The absence of MPs at a workshop for policy-makers, aimed at increasing national agriculture investments, in Nairobi on July 28, 2025, hinted that achieving the 2014 Malabo Declaration is an illusion. 

During the adoption of the declaration in 2014 by African Heads of State, political goodwill was earmarked as the driving force behind the success of the commitment by governments to channel 10 per cent of their national budgets for agriculture development. 

However, after a decade-plus of struggling to achieve the commitments, it emerged yesterday that no African country has come close to achieving the goals, apart from Rwanda, which showed promising signs in early 2022. 

“It boils down to political goodwill,” this was noted at the official opening of a four-day capacity building for policy makers. 

The event hosted by the Intergovernmental Authority for Development (IGAD) was meant for the Committee of Ambassadors and Parliamentarians, which also aims to review commitments for effective regional Agrifood systems policies. 

African Heads of State and government committed to set aside 10 per cent of their respective budgets to meet five key targets, but three main ones: eliminating hunger, halving poverty, and boosting intra-African trade by 2025. 

But this continues to be elusive, according to the IGAD Director of Economic Cooperation and Regional Integration (ECRID), Mohyeldeen Eltohami Taha Hamed.  

“Capacity building for policy-makers is a key component to successful implementation, but without strong political commitment from African leaders, the declaration’s ambitious targets are unlikely to be achieved,” he told journalists in Nairobi on July 28, 2025. 

The 2014 Malabo Declaration by the African Union is a commitment to accelerate agricultural growth and transformation for shared prosperity and improved livelihoods in Africa.  

It builds upon the earlier Maputo Declaration and sets specific goals for 2025, including increased investment in agriculture, eradicating hunger, halving poverty, reducing malnutrition, and boosting intra-African trade, according to the African Union’s New Partnership for Agriculture Development (AU-NEPAD). 

There is also the Kampala Declaration, adopted in January this year.