2019: Second Ministerial Conference of the Initiative for the Adaptation of African Agriculture (AAA) to climate change (Ben Guerir, Morocco, November 4-5, 2019)

The objective was to place the AAA Initiative back on the international agenda and request additional transition funds for “climate-smart” agriculture. As food insecurity on the continent is exacerbated by climate change, three countries, Somalia, Chad and Tunisia, announced on Tuesday (November 5th) that they will join the AAA Foundation – a coalition of 35 African countries (out of 54) to bring the interests of Africa and its agriculture to the climate negotiations. Launched on the occasion of COP22, the Triple A initiative: “Adaptation of African Agriculture”, aims to reduce the vulnerability of Africa and its agriculture to climate change while ensuring food security for all Africans. The initiative promotes and fosters the implementation of concrete projects to improve soil management, control of agricultural water, climate risk management and financing capacities and solutions. Since its inception, AAA considered the 4 per 1000 Initiative in Africa to be the “soil” component of their own Initiative. Contacts were made for the development of a memorandum between the two initiatives with regard to their common objectives: soil health and carbon sequestration on the African continent.

This high-level event with significant resources was organized in partnership with the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) and the OCP group. It brought together 28 foreign delegations, including 21 African ministers, representatives of African governments, international financial institutions such as the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the African Bank of development (AfDB), the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (Agra), AFD (French Development Agency), GIZ (Germany), ENABEL (Belgium), (…), Ms. Josefa Sacko, AUC (African Union Commission) Commissioner in charge of rural economy and agriculture, the OCP (Cherifian Office for Phosphates) as well as many internationally renowned scientists. The ministers present asked the countries of the North to respect their commitments of the Paris Agreement and pleaded for more funding from international donors while recalling that they needed technical assistance to set up fundable projects. They deplored the low disbursement of available funds.

A joint declaration by the ministers present was adopted at the end of the conference.