Her Excellency, Ambassador Josefa Sacko, Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment, African Union Commission, 
Honourable Chair: Hon. Frank K. Tumwebaze, Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, Uganda, and the chair of the extraordinary session of the Specialized Technical Committee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment (ARDWE), Ambassador 
Honourable Ministers;
Distinguished guests 

Compliments of the new season to you all.  

Let me, on behalf of the South African delegation, appreciate the work and progress presented on hosting the Extraordinary Summit to consider the post-Malabo CAADP and Action Plan and the draft Kampala CAADP Declaration Agenda. 

Allow me to also share our gratitude and appreciation for the work of our sister, H.E. Ambassador Sacko, during her term as the head of this STC. She leaves behind excellent work that has culminated in the presentation and anticipated endorsement of this key strategic framework of the post-Malabo CAADP Agenda, including the rich and diversified legacy for her successor.

Excellencies, the AU Extraordinary Summit to review and endorse the Post-Malabo CAADP Strategy and related Ten-Year Action Plan 2026-2035 is more than timely. This strategy deepens Agenda 2063 and further promotes excellence in improving our Agrifood system environment at the national and local levels as per the Africa Common Position on Food Systems and the national positions on food systems towards food sovereignty. Driving this strategy requires political leadership and a change in the mindset of policy makers, technocrats and partners. Our collective motivation to act is strong, but many barriers exist to developing and implementing effective policies and programmes. Over the years, experience in implementing the development agenda has demonstrated that facilitating inclusive dialogues at the country level is key to driving the food systems transformation agenda. 

The CAADP's Agricultural food systems agenda and the Africa Common Position on Food Systems encourage us as member states to foster policy coherence, enhance coordination across sectors, and promote Public-Private Partnerships. As highlighted by the CAADP strategy and action plan, this will strengthen national ownership of initiatives. It will result in improved policies that build infrastructure, improve agricultural practices, and strengthen food systems.  

As we align our policies and strategies to our continental goals, our awareness and interactions with stakeholders must be such that we attract impactful investments, built of strong policy coherence. This strategy highlights that promoting a nutrition-sensitive approach in our National Food Security and Nutrition plans will attract investment in Agrifood systems.  

As government and development partners, we must collaborate to invest in affordable financing, infrastructure, and research and development to strengthen domestic manufacturing and repair of food processing machinery for our smallholder sector. Access to finance and technologies are critical enablers for them.

Having said this, South Africa makes the following recommendations to improve the CAADP Strategy and related Ten-Year Action Plan 2026-2035:

• On the 10% commitment, we need to be deliberate in terms of the strategic shift that we have introduced, from a narrow focus on agriculture to agrifood systems. This will mean that the formula for calculation national contributions must be changed outside of the narrow confines of agriculture into a multisectoral realm that has to be prescribed through better formulation of how these contributions will be factored into the formula in a harmonized and systematized way. It is trite that the FAO already provides a definition of agrifood system, but we need to go beyond this definition and peg measurable parameters to gauge contributions of multiple sectors to agrifood systems. 
• South Africa has also noted that the text on mobilization of Revenues from Mineral Resources for Implementation support is still too prescriptive. South Africa proposes that this reference only be limited to the unique opportunity presented by our mineral resources. As per our previous recommendation, South Africa is still of the view as suggested in our previous submission that the fully motivated proposal be left to the STC for further work and coordination as proposed in the strategy.  
• South Africa appreciates the Action Plan, which is guaranteed to improve the accountability matrix within agrifood systems. However, the action plan requires enrichment post this Summit. The plan requires measurable targets and common terminology to ensure that implementation and monitoring and evaluation are consistent over the duration of the plan. We also need to build into the plan, capacity building to domesticate these actions at national levels.

On the Draft Declaration – South Africa proposes that the preamble referencing climate variability should include also include change. The new reading will therefore have to reflect both climate variability and climate change.

In closing, Excellencies South Africa as current Chair of G20 under the theme Solidarity, Equality and Sustainability has prioritized food security as one of the three high level deliverables. We also have within the standing working group on agriculture, prioritised four areas that are in alignment with the current CAADP Strategy proposal. 

We look forward to hosting you through the various platforms that G20 provides. We also invite knowledge partners to be part of our G20 legacy.

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