Chapter 2. A historical comparative analysis of commodity development models in West Africa 47
Yet progress on the ground was slow and very little impact was felt at the local level by either farmers
or small agrobusinesses. This is because new investments in agriculture, by either development agencies
or national governments, had not materialized. The trend towards decreased aid to and investment in
agriculture has continued since the mid-1980s (see Figure 2). This is partly because the new investments
committed toward the MDGs were focusing on areas outside of agriculture (health, education, girls’
schooling, etc.). Also, the prevailing view among international development agencies was that investments
in transport, infrastructure and aid for trade could be more effective in boosting agricultural development.
Table 1. Selected key global and African developments related to agricultural developmentYEAR PLACE EVENTNovember 1999 Seattle, Washington, USA WTO ministerial meeting to launch a new round
was violently disrupted by protesters
September 2000 New York City, New York, USA 150 heads of states met at the Millennium summit
at the UN to sign Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) to halve poverty by 2015
July 2001 Lusaka, Zambia The New Partnership for Africa’s Development
(NEPAD), an economic development programme of
the African Union, was established (NEPAD’s four
core objectives: eradication of poverty, sustainable
growth and development, economic integration,
empowerment of women)
March 2002 Monterrey, Mexico 50 heads of states and 200 ministers, including
from industrial nations, committed to raise develop-
ment aid to 0.7% of national GDP
2003 Launch of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture
Development Programme (CAADP) aimed at
increasing agricultural productivity in Africa
July 2003 Maputo, Mozambique African governments and heads of state endorsed
the “Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food
Security in Africa”, committing 10% of national
budget to agriculture and rural development
2005 Gleneagles, Scotland Leaders of G-8 countries agreed to wipe out debt
owed to WB/IMF by 18 poorest countries (14 in
Africa)
2005 ECOWAS heads of states adopted the ECOWAS
agricultural policy (ECOWAP) as an a coordination
instrument for CAADP, the agricultural component
of NEPAD
June 2008 Tokyo, Japan G-8 summit set up 10 billion euro fund for agri-
cultural projects, launched a Global Partnership on
Food Security and organized the first meeting of the
G-8 Agriculture Ministers, to be held in 2009November 2009 Rome, Italy FAO organized a global summit on food security
following the high food price crisis of 2007/08
Source: compilation by authors