Who stands to benefit from investing in African agriculture? The continent itself is one obvious answer. But in reality, the stakes are global.
A new “high level multi-stakeholder platform” aims to foster dialogue and collaboration between the global north and south in order to unlock the full potential of African agriculture — even at a time of rapid climate change. It’s called the Agricultural Transitions Lab for African Solutions, or ATLAS, and it launched Monday at the spring meetings of the Paris Peace Forum, which was held in Benguerir, Morocco.
“I do not fully agree on the moral imperative where we ask the [global] north to support Africa because they destroyed the climate,” former Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said during a panel at the forum. Instead, Desalegn argued, building resilient and sustainable agriculture is win-win for high- and low-income countries alike.