Seychelles gets help to boost its multi-sectoral agricultural strategies |14 February 2018
For many years, the local agricultural landscape has consisted of various disaggregated policies and strategies implemented by various ministries, agencies and other stakeholders without much cross-sector collaboration and partnership.
In light of this, representatives from the Eastern and Central Africa Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System (ReSAKSS-ECA) are currently in the Seychelles to help strengthen and develop our multi-sectoral agricultural strategies.
These two ReSAKSS co-coordinators, Stella Massawe and Joseph Karugia, were in the forefront yesterday during an inception workshop held by the Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture at the Avani Hotel at Barbarons.
The workshop was held with the aim of introducing the participants to the concepts and methodologies necessary for a comprehensive country level capacity needs assessment of the agricultural sector.
Participants of the workshop were made up of various cross-sectoral stakeholders such as the representatives from the Seychelles Agricultural Agency (SAA) and departments of trade and economic planning.
“The aim of these initiatives is to track progress in the local agricultural sector and build strong multi-sectoral relationships between various relevant stakeholders,” the principal secretary for agriculture, Antoine-Marie Moustache, elaborated in his opening speech.
In order for that to happen however the agricultural sector must first have to undergo a capacity needs assessment in regards to the relevance of its current policies and investment plans, as well as the capacities which provide the stimulus for its growth. The exercise has already been delegated to two local consultants.
“As we move from there, we will need to then use this knowledge gathered through the assessment to build a platform of partners, both governmental and non-governmental, that can hold each other accountable to realising the commitments we have made to the sector,” PS Moustache continued.
This is in line with the goals and targets set out by the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), a policy framework for agricultural transformation, wealth creation, food security and nutrition, economic growth and prosperity for all. It was in 2011 that the Seychelles signed its CAADP compact.
In aligning with CAADP, countries adopt a common commitment to achieve an annual growth rate of at least 6% in agriculture and, to endeavour to reach an allocation of at least 10% of the national budget to the sector.
The Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture is hoping that the support from ReSAKSS with the capacity needs assessment will continue on to an agriculture joint review, which is a key instrument for supporting mutual accountability and implementing the CAADP framework.
“Our aim is to be able to track and evaluate the impact of agriculture in the society. We already have multiple sections that are collecting data, but they are all spread around each and every way,” explained Mermeda Moustache, the senior policy analyst at the MFA.
“The end goal henceforth is to bring every stakeholders in together to properly monitor and evaluate our agricultural sector. Once the capacity needs assessment is finalised we will gain a better understanding of the sector’s deficiencies and opportunities.”
Seychelles recently scored 4.0 out of 10 on the African Union’s first ever African Agricultural Transformation Scorecard (AATS) during the CAAPD’s biennale review.
Despite being among the top 20 countries that scored above the benchmark of 3.9, the department of agriculture acknowledges the importance of improving the sector for reasons such as food security.