Making Sustainable Agriculture a Future for Youth in Africa
Related topics
Global Food and Nutrition SecurityConsidering the key role of agricultural development for structural transformation in Africa, the aim of the conference is to build up political engagement ahead of the Africa EU Summit, on a common vision on how to generate sustainable, inclusive jobs for African youth in the agri-food sector and rural economy.
Parallel thematic sessions will focus on: increasing responsible private investment in the agri-food sector in Africa; research innovation and the role of digitalisation in agriculture; sustainable water management; climate-smart agriculture and food losses and waste.
The outcome of the Ministerial Conference will be reported to the 5th Africa-EU Summit in November 2017 and will guide future work of both the European Commission and the African Union Commission in this area. The meeting is following the ‘AU-EU: Investing in a Food Secure Future’ Conference, held in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, in July 2016.
The event is co-hosted by the African Union Commission, the European Commission and the Estonian Presidency of the EU Council.
The meeting will be closed with a cocktail reception. Formal invitation and full programme will follow soon.
This event will be preceded by a high-level Investors Forum on 1 July among business leaders and financing institutions regarding the instruments available to increase financing of investment in agriculture (by invitation only).
This Forum seeks to advance the discussion among key players for the European External Investment Plan and innovative financing in the area of private agricultural investment. It will bring together senior figures among those who are interested in investing in African agriculture – major European and African companies – as well as those providing the financing to make these investments possible – the financing institutions in both the public and private sector. They will address the question of financing tools in agriculture, and the key levers for easier financing of business expansion. Main messages from this Investors Forum will be presented to the AU-EU Ministerial Conference on 2 July, in order to aliment the discussion.