The Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN) Annual High Level Regional Food Security Multi-Stakeholder Policy Dialogue 2011 was held from 19th to 23rd September in Mbabane (Swaziland) at the Royal Swazi Spa Hotel. The theme of this year’s annual regional dialogue was “Advocating for the active engagement of the youth in the agriculture value chain” and the delegates present were senior officials of national governments, representatives of regional economic organizations, donor organizations, network partners, FANRPAN Board members and country nodes representing farmers’ organizations, entrepreneurs, students and youth involved in agriculture and agriculture-related fields. Africa, as well as the Pacific and Caribbean were represented.
Here are the highlights of the 5-day event:
Day 1: Official Opening and Awards Ceremony
Red Carpet, Swazi people dressed in their traditional clothes at the entrance of the Convention Centre of the Royal Swazi Spa Hotel, the Swaziland’s police band playing some music, large crowd of delegates from different countries in the room.. This was how the Opening Ceremony started, with all delegates dressed formally or in their traditional attire (which made the atmosphere very special and lively), seated at their table according to their respective countries. It was past 6 p.m and we were all waiting for Her Majesty, Queen Mother Ntombi, Indlovukazi of Swaziland. On her arrival, the police band played a music and there was the procession of Dignitaries, followed by the Swaziland National Anthem. After the opening prayer, the flag raising ceremony was initiated by the CEO of FANRPAN, Dr. Lindiwe Sibanda and students of KaMhlaba College.
The delegates were then officially welcomed by the Regional Administrator, Dr. M.Sibandze, followed by remarks by the FANRPAN Board Chairman, Hon Sindiso NGwenya. The Hon. Prime Minister, Dr. Barnabas Dlamini who was also present at the Opening Ceremony delivered a key note speech.
Before citation and presentation of the FANRPAN awards by Dr. Sibanda, a video highlights of previous FANRPAN Food Security Policy Leadership Awards was projected. Coming to the awards itself, Dr. Sibanda said that “there should be formal recognition of champions”. Three awards were cited and presented in the following categories:
1) The Food Security Policy Leadership Award
The winner of this Award was none other than Her Majesty, Queen Mother Ntombi, Indlovukazi of Swaziland. According to the Swazi people, the Queen Mother works in the field with her hoe and is a very dedicated farmer. She has been leading several agricultural innovations in Swaziland, including the mushroom farming project, which is a source of income for the farmers in the country (creating job opportunities for local women) and this project is addressing the problem of food security in the country. Other projects are the marketing of goats to Seychelles, the use of the Marula Fruit seed for extraction of oil and exported as cosmetic products. The queen Mother has a dream for Swazi women to have their own bank, which will empower them in venturing into business. From the initiatives taken by Her Majesty, we can say that she is doing her best to encourage all Swazi women to rise. Response of the Queen Mother of Swaziland can be read HERE.
The delegates were then officially welcomed by the Regional Administrator, Dr. M.Sibandze, followed by remarks by the FANRPAN Board Chairman, Hon Sindiso NGwenya. The Hon. Prime Minister, Dr. Barnabas Dlamini who was also present at the Opening Ceremony delivered a key note speech.
Before citation and presentation of the FANRPAN awards by Dr. Sibanda, a video highlights of previous FANRPAN Food Security Policy Leadership Awards was projected. Coming to the awards itself, Dr. Sibanda said that “there should be formal recognition of champions”. Three awards were cited and presented in the following categories:
1) The Food Security Policy Leadership Award
The winner of this Award was none other than Her Majesty, Queen Mother Ntombi, Indlovukazi of Swaziland. According to the Swazi people, the Queen Mother works in the field with her hoe and is a very dedicated farmer. She has been leading several agricultural innovations in Swaziland, including the mushroom farming project, which is a source of income for the farmers in the country (creating job opportunities for local women) and this project is addressing the problem of food security in the country. Other projects are the marketing of goats to Seychelles, the use of the Marula Fruit seed for extraction of oil and exported as cosmetic products. The queen Mother has a dream for Swazi women to have their own bank, which will empower them in venturing into business. From the initiatives taken by Her Majesty, we can say that she is doing her best to encourage all Swazi women to rise. Response of the Queen Mother of Swaziland can be read HERE.
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| Her Majesty, The Queen Mother receiving her Award Photo Courtesy: FANRPAN |
2) The Civil Society Policy Mover and Shaker Award
This award was given to Mrs. Happy Shongwe, who has been one of the most promising examples of the Harmonized Seed Secusity Project (HaSSP) in Swaziland. This 45 year old lady started to cultivate legume seeds six years ago for re-selling to other local farmers. According to her, it is never too late to involve the youth in agriculture and she has been able to engage her children in agriculture, which has been possible by her hard-work. By observing how determined she was to make things work, her children became more interested in helping her. This was the factor which pulled them into agriculture and they saw it in a different perspective. 4 years ago, Mrs. Happy Shongwe bought a second-hand tractor (which she drives herself in the fields!) as she had realised that she is going to stay in this business. She has been able to pay her bills, bought a van and raised the standard of living of her children. Today, Mrs. Happy Shongwe has her own company (Hleliwe Investment), she is encouraging other farmers to get into this business and she is planning to specialise in seed distribution through her company and also conducting her own research. During this Regional Dialogue, many of us were inspired by her and wished her the very best for her future endeavours!
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| Mrs. Happy Shongwe Receiving her Award Photo Courtesy: FANRPAN |
3) The Excellence in Agricultural Journalism
The winner of this award was Mantoe Phakathi, who is a senior reporter at the Nation Magazine in Swaziland. She has reported extensively on food, agriculture and natural resources issues with special focus on issues related to climate change and environmental degradation. In her articles, she uses the voice of the community members and other stakeholders to show how initiatives can be beneficial to the community.
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| Mantoe Phakathi receiving her Award Photo Courtesy: FANRPAN |
When the award giving ceremony was over, a prayer was said and dinner was served.
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| Dinner being served on the Mauritius table (though it was more like an International table with delegates from different countries) |
The Opening Ceremony and Day 1 ended beautifully with the music of the Police Band and the dancing Queen Mother of Swaziland, followed by other delegates. This can be viewed on the video below:
Day 2: Youth in the Agriculture Value Chain
The theme for Day 2 was ” Youth in the Agriculture Value Chain” and there was going to be 4 sessions during the day, with a Panel Discussion after each session. At 08:30, all delegates were in the Convention Centre and were officially welcomed by the Principal Secretary of Agriculture, Dr. Robert Thwala. After him came the Chairman of the FANRPAN Board. Hon. Sindiso Ngwenya, who started by congratulating the award winners of the previous evening and he also mentioned that it was a special evening since all award winners were WOMEN! He then talked about the warm reception in Swaziland and how FANRPAN has evolved over the years and what are the potential of the African continent. The next person to come on stage was none other than the CEO of FANRPAN, Dr. Lindiwe Sibanda, who did a presentation on an over-view of FANRPAN from September 2010 to September 2011. During her presentation, Dr. Sibanda highlighted the fact that no country is admitted in the FANRPAN network without the approval of its Government, as a good chemistry should be present between the two parties. The 2 latest countries added in the FANRPAN network this year are Kenya and Uganda, which now makes FANRPAN a network of 16 countries. The next two persons to end the morning plenary were the remarks by the Minister of Agriculture, Hon. Clement Dlamini and the representative of the Prime Minister of Swaziland, Dr. Barnabas Dlamini, who delivered a speech on behalf of the Minister.
With this, the morning plenary was over and all delegates moved out of the convention centre for a group photo and tea-break.
Session 1: CAADP – Opportunities for the youth
This session was facilitated by Dr. Sibanda and it begun with a video projection on the CAADP status in 2010. Read more on CAADP HERE. After the video projection, the Node Coordinators from each country gave an over-view of the stage of implementation of CAADP in their respective countries and also about the National Agriculture Investment Plan. This session begun with the countries just starting to implement CAADP (Botswana, Madagascar, Mauritius), followed by those countries that are preparing to sign the CAADP Compact (Mozambique, Zimbabwe), then the countries which are preparing National Agriculture Investment Plans (DRC, Swaziland and Zambia) and finally the technical Review of National Agriculture Investment Plans of Tanzania and Malawi. When the updates were given by the Node Coordinators, there were 2 more presentations during this session; Youth opportunities in CAADP by Freddy Magagula and Food Insecurity in the Horn of Africa by John Omiti and Nancy Laibuni. There was a very brief discussion panel after this session since we were short of time and moved to the next session.
Session 2: Youth and Rural Livelihoods and Social Protection
There were 2 presentations in this session (Facilitated by Mr. Ian Mashingaidze), followed by a panel discussion consisting of the World Vision (Swaziland), DP Foundation, Children & AIDS Regional Initiative (CARI), UNICEF.
The first presentation was by The Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), which was presented by Obligado Merci. After a nice over-view of Food insecurity and Vulnerability in the SADC region, we got a presentation from a representative of the UNICEF, who talked about HIV/AIDS among children. During her presentation, she mentioned the following: “Why are Governments not implementing policies to support social issues related to poverty and food insecurity?”.
Some of the questions asked during the discussion panels are as follows:
- “How do we simplify our research for a rural farmer?”
- A question coming from the youth was: “The theme for the day was youth in the agriculture value chain, but nothing has been seen as opportunities for youth yet. Where are the opportunities for youth?”
One of the answers given by the panelists are as follows:
“In Africa, we are having the challenge of feeding ourselves. But we do have land and people! The challenges are infrastructure (road, education etc.) and proper support. So what can we do to fight this? It is up to policy makers to take actions and come up with policies to support the African population”.
As for the answer given to the youth present (who did not find any opportunity for the youth in sessions 1 and 2) is that these sessions were meant to be as an over-view for them to know about what FANRPAN and other organizations are doing and they will be given the opportunity to contribute and give their opinions in the following sessions and the remaining 3 days of the Regional Dialogue.
With this remark, it was time for a tea-break. It is to be noted that the tea-breaks during the Regional Dialogue was a good opportunity for networking and know about who is doing what in the agriculture value chain.
Session 3: Youths in Markets for Africa’s Green Revolution
This session begun after the tea-break and was facilitated by Ms. Sithembile Ndema. The first presentation was from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). The other presentations were as follows:
- SWADE: The lower Usuthu Smallholder Irrigation project (LUSIP)
- Malawi Agribusiness youth Programme (MAYOP) by Calvin Kamchacha of the Farmers Forum For Trade & Social Justice (FAFOTRAJ)
The questions asked during the panel discussions are as follows (which came mainly from the youth present at the Regional Dialogue):
Swaziland: “Access to Finance depends highly on policies”
Zimbabwe: “We cannot deny the fact that in Africa, Agriculture forms part of our culture and it’s here to stay”
Zambia: “The way forward is to use a positive and integrated approach. This can be done through dialogue and there is a need to re-visit our policies”
Session 4: Youths Safeguarding Africa’s Natural Resource and the Environment
This session was facilitated by Dr. Amy Sullivan and the following initiatives were presented:
- Challenge program on Water and Food (CPWF) Global – Experience from Laos
- Namibian Youth Coalition on Climate Change by Hilma Angula
This session ended with a brief panel discussion and this day ended with the FANRPAN Annual General Meeting (not for delegates, but they were allowed to stay and assist the AGM).
Day 3: Youth Case Studies – Needs & Experiences
Session 5: Lessons from Africa and beyond: Showcasing Global Youth Initiatives
Wednesday 21st September was a very important day for the Regional Dialogue since it was the day of the youth and perfectly in-line with the theme: “Advocating for the active engagement of the youth in the agriculture value chain”. In addition to that, on that day, Swaziland’s Minister of Sports, Culture and Youth Affairs was present among us.
The day started with the morning prayer, after which the Principal Secretary of Agriculture, Dr. Robert Thwala delivered a speech. He mentioned about the different initiatives taken by the Ministry of Agriculture to involve youth in this field (providing technical support etc.). He ended his speech by saying that “Investment in the youth is investment in the future”.
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| Dr. Robert Thwala at the Regional Dialogue Photo Courtesy: FANRPAN |
Then, Hon. Hlobsile Ndlovu, the Swaziland’s Minister of Sports, Culture and Youth Affairs came on stage for her keynote Address to the delegates. She mentioned about: “We believe that nothing is for the youth without the youth”.
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| Hon. Hlobsile Ndlovu delivering her Keynote address Photo Courtesy: FANRPAN |
After the Swazi Minister of youth, it was now time to hear from Mr. Michael Hailu, the Director of CTA, who did a presentation on how CTA is promoting Rural Youth Empowerment. In his presentation, he mentioned about the ARDYIS project by the CTA and about its objectives & Activities.
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| Mr. Michael Hailu, Director of CTA during his presentation Photo Courtesy: FANRPAN |
It was time for a tea-break and the youth moved to the media room with the CEO of FANRPAN, Dr. Lindiwe Sibanda and the Swazi Minister of youth for Question and Answer session and a group photo. During the Question and Answer session with the Minister, the issues that were raised are; land and women, The Youth Enterprise Fund in Swaziland and the challenges she is facing as a youth and also as a woman in politics.
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| Group Photo of the under 35’s with the Minister Photo Courtesy: FANRPAN |
After the group photo, the session 5 continued and there were presentations on the following Global Youth Initiatives:
- Children and Youth Development Project (CYDP)
- The Agricultural Policy Environment and Youth Engagement & Empowerment – Experiences from the Caribbean, by Gregg C.E. Rawlings
- PAFPNet Youth in agriculture Initiative by Miriama Kunawave Brown
- 4-H Global Strategy 12 – 14 by Susan Naburi
These presentations brought us to the end of session 5 and it was time for lunch!
Sessions 6 & 7: Case Studies of Innovative youth Initiatives
This session was facilitated by Ms. Sithembile Ndema and it consisted of several case studies in different countries to show-case the initiatives taken by youth in agriculture. Before the presentations, we were shown on a Power Point presentation on Social Media at the FANRPAN 2011 Regional Dialogue (about how people are following the Regional Dialogue on Twitter) and the Tweeting hero (or rather heroine) was none other than Maureen Agena from Uganda!
With this, the case studies on youth initiatives were presented in the following order:
- Madagascar – Ministry of Agriculture, by Mamy Adriantsoa
- Mauritius – University of Mauritius, by Nawsheen Hosenally
- South-Africa – Commercial Agriculture Youth Chamber of South Africa, by Obert Mathivha
- Uganda – Women of Uganda Network, by Maureen Agena
- Zambia – Ndola Youth Resources Center, by Isaac Chanda
- Zimbabwe – ORAP, by Talentus Mthunzi
- Swaziland – Students in Free Enterprise, by members of SIFE
This was one of the most enriching sessions of the Regional dialogue, whereby we have got to know about the different initiatives taken by youth in other countries and this gave youth an opportunity to share their experience and learn from each other. At the same time, it was nice to see the different presentation styles of the youth and some of them were really impressive and inspiring!
Since the youth had exceeded their time limit in their presentations, there was no time for panel discussion and we moved directly to an over-view of the field visit that was on the program for the following day. The briefing was on the Efficiency of the ADP Model and the Swazi Secrets.
Next was the Official Opening Dinner, which included Traditional Swazi Dinner and Dancing. All delegates were warmly dressed as it was really cold in Swaziland and we headed to the restaurant by bus. When we reached our destination, we were seated to watch the Swazi Traditional Dance (which was a nice discovery for the delegates who did not know about it). A demo of the dance can be seen in the videos below:
With the dance and a nice Swazi dinner, Day 3 was over and it was time to return back to the Hotel!
Day 4: Swaziland Day
Session 9: Site Visits
The Swaziland Day started very early in the morning. At 07:30, the delegates were already in the bus and we were heading to a village to see the HVI project in the Mpolonjeni community and then to the Swazi secrets. Read more on these two site visits HERE.
The photos below are a highlight of the field visit:
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| The Mpolonjeni Community where the project was being implemented |
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| Delegates following carefully the Power Point presentation |
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| The farmer we visited was rearing rabbits at the top and indigenous chicken on the ground |
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| A housing system I never saw before (Made of wooden sticks and rocks) |
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| Farmer growing mushroom in the mushroom house. The temperature was 28-30 Degrees Celsius |
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| Tomato plantation with drip irrigation system. Ash used for fertilisation (no chemical fertilisers) |
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| The entrance of the Swazi Secrets Factory |
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| The Marula |
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| Marula Nuts |
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| Extraction of Marula Oil |
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| Cosmetic products made from Marula Oil |
When the delegates came back from the field visit, the next session started at 15:30 with the launching of the book entitled “The New Harvest: Agricultural innovation in Africa” by Professor Juma of Kenya, who works at the Harvard University. Since Professor Juma was not present among us, he talked about the content of his book through video-conferencing and the delegates were also given the opportunity to ask him questions regarding the book.
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| Video Conference with Professor Juma for the Book Launch |
Session 10: Reflections on the Swazi Experience
This session was Facilitated by Dr. Sibanda and the delegates were asked the following questions:
- What did we like during the field visit?
- What we did not like?
- What recommendations can we give?
- What are we taking back home with us?
Delegates of all category (youth, non-youth and other stakeholders) were given the opportunity to express their opinions.
This brought us to the end of the Swaziland Day!
Day 5: Policy Advocacy
Session 11: Showcasing FANRPAN Advocacy Tools
It was the last day of the Regional Dialogue which was on Policy Advocacy. In this morning sessions, delegates got to know about Electronic Platforms, Journalists in Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change, and a video projection was done on Community Theatre.
During this same session, Mr. J.F. Fonseca of CTA donated a book to the Minister of Agriculture of Swaziland for his Ministry on behalf of CTA. The Minister of Agriculture of Swaziland delivered his speech and he said to the delegates that we need to take what we have learnt in the Regional Dialogue and bring them back home with us.
When the Minister left, we proceeded to the next session which was supposed to be on Wednesday, but it was not possible due to lack of time. Therefore, this session was held on Friday 23rd September.
Session 8: Advocating for holistic, coherent , inter-sectoral youth and agriculture policies
This session consisted of the following 2 presentations:
- Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), by Mr. Augustine Langyintuo
- Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), by Mr. J.F. Fonseca
Session 12: Last session of Regional Dialogue
The last session of the Regional Dialogue Consisted of the following:
This session was really inspiring for the youth who were present, sitting on the ground, listening to the stories of the Gogos. Everyone was listening carefully and at that moment, we could feel us getting attracted to agriculture. If the aim of getting the youth to the Regional Dialogue was to make agriculture more attractive to them and inspire them, then we can say that the mission has been successful!
This brought us to the end of the FANRPAN Annual High Level Regional Food Security Multi-Stakeholder Policy Dialogue 2011.
On a youth perspective, we can say that this Regional Dialogue has been a great opportunity for sharing our experience in agriculture, learn from each other, discuss about the challenges we are facing and try to find solutions, get to know professionals in the field of agriculture and share our views and opinions with them. At the same time, this experience was rich in knowledge and it has enabled to get to know new cultures, which we will share in our respective countries.
I will end by thanking FANRPAN and CTA for giving me this awesome opportunity. I will surely share what I have learnt in Swaziland with my network here in Mauritius! 🙂
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wonderful job! thank you for this summary
It took me some time to get all the presentations and links. But I’m happy with it (It’s better in a blog than on paper!)..
great work nawsh! now, i can understand how awesome ur stay was!
Great Nawsheen, thanks a lot! Ken
Nice work.enjoyed reading it!
Wah. what a good job you did.
I need your permission to extract part of this to write my own report.
thanks in advance.
Hello Nawsheen..how are you..?
Enjoyed reading this piece…
A thorough account of the proceedings at the FANPRAN Annual High Level Regional Food Security Multi-Stakeholder Policy Dialogue, 2011…(i guess i had posted a comment earlier but it did not show up here..so i thot to re-itereate my standpoint when i went over this again 2day..lolz..)
I personally liked the theme (if i could call it that) – advocating for the active engagement of youth in the agricultural value chain- just goes to show that ‘we’ are right now central to agricultural growth, rural dev., and food security in our regions..its really important for us to prioritize the agricultural field and have fellow youths support our efforts with their commitment…
None-the less..kudos once again for a good report..
I wish i could be there to witness the event first hand..hoping that CTA/ARDYIS brings us together once again..
cheerz..Ritz
Nawsheen, this is a remarkable piece of work. Well articulated and presented. Its pleasant to know that there are so many young people on the continent doing their bit to keep the world informed and interested about these important subjects in Africa. Keep up the good work!
Thank you all for the nice comments, I really appreciate them!
Keep following me, there will be more to come! 🙂
Its now I got time to read what you wrote Naw. Nice experience for you. All the best in your future endeavors :)Thanks for sharing
Thanks jou! 🙂
Many thanks for the efforts to put all these together, may God Bless you and your love ones!
Thanks dear!
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