the Framework for Boosting Intra-African Trade (BIAT) in Agricultural Commodities and Services in 2021.

Through our flagship Hand in Hand Initiative, we are helping member countries to develop national agricultural investment plans to set national priorities of agricultural transformation and mobilize resources for the development of regional value chains and agribusiness. The Initiative has to date supported 60 countries across the world; and half of them are from Africa.

We support the development of international and regional food standards. FAO is implementing two important projects funded by the Standard and Trade Development Facility (STDF) in Senegal and Mali

We are working with the AfCFTA Secretariat to implement a project focusing on advocacy and mainstreaming food security and agriculture in national trade policies, strengthening institutional capacity to implement the AfCFTA agreement at the country and regional levels and supporting private enterprises, including micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and informal cross-border traders, to access new and existing markets.

These are just some examples of our work.

To close, as the AfCFTA is progressively implemented and trade preferential arrangements become more widely established such as zero tariffs and preferential rules of origin, import substitution becomes more economically viable given the large internal market of over 1.2 billion consumers.

The demand for niche products such as “Made in Africa” branded healthy, organic and halal foods is also growing, driven largely by an expanding African middle class.

Despite many challenges, the prospects for the growth of import substitution, domestic manufacturing and value addition in the agrifood sector to meet the growing demand of the African middle class looks bright.