CAADP Private Sector Meeting Lusaka, Zambia

The African Union Commission (AUC) in close collaboration with the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency and the Pan African Agribusiness and Agro Industry Consortium (PANAAC) are convening the CAADP technical meeting on strengthening the engagement of African private sector in unlocking investment to Agricultural development within the CAADP framework, scheduled to take place on 7th – 8th October, 2013 at Taj Pamodzi Hotel in Lusaka, Zambia.

The objectives of this meeting will be to:

Identify key opportunities including associated operational framework, e.g. platforms to catalyse increased peer-sharing and learning, dialogue as well as access to knowledge, information-data and analytical capacity in agriculture-based business opportunities. This is within national, regional and continental levels
Define/identify effective tools and processes which can help strengthen coherence and systematic engagement between public and private players especially on matters of policies and regulatory frameworks on regional (agricultural) markets and trade
Agree on Guiding principles and framework for private sector led work streams aimed at supporting Governments and other stakeholders including private sector itself to identify and pursue strategic interventions aimed strengthening and expanding agricultural-based SMEs especially involving women and youth
Define how to build an African and credible knowledge-information base aggregating a one-stop support to domestic private sector on opportunities, tools, and lessons on investing in African agriculture.

The expected outcomes of this strategic meeting will be:

To help build consensus on the requirements for strengthening Africa’s domestic private sector to respond to the investment opportunities in sustaining the CAAPD momentum.
To come out with a clearly defined and implementable work streams to increase opportunities and enabling environment for growth of Africa’s agricultural-based domestic private sector.

Kindly note that your valued participation and contribution in this important engagement will be highly appreciated. This therefore is a “save the date” note for your kind attention, while awaiting the formal invitations which will be sent to you in due time.